Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1901 — AN UNHAPPY WOMAN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AN UNHAPPY WOMAN.

SAD LIFE OF DOWAGER EMPRESS OF GERMANY. Eldest Daughter of Queen Victoria and Wife of Frederick 111., Her Death Will Be Little Mourned by Her German Subjects. Daughter of a Queen and mother of an Emperor, brilliant beyond the measure of most brilliant women, and now unhappy to the last degree, the Empress Dowager of Germany lies near death in the gloomy castle at Crons-berg-on-the-Main. Half deserted by her Imperial son, bereft of her mother, and having the contumely of a foreign nation which never understood her, this daughter of the throne of England lies awaiting the end. Only her iron will has stood off the destroyer for so long. The world has wondered why she should care to live. It has been said even that she herself will have no regrets when at last she lays down her burdens. Her position ds simply that of one who sees the inevitable, but who stands waiting for Fate to turn the last card. Alone in the cheerless rooms of the great gloomy castle the Empress Dowager of Germany mourns her life away. She reads a little and at rare intervals attempts to paint. Twice a week her youngest daughter, the Princess of Hesse, comes over from Frankfort to spend an afternoon. At rare internals the German Emperor comes. He alights from horse or carriage and. leaving his attendants, strikes through the broad courtyard, nodding here and there to an old servant. When he has had refreshments he goes for a few moments to the room of his sick mother. It is a heartless visit. His greeting and parting are perfunctory, and when he has gone there is silence and perhaps tears in the sick room. The eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise, was favored of fortune. Naturally brilliant, she received every advantage that education and her royal position

could bestow. Pampered and spoiled, she exhibited an iron will at the age of 6, a will that even the stern queenmother could not break. But as the :hild grew toward cultured womanhood a strong affection sprang up between the mother and daughter and in later years the princess took on the features of Britain’s Queen in marked degree. To-day her likeness might be mistaken for an early picture of the lamented Queen Victoria. At the age of 11 the princess met the Crown Prince of Germony, on the occasion of a visit of the young Frederick to England in 1851. A friendship sprang up between the royal children which ripened into love as the years went by. In 1858 they were married in the chapel of St. James’ Palace, London. Though the marriage was well received in England, the Prussian kingdom was shaken to its foundations. Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, set his face against it and in every way possible he used his influence against “the Englishwoman,” as he called her. His attitude was reflected in the press and she was pictured as a foreign interloper, intent upon Anglicizing Prussia. At Berlin the English princess was hissed and derided on every occasion. Even when accompanied by the Crown Prince she was not secure from insult. This treatment by his people, while he Knew that they loved him, was a trial to the young prince, but he never faltered and as long as he lived the princess was sure of his affection. That the princess ever became queen was due to her own indomitable will and energy. While the old Emperor Wilhelm lay dying the Crown Prince was known to have the disease that finally killed him. Bismarck was alive to the opportunity. Under the German law no heir to the throne can become Emperor if afflicted with an incurable disease. All the court physicians were under the thumb of the chancellor, ami If he could get them to see the prince and say “cancer” he knew that he would blight the hopes of “the Englishwoman.” But no one knew this better than the Englishwoman herself. 'She shut the doors against the German tools of the chancellor and sent for Sir Morrell Mackenzie, the great English surgeon. Every chance of consultation was refused to the German physicians. A crown was at stake—and the woman won. Dr. Mac kenzie’s opinion was that no Incurable disease menaced the Crown Prince and no one assailed his finding. At the death of the elder William the son assumed the throne of his father, and for the three months of his life remaining Victoria Louise was Empress of Germany. Following the death of her husband. Frederick 11., which was due to coo-

cer of the throat, the daughter of Queen Victoria passed into obscurity, followed by the hatred of the German people which abates but slightly as the years go by. Now living practically in exile, a victim of the disease which carried off her husband, the Empress Dowager presents a sad feature of royal life.

EMPRESS FREDERICK.