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Worth Woman's While
‘‘Let me no wrong or idle word
Unthinking say;
Set Thou a seal upon my lips
Just for to-day.”
Two Happy Wives.
Unconsciously, perhaps, we insist upon the be
lief that the chief victims of monarchical govern
ments, kings and queens and princes, must be un
happy. We look on them as marked of Fate, and
when by chance we learn that the good that comes
to ordinary mortals—domestic peace and content
ment, marital satisfaction—is the lot of some of
them, we doubt it, and make no secret of the
doubt. It is habit—the flower, possibly, of the
little seed of envy, a plant that has taken deep
root. It is good, seeing that this is so, to contem
plate two royal households where unity between hus
band and wife makes not only for their happiness,
but for example to the whole world—for it is one
penalty that greatness (as the world counts great
ness) must pay, the privilege that all christendom
accords itself of being admitted into the very in
nermost sanctum of domestic privacy.
If history be true there have not been over-many
instances that would bear this close intruding, but
lineage, blood, tell as plainly in royal houses as else
where, and so it is to this must be attributed the
high standards which the Danes and the Norwe
gians have in their reigning family. When Chris
tian IX came to the Danish throne by election after
the death of Frederick VII, who died childish, he
was but a plain and unpretentious man, strong and
handsome enough in person, but with little of the
pomp and show of other European monarchs. He
was a man before he was king, and so to the end
of his long rule. The Danes never quite got over
in that their king was a German, but all Europe has
had cause to thank the providence that elected the
German to the throne whence were + issue so man.)
worthy monarchs, the strong, red German blood
making men and women that have blessed the con
tinent, and will continue to bless it: King Chris
tian and Queen Louise were the father and mother
to Alexandra, Queen of England, Marie Dragmar,
Dowager Empress of Russia; King George of Greece;
King Frederick VIII, the present Danish monarch;
and King Haakon VII of Norway, Frederick’s son,
is their grandson. We all know of the happy home
life of this notable family, and how the good queen
taught her daughters the womanly things any good
mother wishes her girls to know, even to make their
own dresses and bonnets; and how wholesome was
her influence in affairs of state up to the time of
her death in 1898. So the blood on both sides was
good, and credit, as always, must be given to the
mother even above the father.
When Prince Frederick, the present king, thirty
five years ago, sought a wife it was His fortune to
lose his heart to another Louise, much like the one
who had made his father so happy, and set for the
son the standard of womanhood. This Louise was
the only daughter of Charles XV of Sweden, and
besides possessing every quality which would have
made her an excellent wife and mother in any walk
of life, she had from her mother, a princess of the
Netherlands, a fortune of $15,000,000; this has
grown with investment to $30,000,000, which makes
I ouise the richest queen in Europe, and many times
richer than her husband.
This young girl whom Frederick loved, was but
eighteen when they were married, and despite her
highborn station—or we might say, because of it—
her chances for happiness were not equal with those
of other women; she had no beauty, was even pain
fully homely; she was not then, nor since, a bril
liant woman; and her height has always made her
noted as the tallest princess in Europe—she is
six feet, three inches, and so, taller than her hus
band, a thing np woman could wish to be, But the
The Golden Age for April 19, 1906.
By FLORENCE TUCKER
young wife had beauty of heart and soul, the charm
that does not dazzle and then wear off or remain
but to pall and weary, and her husband was the
man to look deeper than the face; he loved the true,
womanly woman, and the qualities which attracted
and satisfied him then have kept him contented
and happy nearly two score years. It is a lesson
to those women who spend so much time and anx
iety iu the effort to retain the good looks which
they think must be preserved to hold their hus
bands; Louise never had any, and her energies have
been directed to the cultivation and employment of
the qualities of heart and mind which make for what
is enduring, and in her case, at least, the course has
proven the wise one.
This new queen, when she came with Frederick
to the throne, was found to be a very queen, indeed,
queen among wives and among mothers, and every
home-loving, home-making woman the world over
rejoices to learn of her ways and her works. The
mother of eight children, four sons and four daugh
ters, she has brought them to be good citizens, nur
tured in the admonition of the Lord, for she is
deeply pious, and worthy of their whole ancestry.
Hei gii Is have had no need, as had their royal aunts,
to make their own gowns, but they were taught
dressmaking just the same. Thrift and industry
are part and parcel of the queen’s make-up, and she
does not permit her position to take from her the
privilege of being just a woman—of working with
her hands, for instance. Many are the gifts the
poor know which have been the loving labor of her
own hands; she is very fond of knitting, and de
lights to busy herself with mittens and comforters
and socks which are distributed among the worthy
needy, vv hile generous and charitable, bestowing
quietly and in secret where deserved, she does not
believe in indiscriminate giving—her strong, sturdy
character is opposed to that. To her own her rel-
atives and immediate friends—her favorite gift is
an illuminated text done on vellum by her own
hand. This sort of giving l , the home-made present,
is Aery acceptable among the Danes who are not a
people to care much for the state and ceremony
which puts most sovereigns at a distance from their
subjects; the new queen suits them full well. Her
people pleased with her, her children a credit and
blessing, her husband her lover still after thirty
five years, what could wife ask more? What more
could she have?
Yet there is more—her son, Carl, now Haakon
VII, King of Norway, himself a man after the type
of his father and grandfather, is happily mated with
one in every way worthy of the family into which
she has come. Princess Maud of Wales has made
him a model wife, and there is every reason to be
lie\e that her little son who will be Ilaf of Norway,
if he lives to, succeed his father, will prove a worthy
scion of his race. He is a fine, bright little fellow,
and the people of Copenhagen, their former home,
since the elevation of the pair to the throne, have
given much publicity to the careful aiM wise train
ing of the young mother. The rules wnich she has
laid down for her little son are held up as an ex
ample for all Scandinavians to use with their chil
dren. Such simple injunctions that a little boy
can understand, and so home-y, so young mother
like, one can scarce refrain from smiling as she
reads them—a loving smile of sympathy and ap
proval :
“A little boy cannot get along well unless he
does well. How shall a little boy do well ? He must
get up early in the morning, just as the farmers
do, because idle in bed is idle in work. He must
always keep himself clean in body and face, for if
one is unclean in body it soon makes the mind un
clean. He must speak clean words, and he cannot
speak clean words unless he has clean thoughts. He
should respect his father and mother, and if he
does he will obey them. He ought never to neglect
his church or hjs Sunday Schoo], for the good they
do him and others. If he remembers all these
things, he will be tender, brave and faithful.”
And so here are two happy wives—we might say
three, for King Christian’s wife was happy. It
were worth taking notice. In a world of so much
crookedness and disappointment it is well to dwell
on what is good and true and happy. Who knows?
Perhaps if we all thought only right thoughts,
things might grow to be different.
The Sustaining Hand.
The little child who wakes at night,
Affrighted at the somber gloom,
And clamors for a ray of light
To drive the darkness from the room,
To quiet dreamland sweetly goes,
Contented, if a hand is near,
Caressingly, because it knows
There is no terror it need fear.
So, we who stumble through the gloom,
In aimless manner seeking light,
Will blindly wander to our doom
If traveling by our own might;
But when, in darkened paths we stray
And cry aloud, the Father hears
And reaches out His hand to stay
Our apprehensions and our fears.
—Brininstool.
President Roosevelt says: “The foes from whom
we should pray to be delivered are our passions, ap
petites and follies.”
To be polite to one we dislike is not necessarily
being insincere. Politeness is not so much a mani
festation toward others as an indication of what we
are ourselves. We owe it to ourselves to be well
bred.—Selected.
Womanliness is a standard of the morals of a
community or nation. As the women are, so will
the family, the community and the country be. The
hope and glory of the present age is the character
of its Christian womanhood.—Exchange.
It is astonishing how much annoyance and dis
comfort there is to be found in life if one keeps
a sharp eye out on that side of things; but every
truth has its converse truth; it is equally true that
it is even more astonishing how much there is of
enjoyment, of delight, of blessedness in life, if one
only keeps a sharp eye out on that side of things.
What are called the inequalities of life are not
half so unequal as they seem. Common to all men,
free to all men, are the essentials of joy. The beM
things of life the rich cannot buy with their money;
the poor need not go without on account of their
poverty. __ H H
Great Britain will take no action concerning the
massacres of Jews in Russia. In the House of
Lords, Lord Fitzmaurice, Under Secretary of For
eign Affairs, said that such action might be regard
ed as “illegitimate interference.” Any illtimed
intervention, he added, might increase the oppres
sion. The Archbishop of Canterbury indorsed the
government’s attitude.
According to informal information, Italian an
archists are arriving in the United States at both
Pacific and Atlantic sea ports. The diplomatic rep
resentatives of the Italian government have posi
tive information to this effect, and have called the
matter to the attention of United States. Through
their representatives at San Francisco and Balti
more. the immigration officials have been advised
of the recent ]anc]injg of a number of anarchists
from Italy,