DOWAGER QUEEN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 873, 20 July 1910, Page 3

DOWAGER QUEEN.

Now that Queen Alexandra lias besome- the Queen-Mother 'of England, it is interesting (says a writer iu "iI.A.P.") to note what a large number of Dowager Queens there are in Europe at the. nreeent time. Russia, Spain, , Portugal, and Italy all have their ~Dowager Queens, and they include soirie of the most interesting personalities in the Royal Courts of to-day..-It would be difficult to find a more i'" Tcrsatile and accomplished woman than ■■'■. the Dowager Queen Amelie or Portugal. ' She is probably the only Royal nurse in : Europe, tor nursing is a subject in which'she has taken a strictly scientific interest.. To qualify herself for greater usefulness she walked the hospitals in Lisbon for several years, and took her doctor's degree; She is also known: as a great in millinery; Once she .started a poor girl in business by of this quality. The young woman had- fainted in the streets of Lisbon. She; hud lost her* employment .and was vainly* struggling to eupport her' mother iiiiii hersell. The Queen handed her three bonnets of her . Majesty's own creation. ■ "Take them as ' models; call:,* them Bolmets Amelie/'.-she said, "and* tell your customers they are. made after the Queen's designs." Within two months the girl took "larger premises and soon became prosperous. ■ : Somq years ago, the Queen won a medal -'for saving the Hives of two children from drowning in the Tagus. Her "Majesty is a strong swimmer, and, seeing the .children in peril, plunged into the river and . rescued them., Tho Queen-Mother of Spain is almost as popular amongst the people of her country as Queen Ena herself. She is extremely democratic, and mixea with tho populace with a simplicity that has won all , Queen Marghertl.il,, tho Qaeen-Mother of. . ■ Italy, has won,' the hearts ,of her poorest subjects wholly and solely oh account of her never-failinjf," loving kindness. ■ Although she rarely, subscribes towards ordinary charities, she goes" amongst the poor and finds out for herself their particular wants. . She .takes a special delight in making presents, of beds to the pooT. These bed's . are all made after the same style,'and are so familiar that no dealer daro take them in pledge or . purchase. Her Majesty has always been popular, tut the facts of a little incident that occurred a year or so back have considerably enhanced her popularity. Her Majesty, the King, and a hunting party ■were sitting round the camp fire, when an equerry, in a fit of bravado, took a leap over the fire * and set his ■ clothes alight. -• , . , : All lost their presence of mind except the Queen, who, flinging herself' upon the . burning man, so enveloped him in her skirts that the flames were extinguished and the victim escaped with a ■ few slight burns. ■•-... Marie Feodorovna, Dowager Empress ' of Russia, who has been in England on a visit to her sister, Queen Alexandra, . . is a woman of remarkable character and brilliancy. . . . She never travels abroad without being accompanied by a gigantic Cossack, who is devoted to his mistress, nnd is rendy to die for her at any moment. He is a magnificent specimen of man- . iood, having a chest '-measurement of •nearly fifty inches, and he looks oxtreine- , ;lyi picturesque in his Cossack uniform with fur. Together with the Queen-Mother of England, the Dowager Empress shares a eweetly pretty little . villa on the sea coast of Denmark, in which, by the way, it. is most probable that Queen Alexandra will spend a good deal of her future time. ■ • ■