SOME QUEENS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1989, 2 January 1890, Page 1

SOME QUEENS.

Th£ Queen of Italy used to be very slender, but has of la to been growing stouter and stouter, which makes her appear quite short and annoys her very much. She wishes to diet, but it is very difficult for her to do so, as she enjoys every dainty of the table. A few years ago, when the Empress of Aujtvin. was the handsomest woman in Europe, and proud of hsr fine figure, fearing tho signs of euiuonpoint, she lived almost entirely upon fruit, strong tea, and sweets. The Queen of Italy has tried several times to become a vegetarian, but has given up in despair. The Queen encourages every form of art, and arranges many litfle informal afternoons where some poet will read his new verses, a scientist! will lecture, the last woman's rights devotee is permitted to plead her cause of culture before the Court circle, or the ladies will gather in the music room to hear some celebrated pianist. The Queen is very generous in helping struggling artists, but she herself has little knowledge of art—her own, tastes are more literary. She writes poems, and has even tried a novel, which was enthusiastically paaised by the court ladies when on© day she read them a few chapters- She' was bright enough to wish a leas partial test, so she sent it under an assumed name to a leading publisher, who politely declined "to accept it. The publisher was much chagrined when the affair came out, and on the story being paragraphed in the London newspapers several English publishers telegraphed, asking for the book, but she sensibly thinks it best to abide by the decision given when no royal name protected the child of her fancy. Her poems are mostly in the form of fables. She has deep friendship for the gifted Queen of Roumania, " Carmen Sylva," and envies her acknowledged talent. She is a friend of the unfortunate ex-Queen Natalie, who before her troubles used to write such beautiful stories for children, of whom she was especially fond, which made the terrible blow of losing her own seem doubly crushing. She was devoted to her people, and in time of war worked day and night in the hospitals, directing the corps of ordinary nurses. The King and Queen of Greece have„seven children, the youngest a year old". The Princess Alexandra is a very pretty girl of 19. The Que*n is fond of American literature, takes all the magazines, and adores the works of Hawthorne, All the children spsak French, English, Greek, and Russian.