THREE ROYAL PRINCESSES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2567, 22 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THREE ROYAL PRINCESSES.

The Gormanin publishes tho following sketch under the above heading : —

They were threo bright littlo girls, with long und waving hnir, who merrily ran about and played in the garden on the road to Jugenhcim. AH the inhabitants of the good free city of Frankfort knew them. At that time, twenty-five years ago, many things wero different in thid district on tin? banks of tho Main ; there were things which pinco hnvo vaniwhp.l—a free sity, a Bendcstag, and diplomatists of all nationalities ; und when tho olevor gentlemen went pisfc the three littlo girln, whinh happened very often, they bowed very low to them, and and murmured serious words pueh us the law of succession of 1853, Sleawick, the question of duchies, complication, German confederacy, etc, but the little girls heeded them not; they lvid other and more important things to think of ; they had to learu diligently, and had to sew their own dresses. Dagmar had oven iearned to eu*; them out; they all could bow, and therefore made their own toilettes, for which purpose each of them received 12s (four thaler) a month, which must suffice to dress them from head to foot, bootj and shoes included. And truly, they were marvellously pretty in their simple thin cotton frocks—for at that time thin cotton was worn, which was not only much cheaper, but also much more durable than muslin, tarlataue, and laces. Only the boots woro out far too soon, which was often a great trouble to the little girls, who were always dancing und jumping about. How often had they not been told not to run about so much on tho gravel paths, where the boots get so quickly torn; it was of no good, for they always forgot, and danced and jumped the more, becauso their hearts were light and free from trouble. Perhaps they would have behaved better had they known that one day they were to bo respectively an Empress, a Queen, and a Duchess. But who could have dreamed of that? Certainly not the three little sirls, for they were only th« daughters of the Duke of Sleswick-Holstein-Sonder-burg-Glucksburg, who—in expectation of the Crown of Denmark—gave drawing levsons in order to increase his modest income. One day the crown did come, and the threo little girls were seen no more in the garden on the road to Jugenheira ; at supper time they wero no longer summoned homo—"Alexandra, Dagmar, and Thyra, qnickly come in to supper, papa has come home." Alexandra, Dagmar, and Thyra has become Royal Highnesses, tho daughters of the King of Denmark. And this was ouly the beginning of the splendour. Alexandra becanio Princess of Wale?. Some day she will be " Queen of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of their Colonies and Dependencies in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia ; Empress of India, Defender of tho Faith." Thus says the Gothu Calendar, and that never tells any lies. For 20 years the Princess of Wales has waited for the triple crown, but Queen Victoria does not think of descending from her throne. And Princess Alexandra waits gladly, for she is a thoroughly loyal, high-minded woman, and very fond of hor mother-in-law, Queen Victoria. She appears to tho public pleasant, elegimt, and a universally acknowledged leader of fashion, taste, and manners ; time goes ou with 'lit leaving a trace on her; her daughters grow up, her sons become bearded men, but uhe remains always the sume. Her husband travels about for months at u time, but that does not disturb her amiable equanimity ; the world knows only the pleasant, smiling Princess. The Princess of Wales does not interfere in politics. At the Castle at Sandringharo she receives her husband's friend*, who alone know that for some time pa->t visitors have been requested to speak very loudly when the Princess addresses them. At Buckinghum Piilaco she gives uudienco to the Americans who wish to bo presented to her mother-in-law the Queen. She opens and visits hospitals, furthers all kinds of philanthropic schemes, is officially interested in science and art in England, invents oostumos, makes things and people fashionable, and reigns with smiling grace over the boundless empire of frivolities, of ephemeral playthings, and of the absurdities of the fickle goddess of the dny. This is for tho present her part in the world, and she has accepted it and plays it with pleasure, according to the world. But her friends—,md happily she possesses such—say that sometimes in the gloaming she fits silently before the big fireplace in the large hall at Sandringham, gazing into tho fire; at such times she neither sees nor hoars what pass3s around her, and does uot heed the weeping of Princess Maud or the talking of Prince Albert. " Her Royal Highness is asleep," say the courtiers ; but they are mistaken. Her Royal Highness is thinking of tho little Alexandra at Jugenheim, who eewed her cotton frocks, and who once thought it was her vocation to marry a small German Prince, who would be very faithful and very domesticated, and who would make her very happy. And when her Royal Highness thinks of the little Alexandra her Royal Highness is always sad. Only the courtiers do not know this, and an hour later the Princess herself knows it no longer. She smiles and is happy.

Dagmar, tho second of the three sisters, bus become Empress of all the Riiasias. Her empire stretches out from one end of the world to the other, and the simple inousbik and tho wild Tartar alike see in her the mighty sovereign lady who rules, though this does not appear over everything- and everybody around her, the Emperor of Russians not excluded. Yet she has remained gentle, good and lovely, as she was twenty-five years ago when she fitted her own and her sisters' dreaaos. In the vast Empire of Russia, eaten up by corruption, undermined by Nihilism, where hardly anything is respected, where murderers dog the steps of tho Czar, not a voice dares to raise itself against the Empress, for everybody knows that she is good to the poor, mid with the sad and pitiful to the oppressed, and for these reasons Dagmar, now Maria Feodrovna, is beloved everywhere in Russia, and she knows that she is loved. She is the good genius of her consort, who has faith only in her; of her children, to whom she is a strict but affectionate mother; to Russia which shelters, to Denmark which defends her. For she has known how to become a Russian, and yet remain a Dane, as she knows how genially to combine the old Russian headgear with the latest State toilette from Worth. She, too, is elegant and bright, like her sister, the Princess of Wales, although she, too, has her hours of thoughtful reflection. When, in the great Peterhof Park, she listens patiently for hours together when her consort, the Czar, blows the trumpet with all the power of his mighty lungs, she is perhaps thinking of another Romanoff who, with melancholy sound, played the piano in a room of the hospital at Nice, and who died quietly in her arms, recommending her with his last breath to his brother. Then the happy, merry Czariua weeps, but uobody thinks that she can weep each tears when she is dancing at the Court ball or in the circle of her family. She is passionately fond of dancing, and she dances, dances, dances till she is out of breath ; dances with joy over a new set of precious stones, dances with her children by her side, and while she dances she thinks of the wild littlo Dagmar at Jugenheim, who was told not to dance and jump about so much in order to save her boots. That,was twenty-five years ago. Now she may do what she likes, for is she not Czariua !

Thyra, the third and youngest of the three sisters, became Dutchess of Cumberland. She would, at present, be Queen of Hanover had not the throne been overturned in 1866. At Jugenheim she used to be called tho little one, and she has always remained the same to her family. Her two big sisters indulge her, spoil her, and fulfil her every wish, so that it almost looks as if they were trying to idemnify her because she has

not received a crown. Alas ! why weigh the aching head of the little duchess down with the weight of a crown ? Or rather, we should say tho crown she wears is not inferior to the proud crowns of Russia and England. Wherever she is seen surrounded by her children, pale, thin, with eyes feverishly brilliant and red with tears, DuclicHS Thyra of Cumberland is lowly and reverently saluted. And when last year, (luring her severe illness, she had to be separated from her family in order to allow the weary spirit to rest and the restless soul to become quieted, ovcrybody felt that misfortune had lout a higher miijesty to tho muchtried Princess than heraldry had lent to her brilliant msters. And who can wonder that tho little duchess longs for the days at Jugenheim, when no hoavy velvet robes pressed on her weak shoulders, and when, uniler the thin cotton frock, her heart beat lightly, when she was a pour princesH, but a happy child ? While this sketch was being written the three sisters, Alexandra, Dagrnar, and Thyra, were walking arm in arm, as in dnys long past, on tho shores of the beautiful Ginunden Lake. They had left their crowns at home, politics aside, and their suito in the capital; they wero alone, not fimpress, Crown Princess, and Duchess, but three women—threo sisters—meeting again, lovingly, affectionately, and openly telling each other all that is in their hearts, just like they did in the good old time at Juycnheim.