THE QUEEN AT WORK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1029, 19 January 1911, Page 9

THE QUEEN AT WORK.

A feature .of the Christmas number of. "Tho Matron" is a well-written article descriptive. of the Queen's labours' on behalf of the London Needlework Guild. In the course .of tho article, which is pub-lished-by permission of her Majesty, is given an acsount of tho Queen's day :u thc .Imperial Institute, spent in unpacking, sorting, and arranging the various articles sent in by the different presidents. The writer says: —"There is a sound of footsteps on the stone floor . . . the Queen is coming. She has taken on her furs, and has. put 011 a pair of working gloves. A pair of scissors hangs from a chain round her waist, and a businesslike apron protects the front of her walking skirt. That will show you (if you didn't know it before), that her Majesty is a most practical business woman. r She greets us with the dear smile we know so well, and when/the brief handshaking and curtseying is done-wo all set to work. The men tiring, three' or four parcels, and put them on a table. We workers, likeWise armed with aprons and scissors, at- ' tack them, rip up the sacking, ■ cut the string, or tear oft' the paper. The first thing the worker anxiously looks for is tho printed list which should be, like Joseph's cup, in tho mouth of the sack. If it is there, well and good, wo check the contents at once, and hand the list to the Queen, who is by this timo sitting at liev writing-table with a captive pencil at her right hand and a growing pile of papers at her left. But if there is no list, a sigh, not to say a wail, rises from the lips of the unfortunate worker. . . . The tables arc getting covered now. Quietly but busily w-3 go round with.arms full of things, and stack them in their, proper places.- Tho Queen's footman is much, in request. It is a relief to hand over to liini a-very large sheaf of heavy gar- . ments. , "Petticoats,' we say briefly, and straightway -to the. women's department ho goes with stately tread, and deposits his burden, there to be arranged by the 'stacker' in charge."