AN AMERICAN QUEEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3145, 27 November 1922, Page 2

AN AMERICAN QUEEN.

(By an American GirT.) To an American whio can remember the indignant protest which went up in all the- Court circles: of Europe when the news of the Duke of the' engagement to Miss Elkins got into the papers, the report that King Boris of Bulgaria, is looking around for a Queen across the Atlantic Ocean isi just the queerest proof of the change the war has brought about in the Old World. Now, I've nothing to say against King Boris. When I was presented to him last year in Sofia I thought he was quite the handsomest and most magnetic Royal man I'd 1 ever met. If only he hadn't a crown <m his curly head I'm sure no sensible American girl would refuse l him. But to be a queen is to be a good deal l more thian a wife. And I shouldn't Jike to ad\-ise any of my girl friend's to qualify for a job that I wouldn't take on myself. Why should I be afraid to be a queen to the most attractive of eligible kings in Europe? Of course, to an ambitious girl it's a ?reat temptation. To be lifted right into the most exclusive caste, to know your name will: go down into history, to have a closed coronet embroidered on all your tilings and to sign yourself just "Kate" or "Rosalie." How splendid it sounds. But there's another side to the picture. Bulgaria is a small country, and i poor country—indeed its poverty ia bhe chief reason why its king is thankng of a queen well giKled l with dollars. I'm not complaining of that, for lots )f rich American girls have married >ennilessi Europeans who had far less ;o offer in excliange for a fortune than jood looks and half a throne. It's the ife which the Queen of Bulgaria would rave to lead that would be so difficult or us to accept. Even in a great powerful country uch as England the life of Royal ladies s one in which pleasure is always suhirdina.te to duty. Queens are expected o fill their time with all sorts of engagements and ceremonies, and always 0 look as if they enjoyed obligations finch must generally be an unmitigatd bore. They live hot for themselves, or even for their families, but for the. cople over whom they rule. And this is far more true of a primiive democratic country Jike Bulgaria, rherel the king is obliged to live the implest of lives, shorn of all luxury in palace which isn't a patch on the nines tho millionaire daughters of the Jnited States are accustomed to. Compare the free existence, with ever a. whim ungratified which is ours, d that which awaits Bulgaria consort. he gap is too wide, the change too funamental for happiness. We American iris are too much the spoilt darlings of ivilisation to adapt ourselves easily to ich discipline. Perhaps our husbands re to indulgent—or rather too busy—- > interfere with our movements and •oupations. Anyway, we go where we lease, and never think of doing anyling we don't want to do. The result that duty is only a word, not a realy. to us. ';• So if King Boris has set his heart on 1 Anglo-Saxon queen why doesn't he ok for her in England? Her girls •e quite as pretty, though perhaps ley are not quite so rich. On the her hand, they spend less and expect ss. Nor are they quite so convinced we are that everything, including •abbages and kings,'' exists just to ve them a good time.

According to Sir Robert Ball the x)ii is being slowly driven farther •ay from the earth, so that the days e growing longer, until at length, in me millions of years to come, the ion will 1 be about-twice her present itance, and the day will mount to out 1.400 hours, or what is now equal fifty-seven d'aysi. When that state things is reached a. great tidal truce 11 be arrived at. The moon will conmtly be at the full to one portion the earth, and'the tides will cease ebb and flow. \ dozen students at an engineering lege in Loughborough, Leicesterre (England), have determined to go lit away and live the simple life, ey have bought from the Republic Ecuador, South America, an isd off the coast of that continent, ey have also bought a 90-ton vessel, which they intend to sail to their md. They subscribed about £5,000 make these purchases. The island said to be suitable for cattle-breed-aand fruitgrowing. These are the ustries by which the emigrants hope make a living.