Queen Alexandra and the Stable-Boy.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VII, Issue 68, 19 September 1901, Page 2

Queen Alexandra and the Stable-Boy.

Queen Alexandra, although as unfamiliar to French society as King Edward is familiar, has many admirers (the Paris correspondent of the "Daily News" says) among Parisian ladies, who envy her for her privileges of perennial freshness. Paris is associated, however, as the "English and American Gazette," an Anglo-French weekly, remarks, with an act of kindness performed by Queen Alexandra when she was Princess of Wales. During the Exhibition of 1878 a British chaplain and his wife were invited to lunch at the Embassy to meet the Prince and Princess. Mrs. Moran, the clergyman's wife, took the opportunity to interest the Princess in a former stableboy at Sandringham who was dying of consumption in a slum in the Ternes quarter of Paris. Her Royal Highness, with the eagerness of a schoolgirl, proposed to slip out quietly and visit the humble invalid. The two ladies took a cab, and the Princess ascended to a wretched chamber on the fourth floor, and no sooner saw the boy than she recognised him. Sitting on the side of the bed, she brightened the place by her cheeriness. Then she said, " My poor boy, why did you leave us? You were always delicate. I am not too well supplied with money for my Paris visit, but I will send you £SO to-morrow." The angel of charity kept her word. The Princess, revelling in her new sense of freedom, then suggested a ride outside the Madeleine on a Bastile omnibus to see the Be-nlevards as one of the people. Mrs. Moran, awestruck at the adventure, "of course gave injTtnd the Princess, pa-rHng' with her at the Embassy, said it was the happiest afternoon she had spent in her life.

Heiress to Fifty Millions. Miss Alta Rockefeller, daughter of the richest man in America, if not in the world (he is reported to have made £30,000,000 last year), and Mr. Pannalee Prentice, a poor young barrister and Sunday-school worker, wore married recently at the home of the' bride's father in New York. A gift from a millionaire whose name the goldsmiths refuse to give is a great golden fountain for banquet use. It is composed of a beautifully ornamented basin of hammered gold 6ft. in diameter. From the centre rise stalks of gold bearing enamel buds and blossoms set with gems. Tiny electric lamps are set daintily in the metal. The fountain is to be set in the middle of the table, and joined by a tube through the centre to a water connection in the floor. Perfumed water sprays from the flowers and falls into the basin, which, turned by a tiny motor, rotates slowly, and by an ingenious device gives forth a musical tinkling. All that Mr. Rockefeller asks of his son-in-law is good character. A Baptist himself of the particular division known in America as " hard shell," his children are all professing Christians and church workers. A Food-Providing Tree. What the bamboo is to China the Caranaiba, or Carnahuba, Palm is to Brazil in the way of being useful for a variety of purposes. On the under side of its leaves are found scales of wax, which drop off when shaken, and are put to the same uses as beeswax. The fruit, which is black and about the size of an olive, is eaten both raw and cooked, parts of the stem are sent to England for veneering purposes, but the bulk of it is used for building houses, and to act as water-pipes. The roots are valuable as a blood-purifying medicine, the straw is used for thatching houses and making hats, while in some form or another salt, flour, cork, coffee, sago, and saccharine are to be obtained from various parts of it. It would, therefore, appear that a man who does not yearn for a varied diet has only to go to Brazil with an axe, and he can live in ease and comfort for the rest of his days, only chopping down an occasional Carnahuba when he feels hungry. With a generosity which is unprecedented the syndicate points out that this valuable palm should flourish in some of the hotter British Colonies, and makes the suggestion, without any charge whatever-, that Mr. Chamberlain should mstkute experiments in this direction. Method in His Madness. A man was accused of having stolen a pair of trousers. There were several witnesses, but the evidence was rather meagre, and so the accused was acquitted. He was told that he could go, but he remained. His lawyer, to whose successful defence he mainly owed his liberty, hinted to him again that he was free to depart, but still he stayed. There being no more cases to be heard, tjie court was getting empty, when the lawyer, growing impatient, asked, with some asperity, why he didn't go. The injured, innocent man whispered in his ear : ' The fact is, sir, I did not like to move till the witnesses had left the court.' ' Why so ?' ' Because, sir, I have got on the trousers that I stole.' It is a good thing to witness a brand-new play, because there is no danger of an idiot behind you telling his friend what's going to batmen next.