"CARMEN SYLVA": THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 66

"CARMEN SYLVA": THE QUEEN OF ROUMANIA.

"Carmen Sylva," the poet-Queen, is one 'pi the most original-minded women who x Jiave ever graced a throne, and one of the few Queen-Consorts whose fame has eclipsed that of their respective spouses. She has (extraordinary intellectual gifts, and is, besides, renowned for her broad sympathies and charitable nature. "Every human jbeing," she once said, "is in need of symKthy" ; and it is in the active realisation of is truth that she has found her way into |he hearts of the people. HEB.' IflVB FOR TEACHING. Queen Elizabeth of Roumania is, indeed, % remarkable woman, with a curiously imaginative, fanciful temperament, that finds an outlet in writing poetry and other jliterary work. As a child she was always ■ Sifferent from others, and was more inspired by the desire to be of use in the world fjian to amuse herself after the way of other 1 pljildren. Nothing pleased her so much as JU> play the schoolmistress, and it was her ttreat delight to wander away to the quiet Vines followed by a train of village children and share her learning with them. am like the Pied Pipe of Hamelin," she fcsed to say, merrily ; "all the children run after me!" So imbued was she with the idea of being a governess that after her father's Heath she said : — "If Ido not marry I shall pass nfy examination as a teacher ; to that tt have made up my mind." When staying |n Naples she engaged herself in teaching fcer little cousin, and wrote at "the time to ber mother: — "I feel that though she knay learn more from any schoolmaster than from me, I can perhaps influence her mode - pi thought by these lessons, which will be tof more use to her than the deepest learning. I try to teach her what you taught — (to love people for whom you have no sympathy. Work is what I must~ and will < nave, and then all can say of me, ' That ■b a happy girl !' ... lam not so anroud as to think I can carry all before me ■ {ike a mountain torreat. Perhaps I am . but a little drop, but if heaven has let me - Kail on the right place I can joyfully be- < ipome absorbed by the sunbeams." But with all her seriousness Princess plizabeth had lively spirits, and could enjoy fun as much as any child. She was wayward and impulsive, and was nicknamed the "Whirlwind" and "The Wild Rosebud of RVied." She herself wrote in after years: •'I could not be gentle, and was so paslionately impulsive that I was heartily thankful to those who were patient with ane." Her mother, the Princess of Wied, in fwhom the little Elizabeth had so fine an example of nobility and gentleness, said Ho .her daughter's first tutor : — "You will feave a little ' esprit de contradiction ' a* a icholar. She does not believe in any autho-

A BOMANTIC ENCOUNTEB. • ■ Princess Elizabeth was born at Neuwied, on. the Rhine, in December, 1843, the Baughter of Prince Hermann of Wied and pig wife, a Princess of Nassau. She «oon learnt sorrow, for much of her youth was •pent in nursing and comforting her inivalid brother Otto, who died young ; and her father also became a chronic invalid. tAiter her brother's death ehe pathetically observed: "I expect sorrow and many tears ; each year demands its sacrifice. "' The Court of Wied was a quiet one, and it was not until she was 17 that Princess Elizabeth began to see the brilliant side of •Royal life. At that age she went on a -.visit to the Court of Berlin, where, as Fate .■•■ would .have it, she met her future hus.Jband. The story of their first encounter is toman tic. Princess ""Elizabeth, with her usual im- ' petuosity, was rushing down the stairs one . day -when she suddenly stumbled, and would probably have -fallen to the bottom of the j flight had not a gentleman, who was ascending at the time, make a quick dash forward wnd caught the yOUng girl in his arms. This gallant cavalier was nonjfeegh^r than Prince Charles, ultimately King'oTßoumania, and .the Princess had unconsciously fallen into tht- arms of her future husband. KING CHARLES. King Charles, who is the second son of Prince Antony, head of the Catholic Sigt&aringen branch of the Hohenzollem family, •was offered the throne of Roumania when lie was serving in the First Regiment of Dragoon Guards at Coblentz He was 27 years of age at the time. He accepted the loffer, and came as Prince Carol (Charles) I to 'Roumania, which was converted into h kingdom in 1881. Evidently Prince Charles did not forget the staircase incident, and when he sought *. bride his thoughts turned to the charmIng girl with whom, it appears, he had long tiince fallen in love, and he arrived at the iiastle on the Rhine to woo and win Prinuess Elizabeth. She had been wont to declare that she \Vould rather remain single than marry, tnd, curiously enough, used to add, "I do toot want to marry unless I can be Queen of -Roumania, for down there something is for me to do." This remark was in- , tended to silence those of her admirers who * Bought to win her, for at that time there yras no kingdom of Roumania. Prince Charles reminded the Princess of Ler words, and said tlfat if she were still v/iliing to rule over Roumania, she had only to accept his hand. "It makes me both proud and happy," she s>aid with great earnestness. After » «h(»*s casement of two mania*

the wedding "was celebrated at Wied, and when the Royal pair entered Roumania they were offered the traditional bread and salt on silver platters.

MARRIED LIFE

Princess Elizabeth was fired by the ambition to help her husband in his work of building up a nation. No woman ever yearned more sincerely than did this, girlbride for 'a mission in life. Inspired by the noble conception of her responsibilities, she worked heart and soul for the interests of her people, and wrote not long afterwards, "I am beginning to grow to my ideal, which is to become the confidential adviaer of the Roumanian State, House, and Family."

Her* married life brought with ifc a crush-ii-g blow in the death of her little child, at the age of four j'ears. For months and months she grieved, her bursting heart finding its only consolation in. literary work, which.she had taken up long before, but which now became a serious occupation with her.

" CARSrEN SYLVA."

The Queen wrote under the fantastic, pretty norn de plume of 'Carmen Sylva," chosen because of her fondness for song and forest, and in memory of her childhood days, when she roamed about the vmeclad hills of the Rhine. She translated into Roumanian the folk-songs of her native iand, and published the book in the wish to give pleasure' to little ones, and in tender recollection of her own lost child. Her versatile genius has impressed her personality upon the generation, and given to "Carmen Sylva" a peculiar place among the Queens of Europe. From the day she entered Bucharesl h-r husband's interests and the people's have been her one thought. She has founded hospitals, schools, convalescent homes, and creches, and has endeavoured in every possible way to encourage national industries. With this object, she insisted, during her holiday visits to King Charles's beautiful castle at Sinaia, in the Carpathians, that her ladies should don the "national dress of Roumania, she herself affecting the same attire ; and {he made it obligatory that the costume of the nation should be worn at the annual charity balls in Bucharest, thus doing a great deal for the benefit of spinners and wearers and embroiderers. Well has King Charles done to speak of her as his "best counsellor."

a "mother of the people."

To the Roumanian people since the Ru&soTurkish war of 1877-8, when Roumania was involved, Queen Elizabeth has been known as the "Mother of her People." In that time of distress she succoured the wounded, comforted the distressed, and became a veritable sister of mercy. Out of Jier own pocket she maintained a hospital for a hundred patients ; she organised a> Red Cross Society ; and by her brave, humane example was the means of exciting the wildest enthusiasm for her magnificent qualities of Eeart and head, and has immortalised herself in letters of gold 4n the history of her country.

The Queen's interest in literature induced her to found, a few years after her marriage, a society for the publication of books suitable for schools and the people. Many graceful stories from her pen find their way into magazines from time to time.

Historic dramas, too, have found an author in the Queen of Roumania, who read one such work to our late Queen Victoria while visiting her Majesty at Windsor not many years ago. On another occasion Queen Elizabeth summoned Sir Henry Irving and Miss Ellen Terry to one of the West-end hotels, and there read one of her plays to them.

HER AMBITION AND GENEROSITY.

King Charles owes much to the Queen, who has helped to make his. path smooth, and whose wisdom has been of such excellent service in many a difficult hour. Un--happily, overwork caused a slight cerebral affection some years ago, from which, however, the Queen seems quite to have recovered, and which does not seem in the least to have impoverished her pen. Res>t has always been impassible to a temperament such as hers. She has worked hard all her life, and is still a woman of energy and activity. She adds music and painting, as well as literature, to the arts in which she takes a special interest, and plays charmingly on the harp. She is an example to all women, for her ambition has always been to rise higher and raise others ; and her generosity is proverbial. As a child the Queen would have given away almost all her clothes to other children if she Fiad been allowed to have her way. Once when her mother gave her a new dress, she exclaimed, "Now I shall he able to give away my other frocks!" And in the afternoon she went into the village and took with her a bundle of woollen stuff to make frocks for some poor children.

The Queen has been in the habit of rising early and working with her pen before breakfast. It is only the early morning hours, she declares, that she can really call her own — in which she can be "woman and euthor." For the rest she must be Queen. Her Majesty finds a sweet, sympathetic companion in Princess Marie of JRoumania, the wife of the Crown Prince. As the King and Queen have no child of their own, the successor is Prince Ferdinand, the son of King Charle&'s brother. Prince Leopold. Princess Marie is the eldest daughter of the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and has a trio of charming children. — Margaret Sherrlngton, in the Leeds Mercury.