CINDERELLA OF THE FAR EAST.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXIX, Issue 12187, 3 October 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

CINDERELLA OF THE FAR EAST.

Romaatlc Story- of an Bx-Qmen. , '(»««» r»r* Sttn.) Among the royalties, ex-royalties and other people of title who are expected to visit America next year during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition is the Maharanee Jar Mahomed Rao, a shrewd little woman of sixty-two, with keen, .bright eyes, who lives in Orenburg, Russia, where she holds Oriental court in the biggest house in town, and is treated with respect by the officials of the Czar. The story of her life is like a fairy tale. Once she was pretty Alice Clifton, the daughter of a British soldier who served " John Company" in the cantonments at Delhi, in the old pre-Mutiny days-. Now she is a dethroned queen in exile, like her brothers and sisters in the right .divine, the French Bourbons, the Hanoverian Guelphs, the Bonapartes and -Raoavalona of the more ancient house of Madagascar. As a child she played half-clad in the mud of the barrack-yard in many an Indian station: Then, one day, a bearded monarch covered with jewels reached down and lifted her from the mud to a shining throne and took her away beyond the Indus and oven " The Roof of the World" to be a queen in a strange country.

That little old woman has reigned, an absolute'monarch, over a turbulent people and carried life and death in her nod. She 'has led thousands to battle and inspired them in tie heat of the conflict with her own indomitable courage. liovr the Czar, who holds her lands and people, sends her aE the money she needs from his treasury in St Petersburg. And she receives the money, spending it right royally and pretending it is a tribute from a conquered Prince.

The romance of Alice Clifton's life, which is now ending so peacefully, began away back in 1841, when the East India Company ruled India and had an army of its own. Her father was an enlisted anan in that army and was stationed at Delhi, where the Grand Mogul still sat on the peacock throne in fais ancient capital. He was still Grand Mogul in name, but to see that he did not try to be so in fact " John. Company "

KLPT A GARRISON AT DELHI. Private Clifton lived in the married men's quarters, and his wife was known all over Delhi for her sprightliness, her good humour and her good looks. She was not only beautiful and sprightly, she was also very discreet. When Private Clifton got drank she could handle him better than the guard, and she gave him strong tea the morning after along with her curtain lecture.

Little Alice, her daughter, played about with the other soldiers' children until one day, when she was barely fourteen, the whole cantonment discovered all at once that Private Clifton's girl was 'beautiful. And every day her beauty seemed' to crow.

Then one day all Delhi put on its gala attire to welcome Jar Mahomed Rao Khan, the ruler of a central Asian Khanate far away beyond the mountains to the northwest, who was to visit the Grand Mogul. In tie procession Mahomed Rao Khan rode alone upon a milk-white Arabian stallion, his saddle encrusted with gems, and a great diamond star shining in the front of his tall astrachan cap. He was a middle-aged man, stern of appearance and sharp of eye. As he let his glance roam over the throng which lined the street he caught sight of Alice Clifton standing with a group of other children- who had come from the cantonment to see the show. He looked at her steadily as he passed. That evening Alice had a birthday .party for which her mother made tea and cakes and told the children stories of English fields and English daisies. But Alice declared that English fields and daisies did not interest her, and that it would be stupid living in a place where one met nobody except white people all the time. She was born in India and wanted to stay there, and perhaps some day become a Maharanee and BIDE ON AN ELEPHANT WITH GILDED TUSKS.

Even while they talked a rumour ran through the cantonment that an officer of the court was there with a message for Private Clifton from Mahomed Rao Khan, saying that he wanted to marry the beautiful girl whom he had seen tlhat day in the street as he passed along. Alice jumped for joy—the fairy prince had come just as she lhad expected he would. But Private Clifton and his wife were not so enthusiastic. Jar Mahomed Khan was a much married man already, and it was not seemly that

the daughter of a British soldier should be one of the household of an Asiatic, prince and friend of the Grand Mogul, though he was. So the negotiations took some time. Finally, the Khan said that his other women were not real .wives, but handmaidens after the style of David's comforters, and, at any rate, he would put them all away—pension them off and have, but one wife thereafter, according to the custom of the white man, if the beautiful English girl would only become his queen. The result of this declaration was apparent a few weeks later, when Alice married, and departed in a litter with rosecoloured curtains from Delhi, accompanied by her lord and a great cavalcade, passing across the snow mountains and beyond Bokhara into Turkestan, where she became queen. Not long afterward the great Sepoy Mutiny broke out, Private Clifton was killed in battle, and the Grand Mogul was tried in his own palace on a charge of treason against the- English. Mrs Clifton escaped after many perils, and went home to live among the English fields and daisies on a liberal allowance sent her by her royal daughter. For ten years Queen Alice reigned as the consort of Rao Khan, and was entrusted by him with almost an equal share in the government. At the end of that time Jar Mahomed slept with his fathers, and Alice Clifton had herself proclaimed sole and

ABSOLUTE BUIER OF THE KHANATE. There were aspiring ministers and near gelations of Jar Mahomed, who tried to dispute the throne with her, but Alice had learned the arts of Asiatic government, and what happened to the ambitious ones who sought to contend with her is not recorded in history. But something definite happened to them, and they troubled Queen Alice'no more.

Once firmly established as Queen in her own right, Alice set about the work of a reform administration. She opened new caravan routes, built new bazaars and repaired the old ones, and repealed bad' laws and made good ones in their places. She increased her army, and tried to put it on a modern footing. She was the best soldier in her dominions, for was she not a child of the regiment, and of an English regiment at that? The ruler of a neighbouring Khanate went to war against her, thinking to make short work of a woman general, but Alice led her army against him in person, met him in a pitched battle, and utterly overthrew him and scattered his army. Then she annexed part of his territory, and made him humbly sue for peace. In this battle she commanded with admirable skill, ordering the disposition of the troops and all their movements, and once, when the outcome of the fight seemed doubtful, ' she headed a charge, which broke the enemy's lines and sent the hostile Khan fleeing from the field. , Whenever little rebellions broke out, as they did now and then, or the wandering tribes of the desert got too bold, Alice took the field with her army and scattered the tents of her enemies to the four winds of heaven. A traveller named DeCourcey, who visited her capital in 1868, describes Queen Alice as

" DIGNIFIED, SHREWD AND THOBOTOHLY CAPABLE." ,--- But to the north and the west of Turkestan a great cloud lay along the horizon—the ever-encroaching power of Russia. Still young and beautiful, and a powerful Queen, Alice read in those clouds the coming of the storm which should overwhelm her and her nation. The girl of the cantonments could understand what her wisest Ministers were unable to comprehend. Finally, in 1873, the storm broke, Russia poured her troops into Central Asia, Khiva fell, and General Tschandyr overran the country of Queen Alice. Gallantly she led forth her army against the invaders, but the unequal and hopeless struggle was soon over. Alice retired to her palace, and, clad in her royal robes and seated on her throne, awaited the coming of her conqueror. Deeply impressed by her beauty, her romantic history, her misfortune and her dignity, General Tschandyr treated the fallen Queen with every courtesy and consideration. At first she was allowed to remain on her throne under Russian tutelage, but this was galling to her, and there was danger to the Russians as long as Alice Clifton held even the semblance of power. Eventually the great house in- Orenburg and a liberal pension were given her, on condition that she leave Turkestan forever.

Some of the native rulers overthrown by the Russians in their Central Asian conquests were treated with scant consideration, and others met with most unpleasant fates, but Alice Clifton left the cc-untry as she had entered it— a queen. This is the little old woman of Orenburg, who holds an Oriental court in the biggest house in town, and has said that, despite her years, she intends visiting the great world's fair to be held in this country next year. ■