AN INSULTED KING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 427

AN INSULTED KING.

Several years ago two strangers, well-dressed young men, entered a church in a small town in , and seated themselves in an empty pew. Presently an elderly woman, the owner of the pew, came to the door, and motioned to them to come out until she should pass to the farther end. They were offended at her discourteous manner, and marched angrily out of the church, refusing to listen to any invitation to remain. A few years afterward the Queen of Sweden, being an invalid, visited the city of Heidelberg, in Germany, for medical treatment. While there she went each Sunday to a modest little church, occupying the back seat in order to escape notice. One day a scholarly-looking man, plainly dressed, came into the church and took a seat near the pulpit. A few moments later a haughty German lady swept up to the pew, and seeing a stranger in it, ordered him by an imperious gesture to leave it.

The stranger quickly obeyed, and going into one of the seats reserved for the poor, joined devoutly in the services. After they were over the lady’s friends gathered around her, and demanded whether she knew who it was that she had treated so rudely. ‘ No ; some pushing stranger,’ she replied. ‘lt was King Oscar, of Sweden,’ was the answer. ‘ He is here visiting the queen.’ Her mortification may be imagined. A correspondent who was an eye-witness of both of these scenes sends the story to us, and asks, ‘ Which played the more manly part, the two vain young men or King Oscar ?’ The answer is obvious.

Yet if the young men had been kings they, too, would probably have received with indifference the insult of a foolish woman. Nothing lifts us above scorn and contumely so much as the sense of security in our own position in the world. But who is secure ? King Oscar, perhaps, would resent an insult from a greater monarch. Only the man who understands that all kings and all slaves are but the children of one Father will not be troubled at uukindness or contempt from his more fooiish brothers.