The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

; 1 ] a y ts momny n eimesyareaanpeinfnrasr e 7 SS 2. ¢ . 4) ; ' -- ) e "Suuiie . ~al a ° p----& QUEEN MARYT 1 ;fi by Mrs. James Litster 7 Queen Mary, only daughter of the late Duke and Duchess of Teck was born in & the year 1866, her birth taking place in the old London Palace where Queen Victoria was born,@and, with the exception of a brief sojourn in Italy, her Mejesty's child-- hood and "yourh were entirely spent in England. When only two years of age she was described as "as sweet and engaging a child as you can wish to see, full of life & and fun, and as playful as a kitten". She and the Prince of Wales were intimate in { childhood, and it was at one time said that her affections were set on King George's & elder brother, the late Duke of Clarence, At any rate her marriage to the younger | brother has been a singularly happy one. | | As a girl Queen Mary was devoted to charitable work, and she and her mother | had the commendable habit of always having by them a bit of needlework which they | could take up in odd moments. It is impossible however to give even the briefest character sketch of Queen Mary without mentioning again, and yet again her great-- hearted mother, who gave her the best possible training for the exalted position \ she was destined to ultimately occupy. Warm hearted and overflowing with human sympathy as was the late Duchess of Teck, she had yet strict, and what most people | would now think old fashioned, notions concerning education. She wrote to an ' | intimate friend: "A child has quite enough to do to learn obedience and to attend * to her lessons, and to grow, without many parties and late hours, which take the ( freshness of childhood away, and the brightness and beauty from girlhood." f The late Duchess made herself the companion and closest friend of all her '; r" children, and she never delegated to others her duties and responsibilities as a / 4 mother. To give one example, as a young girl the Queen was allowed to read no I novel which her mother has not at least glanced through,. This, fortunately, does [ ' not mean that the Duchess had narrow views with regard to literature,; the future .« Queen's favorite authors, and that even when she was quite a young girl, were George Eliot and Carlyle. It is well to insist on the way the Queen's girlhood was spent, for it set her apart even in those far--off days from those Princesses of her own age who were leading the curiously restricted, sheltered life led by young women belonging to ' highest caste. The Princess, through her mother, was in constant touch with those | woman--workers who made the wide field of charity their own, The Duchess of Teck | was specially concerned with all that affected the coming generation, and, as her 4 l mother's secretary and untiring helper, Princess Mary as the London Chronicle points | out, must have unconsciously become cognizant of all sorts of facts, mostly either | terrible or grey, concerning the lives of those who toil, and of the effect of their | toil upon their children. | In the winter of 1883--84 the Duchess and Duke of Teck went with their | daughter to Florence, and it is curious fact that the lady who is now Queen of | England made her first formal debut at a party at the Florentine British Consulate. | As natural head of the foreign colony, the Duchess of Teck received all the most I interesting and distinguished people passing through Florence, and during the formative | period of her life the Queen must have had many interesting experiences, the more l so that her parents took advantage of their sojourn in a foreign town to have her i taught both music and painting by the best Italian Masters. In this connection it B'- ' may be stated that her Majesty is very musical, and sings remarkably well, | | J-_' 4 gg) oc cce e & "e} WiPa, id