QUEEN WHO LOVES BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

QUEEN WHO LOVES BABIES.

Queen Helena, of Italy (says the Rome correspondent of the “New York World”), who has infused more vigorous blood into the veins of the ancient House of Savoy, has become one of the most devoted and domesticated o*f all the royal wives and mothers. She is so fond not only of her own, but of all children, that she has earned the title “the Children’s Queen rt Conversing with the wife of a distinguished Ambassador about her reception by the Queen, the correspondent asked: “Rrav, tell me what did her Majesty talk about?” “ A bout babies all the time, ’ ’ answered the great lady, pouting, for she is much more interested in fashions and politics than in babies. Queen Helena has set an example to all mothers, princesses or peasants, uy nursing her babies. AVhen her first baby, the little Princess Yolanda, was born, her Majesty was much criticised by the grandes dames of the court for her objection to some of tbe old Italian customs in connection with Royal nurseries. One of tiieso customs was to bind up the Royal infants in very tight swaddling clothes. Queen Helena quickly did away with these with the remark : “Babies’ legs are made to kick with, and my baby shall be free to kick.” Her Majesty is never so happy as when getting up ail entertainment for poor boys and girls, or visiting some orphanage or creche which her own beneficence'has helped to establish. Beatrice Merzano, a poor little child of Udine, wrote plaintively to the Queen not long ago:— “I have no dolls iike other girls. I have become naughty. My papa scolds me because .1 talk always of dolls, I dream of dolls.” Touched by the simplicity of the childish letter, the Queen gent Beatrice a doll so fine that all Udine went to admire. The patrician Duchess of Aosta lias called the Queen “My cousin the shepherdess.” This sneer was uttered because. thanks to an early life in Montenegro’, her Majesty knows how to cook and to sew; she even can milk a cow. She dresses plainly, and wore a violet colored dress so often that a! lady of her court was bold enough to say:— “Your Majesty seems to be very fond of that gown.” “I like it because the King prefers it,” answered her Majesty, simply. Why should I change it?” But she is a woman of high spirit. When she first came ito Italy the proud Duchesses, forgetting that she had made her debut in the great world under the loving auspices of the Czarina, laughed at her “Montenegrin primitiveness.” One said to her, with half-veil-ed irony : “Your Royal Highness must find our unaccustomed Court ceremony very tedious.” “Not at all,” retorted the Princess. “T.lxiy always did these things on a much prrenter scale in St. Petersburg.”