The Sunday Oregonian., September 06, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 2, Image 48

. .'.V J , S. I I' -" .' - -K '- -,FORT WHO
BT JOHN S. HARWOOD.
SEAKCH the British Empire through
and you will find no more Interest
ing men than some of the forty
odd who today are serving King Ed
ward VII. as vice regents in every one
of the seven seas and on every one of
the continents.
There Is the Earl of Aberdeen, now
occupying the vice regal palace In Dub
lin, and for the third time a vice re
gent. There Is the Earl of Dudley,
Just sent out to Australia, who has
worked hl way up to a governor-generalship
from the betting ring and the
gaming table. There la the Earl of
Be I borne, High Commissioner to South
Africa, who kicked out the old fossils
and put the British navy on a fighting
basis. There is easy-going and sport
loving Earl MInto. successor to Lord
Curzon In India. There is Plunket, of
New Zealand, at one time a private
secretary In the Government service.
There Is Sir William MarGregor, whose
specialty Is ruling over the Isles of the
fss; and among all other there Is Sir
Eldon Gorst. successor to Cromer in
Egvpt, nad after him the best posted
man on Egyptian affairs In the world
today.
Most of the forty-odd are railed, offi
cially, colonial governors. The titles of
come others have been mentioned. Yet,
in power and deed, if not in name, all
are vice regents, for all are sent out
from "home" co represent the sovereign
the lieutenant-colonel In charge of a
group of land dots In the South Seas
every bit as much as soma earl dls.
patched to look after the empire's In
terests In a great slice of some contl
nent an empire In Itself.
The Earl of Aberdeen, now serving
for the second time as Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland la noted for having a wife
who Is more talked about nationally.
even, than he. and whose Intellectual
brilliancy makes her as "big" a woman
as he Is a man. Throughout the United
Kingdom she Is recognized as a leading
philanthropic expert, and her philan
thropies are as wide as her Influence,
which extends pretty much over the
Isles. But though she Is one of Eng
land's largest givers to charity, she
does not scatter largess Indiscriminately,
as so many wealthy Englishmen do;
rather by her charities she endeavors
to help people to help themselves. With
this object in view she has striven en
thusiastically to build up the Irish lace
Industry, which has Improved wonder
fully the conditions of the peasants in
certain parts of the Emerald Isle. Visi
tors to the Irish village at the Chicago
World' Fair may recall the circum
stances that the Countess, In her en
deavor to boom the Irish trades, lived
for quite a while In one of the village's
diminutive houses.
The marriage of the Earl aad the
Countess was the result of a love-at-f
lrst sight meeting, wbick resulted from
the unintentional tresspass of the youtrg
Earl on the estate of the young lady's
father. In his ardor of the shoot one
day Aberdeen, all unknowingly, crossed
the boundary line between the preserve
of hia host and that of the latter's
neighbor, and first thing be knew he
was standing face to face with a stran
ger, who peremptorily asked what he
waa doing there. The unconscious in
truder Informed his questioner that he
was out shooting as the guest of his
host. The Earl. In turn, was informed ,
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that lie was talking to Lord Tweed
mouth and was at that moment stand
ing on the latter's property. The Earl
apologized profusely and made known
his name to Tweedmouth, who Invited
the young man to luncheon, nd there
by loRt his youngest daughter some
months later, for Aberdeen was not
content a day after meeting the charm
Ing Lady Ishbel Majoribanks until he
had made her his bride. The Earl Is
ten years the senior of his wife, who
waa Just turned twenty when they
were married.
Aberdeen's opportunity to get Into
the forefront of public life came about
In almost as Interesting a way as his
first meeting' with the young lady who
waa destined to be his life partner.
Like a great many boys, as a boy he
was fascinated by the sight of a lo
comotive. His love fr the iron horse
he carried 'with him into young man
hood, when he seized every possible
chance to ride In the cab ud study
the giant machine under him. As a re
sult, when he came to take his seat in
the House of Lords he was as compe
tent to run a locomotive as any engine-
man in Great Britain. Then, one day,
a colleague moved that a committee
be appointed to Investigate the causes
of railway accidents in the United
Kingdom. Aberdeen s mechanical side
came to the fore Immediately. He
rose to his feet, and in his maiden
speech that followed displayed such ac
curate knowledge of railway matters.
and especially of the locomotive, that
he -was made a member of the com
mission, A few weeks later the chair
manship of the commission waa handed
to him and the -entire Investigation
was made under his Immediate super
vision.
From that day to this Aberdeen has
been prominent politically, and though
he never has been Prime Minister, as
was his grandfather, he has held nu
merous Important posts. Three times
has he been a vice regent in Ireland
22 years ago. In Canada during the five
years ending In 1S9S. and now again
In Ireland. Very few Englishmen have
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER 6, 1908.
ever been called thrice to be vice re
gent. The Earl of Mlnto is serving his
second vice regency in India, he hav
ing been Aberdeen's successor in Can
ada While he was in Canada, Aberdeen
and his wife maintained a private
chapel, to the dissatisfaction of a cer
tain element, who held that the Gov
ernor-General and his wife, since they
were public officials, should worship
publicly. In Ireland they are extremely
popular. When they left that island
at the end. of their , first term In the
vice regal lodge, practically the entire
populace united la giving them an
ovation that baa been described as ?ho
most remarkable expreslon of public
feeling and tribute of honor since the
days of O'ConnelL" The Countess, dur
ing the six months of their stay, bad
won the hearts of all by her democrat
ic ways) her sympathy for and helpful
nes to the poor, and her Interest in and
attempts to build up home industries.
Today she is giving a great deal of her
time to work along these lines, and is
even more popular now with the mass
es than at the time of her first resi
dence In Dublin. The Earl owes much
of his Irish popularity to his -wife'
good works r ,
Unlike most noble fathers, Aberdeen
has seen to It that each of his four
sons and his daughter has received an
Intensely practical education, as well
as the orthodox fanciful one. Each
boy is a skilled practical farmer, while
the daughter, now married, is qualified
to act as chef for a big establishment
should occasion for her to do so ever
become necesary. To match this hob
by of her husband' the Countess makes
It one of her special duties to look af
ter the Intellectual welfare of her ser
vants. She is particularly delighted
when she finds one with latent music
al ability, end she Invariably endeav
ors to develop this talent at more or
less expense to herself, and someUmaa,
it must be confessed, to the conelder- f If I
able annoyance of the servant. I l! " :Wli"; - r ? I
Curzon's Sport-Loving Successor.
The Immediate successor of Aberdeen
In the Government house in Ottawa,
the Earl of Mlnto, is occupying the
vice regal lodge in Simla, going to In
dia as King Edward's representative
the same year that Aberdeen was dis
patched to Ireland for the second time,
1905. He and Aberdeen are two of the
many Scotsmen in the high places who
are helping to run the British Empire.
Whenever his fellow members of the
nobility talk about Minto some one la
sure to tell -of his love for hunting and
illustrate the statement with the story
that the Earl took bis B. A. at Trinity
with his 'academic gown hiding his
riding costume, and that as soon as
the graduation exercises were over he
mounted his horse and rode ten miles
to .take part In the University Steeple
chase. Of course he won legitimate
result' of such devotion.-
This happened when he was plain
Lord Melgund. At that time, too, he
made a likely reputation . for himself
as a soldier et fortune. He has fought
in battle in four continents. In Asia
he took part in the Afghan war, in
Europe he helped the Turks when they,
were contending with the Russians.'
He was a volunteer captain In the
Egyptian campaign of 1882, and as
chief of staff he aided greatly In put
ting down the Riel rebellion in the
Canadian Northwest In 1885. His war
experiences .would fill several boys'
books with thrills from cover to cover.
The spirit of wanderlust that devel
oped In the Earl's make-up when he
was fighting here and there over the
wide world, he could not hold entirely
In check when he came Into his first
vice regal honors. During the first six
years he was in Canada he and the
Countess used to take canoe excur-
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sions into the wilds, camping In the
open wherever night found them and
living off the land. The Earl's de
sire for travel once took them into
the Klondike, where the Countess won
the plaudits of the miners .by riding
through the Rockies on the pilot of
the locomotive, and otherwise giving
evidence of a hail-fellow-well-met dis
position. As Governor-General the Mintos gave
our northern neighbors Several new things
to talk about. The children were not
kept In tne background, as the youngsters
of other Governors-General had been. In
stead, they always were in evidence at all
except the most formal official social
functions. The Earl insisted on this; he
Is a fond parent, and nothing delights
him more than to leave cares of state be
hind and spend hours with his offspring.
Again, and to the intense annoyance of
Canadian tradesmen, the Countess watched
the household expenses with sharp eyes,
and not Infrequently returned to certain
dealers orders that she did not deem
properly filled. The Earl, you see, owns
only about (16,000 acres, and hasn't any
too large an income for one of noble po
sition. Therefore, his good wife has made
it one of her duties to see that what
does come Into the family purse is not
spent needlessly. Leaving out of consid
eration the coterie that supplied the ma
terial wants of the Mintos, they were
rather popular among the Canadians.
The Earl himself Is good-natured and
easy going, just the sort of man to get
along well with : Lord Kltchner at the
head of the armed force in India. He
owes his present viceregal honors largely
to this circumstance: before it had ceased
England was mightly tired of the clash
ing that occurred between Curzon, Mlnto's
Immediate predecessor in India, and the
hero of Khartoum. It Is reported that In
the viceregal lodge in Simla and In the
Government house in Calcutta the Count
ess looks as carefully at the household
bills as ever she did while her husband
was representing his sovereign In Canada.
. Reformed Sport Among Viceroys.
The Earl of Dudley, but recently told
oft to be Governor-General of the Aus
tralian commonwealth, is a sure enough
reformed sport. Also, he has the distinc
tion of being the youngest of King Ed
ward's most important vice regents. He,
too, got his viceregal training in Ireland.
where he won his personal popularity by
smoking and talking with the men folk
of the countryside, while his wife busied
herself singing to the women folk and
the children. This they did when they
toured Mie island In an automobile. Inci
dentally, the Earl is the brother of the
honorable John Ward, lately become the
husband of Miss Jean Iteid.
It was as a sport of the yellow-backed
novel sort that the Karl first had the
publlo eye focused on' him. As soon as
he left Eton he began lo see what sizn
hole he could make in hi Income of two
millions, with the result that after he had
demonstrated an amazing ability in this
line, hfe mother saw to it that his spend
ing money was reduced to a barn pit
tance of JEoO.tKH) every twelvemonth. But
before the young man was thus cut off I
temporarily from most of his patrimony
for disciplinary purposes, he earned
throughout Europe the title if "The
Plunger," and won and lost thousands
on the ponies and at the Earning table.
One nlglit. when he was sitting in a very
exciting game of cards with several other
sporting noblemen, the place was raided.
Later on. Dudley learned that his mother
had brought about the Interruption just
when the game was reaching Its moBt in
teresting stage.
His mother's one hope was that when
the Earl was married he would settle
down, and she tried diligently to get him
what she described as "safely married."
The Earl, however, would have none of
the highly estimable young gentlewomen
that his mother paraded before him. In
faot. he would give no serious thought to
marriage until, one day, he accompanied
his mother to her millinery shop and
promptly fell In love with the young lady
who waited on the Countess. She now Is
the Countess of Dudley: and no sooner
did alio become the Barl's bride than he
sobered down and has been a real good
boy ever elncs.
The Countess was a Miss Gurney. Her
father was an English banker who failed
and, after ' separating from his wife,
headed for South America to restore his
fortunes. To support herself the wife
ooened up a millinery shop for the fash
ionable trade, and had her two daughters
for assistants. When the Earl spied one
of these girls and Instantly threw his
heart at her feet there was a pretty how-
de-do. the mother not being appeased in
the slightest even when the Countess of
Bedford adopted Miss Gurney and actea
as her sponsor in society. In fact, right
up to the day of the wedding she pleaded
with her son not to marry the little mil
liner eu-L and she showed her dislike of
the match so thoroughly at the nuptials
themselves that the court paper, In Its ac
count of the wedding, remarked that the
Earl's mother in pearl-gray looked iiks
a beautiful tnunaeroioua.
"Excepting the period when he was hav
In his flintf. the new Australian Govern
or-General has shown himself to be a
very level-headed sort of chap: and hia
climb up the Governmental ladder to hia
present eminence speaks for itself. Of
course, due credit for the climb should be
given to the Countess: the Earl himself
has admitted that he has been made by
his wife in more ways than one. In
Australia, exceedingly democratic Island
that It Is, the Dudleys will be very well
liked. In all probability; for wherever they
have been they seem to nave won tne ai-
fectlons of all by their simple and demo
cratic ways.
Lord Northcote, who got his baronetcy
eight years ago In recognition of his la
bors in various governmental positions,
and who is about to be relieved of his
Australian poBt by the Earl of Dudley,
worked, his way up to a Vice-Regency
from the post of clerk in the British For
eign Office. His second position would
entitle him to membership In a club made
up of the men who have risen high from
private secretaryships; he eervea in mm
position to the late Lord Salisbury, when
that famous statesman was at the head
of the Turkish Embassy.
As Governor-General, Northcote and his
(Concluded on rage 11. J