MEN, CITIES, AND EVENTS.*
THE appearance of a new volume from the author of Monarchs I have filet is an event of no everyday importance in the annals of biographical belles lettres. For not only does it furnish forth evidence of the transcendental social levels to which the journalist may aspire, but by the genial light which it sheds on Kings, Kaisers, Princes, Pontiffs, and Premiers, it affords a brilliant vindication of the monarchical hereditary and hierarchical principles. Even O'Donovan Rossa could hardly fail to rise from the perusal of Men, Cities, and Events a saner and gentler man. As for its effect on the average Radical, we can only say that if the library committee of the National Liberal Club have not already placed it on their Index Expurgatorius, they ought to do so without a moment's delay. Otherwise we shall have Northampton electing a Royal Prince for its Mayor, and the stalwarts of Battersea inviting the Marquis of Lorne to stand against Mr. John Burns.
Readers of The Wrong Box will remember how on one occasion the irrepressible Michael Finsbury accounted for his elevated condition by saying that he had been lunching, a thing, he added, " which may happen to any one." That is precisely the attraction and—from a Radical point of view— the danger of Mr. Beatty-Kingston's narrative. He states it as his unhesitating conviction that journalists are earth-made rather than heaven-born. And yet in a career of more than half a century's duration, he has been " brought into contact with many personages of eminence in the political, artistic, and literary worlds : with the rulers of nations, with a few of the statesmen who have made the history of our times, with great musicians, painters, and men of letters, with soldiers, diplomatists, and orators of world-wide renown." And yet, if we are to accept his theory, it might have hap- pened to any one. The prospect is dazzling in the extreme, but it is only right to explain that Mr. Beatty-Kingston was an exceptionally gifted child. At the age of nine he was kissed by Mendelssohn, who said, " You are a really musical child. And you may say that Felix Mendelssohn told you so." Three years earlier he had sung and won the approval of her Royal Highness the late Duchess of Gloucester, Lord John Russell, Lord Clarendon, the Earls of Morley and Minto, Lord Monteagle, and Lady Holland— all on the same day. If, then, he was not born in the purple, he was brought into agreeable contact with it at an (s- tremely early age, and while still a young man was "the proud possessor of a couple of decorations, symbols of Imperial and Royal favour." Hence a due regard for the fitness of things was shown by the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph when they selected him to represent that journal at the coronation of Francis Joseph as King of Hungary in 1867. It was difficult, as Mr. Beatty-Kingston tells us, for one " dressed in the ordinary garb of occidental civilisation to bear up against the outburst of national sentiment symbolised by the Magyar buttons, braid, and boots during the corona- tion celebrations," and on one occasion he was nearly lynched by some fervent patriots because of his "crush bat and braid- less evening apparel," but the Town Captain of Pesth came to his rescue and the awful calamity was averted. The next function narrated in these pages—a Christmas dinner at Versailles in 1870—may be described as a comparatively plebeian affair, inasmuch as of the nineteen guests present no fewer than sixteen were commoners. But it was " a culinary as well as a convivial success Deep draughts of pink and amber champagne were silently quaffed to the health of those dear women and children at home, whom some of us • If 6., C,t ss, and Events. By W. Beatty-Kingston. London: Bliss, Sands, sad F. star. might never see again. For a few seconds the wave of senti- ment surged up high, even to our eyes and throats. As soon as it had subsided, the divided rale of tobacco and music set in with gay reactionary vigour It was my privilege to 'preside' at the piano during the subsequent proceedings, vocal and choregraphic, although I was more than once re- lieved in the interludes of dance-music by Wit zleben, an ex- cellent all-round pianist, to whom the trick of four-handed im- provisation was as familiar as to myself." In the interests of the musical world it is a pity that Mr. Beatty-Kingston has not vouchsafed to impart the secret of this astounding trick. There was a one-handed virtuoso who attained considerable celebrity in Vienna many years ago, but a four-handed pianist has never swum into our ken. Of the marriage of the present King of Italy Mr. Beatty-Kingston gives us a vivid picture. He was personally introduced by the royal bride- groom to his "lovely consort," witnessed the wedding from one of the Royal pews, and accompanied the happy pair for nearly a month on their wedding tour. In the chapter on De Lesseps a touching instance of Royal condescension is recorded on the part of the Khedive Ismail, who came up to Mr. Beatty-Kingston after dinner at the Abl-deen Palace "with a handful of his own exclusive papelitos, which he used to carry about him loose in an inside breast-pocket of his frock-coat." No wonder that the narrator in one of his earlier books boasts a "somewhat exhaustive acquaintance with the despots of modern Europe." It is true that in his interview with Victor Emmanuel that monarch began by fixing him " with a look of indescribably disconcerting grimness," but this attitude soon gave place to cordiality. As for the late German Emperor, he not only frequently engaged Mr. Beatty-Kingston in particular conversation, but on one memorable occasion came up to him and laid his hand lightly on his shoulder. Though the King of the Belgians was at Ostend when Mr. Beatty-Kingston was visiting the Belgian Brighton, that monarch does not seem to have availed himself of the opportunity of making his acquaint- ance. This unaccountable behaviour, however, has happily not prevented our author from furnishing us with an exhaustive description of the costume affected by this Sovereign during his " d:urnal peregrinations." Chapters describing interviews with Sydney Smith, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Pio Nono, Leo XIII., and Bismarck complete this momentous record. In the concluding chapter Mr. Beatty Kingston confesses that be has never visited Ireland. Alas ! this is one of the sad but inevitable consequences of there being no Royal residence in that unhappy island. Ey0 et reges mei would have been a worthier title for this remark- able book.
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