Ohio History Journal

OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY.

 

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENT.

 

RECOLLECTIONS OF ROYALTY.

Elsewhere in this issue reference has been made to an ad-

dress delivered by our late Secretary, Emilius Oviatt Randall,

before the Kit-Kat club, entitled "Recollections of Royalty".

This address will long be remembered by those who heard it as

one of the most interesting and entertaining every delivered be-

fore a Columbus gathering. It was published in the April num-

ber of the Kit-Kat for 1918. The reader who peruses one or two

of its pages will not lay it aside until he has read it through.

Excellent as it is in printed form, it lacks, of course, something

of the charm   of Mr. Randall's personality and his inimitable

presentation. On the evening of its delivery he was at his best.

A year or more previous to this date he had been in failing

health and some of his close friends feared that he would not

regain his former strength and be able to actively participate in

the numerous societies to which he belonged. On the evening

that he presented his "Recollections of Royalty", however, he

brought to his assembled friends of the Kit-Kat Club and numer-

ous guests not only the rich treat and rare humor of his paper

but joy at beholding him again at his best and apparently re-

stored to health and vigor.

Mr. Randall in company with his father visited the Paris

Exposition of 1867. In speaking of this he said:

"The international expositions of later years have surpassed it in

size, but none of them have been so artfully organized, so admirably pro-

portioned in its several parts, so perfectly adjusted to facilitate the display

of the character and culture of each country. All eyes were turned

toward France, all roads led to Paris; it outrivalled the 'Field of the

Cloth of Gold'; never before nor since, such a concourse of distinguished

guests; within three months, the Emperor Napoleon and Empress

Eugenie entertained three Emperors, eight Kings, one Sultan, one Shah,

one Viceroy, five Queens, twenty-four Princes, seven Princesses, nine

(154)

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Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.         155

 

Grand Dukes, two Grand Duchesses, two Arch-Dukes, five Dukes, two

Duchesses, and last but not least one member of the Kit-Kat Club. It is

said a 'cat may look at a king;' certainly a Kit-Katter is no less privileged

and your writer begs to submit his report as your special correspondent

on the spot."

 

This introduction he followed with a glowing account.

"This comment," he tells us reveals that he "was then in this

susceptible period of youth-the threshold of seventeen-embryo

beau Brummel interval between the callow chrysalis and the full-

fledged male butterfly." In his diary, which he carefully kept,

he had written, "Here I notice the little boys are gentlemen, and

many of them -not near as tall as I-       wear stovepipe or plug

hats and carry little canes." Then follow his impressions of the

distinguished rulers and scions of royalty, all of whom he saw,

with scintillating comment on their later careers and the relega-

tion of many of them to humble uncrowned and untitled estate,

which he humorously describes as the "International Society of

Royal Hoboes." As a sample of the speaker's descriptive powers

we here quote his impressions of Napoleon Third and his beauti-

ful Empress, as he had seen them a little over half a century

before:

"Our introduction to the observed of all observers was happily

staged. It was a gala occasion as, floating in the ceaseless tide of sight-

seers on the Champs Elysees, one merry afternoon, soon after our arrival,

the bands suddenly ceased their brazen blare; the hum of the multitudin-

ous voices was hushed as there rang out the shrill notes of a silver-

tongued trumpet; a tumultuous rush to the street curb; a moment of

breathless silence; a squadron of mounted soldiery; six milk-white horses

in glittering harness, bestridden by red-coated, white breeched postillions;

a low open barouche, in the rear seat of which smiling and graciously

bowing, were the Third Napoleon and his beautiful Empress Eugenie;

they were attired in street custom, he in the conventional black frock

coat and tile silk hat, she in plain, walking dress, a small turban shaped

hat, which gave almost full view of her dark auburn hair, a ringlet of

which, obstrusively large it seemed to me, like a golden rope hung down

upon her shoulder; her features were surpassingly attractive, not only for

their physical beauty but for the sweet, charming expression indicative

of her disposition and gracious manner which so won the adoration of

her people and the immediate favor of all beholders. The Emperor, as

I noted him from this and many other opportunities of observation, was

short and stocky, rather Roman necked, large headed and heavy featured;

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156        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

his countenance betokened a sensual rather than an intellectual quality of

character; he had not inherited the Napoleon cast of face; he was Beau-

harnais, not Bonaparte; the forehead was broad, the nose prominent,

suggesting a certain German type; the eyes small, grayish-blue in color,

rather expressionless; as one biographer said, 'if they were windows of

his soul, their blinds were constantly drawn;' his hair was iron-gray;

his natural 'make-up' was given a distinguished air by the famous im-

perial goatee and the spreading, heavy, mustachios, each curled to a sharp

point and stiffly waxed. He bore an expression of extreme placidity, al-

most of sadness, an absent-minded look as if harboring some serious

thought that dominated his environment; pallid and apparently care-

worn, he was the living embodiment of Shakespeare's lines, 'All sicklied

o'er with the pale cast of thought.' Doubtless his prophetic soul uncon-

sciously glimpsed the gory aftermath, lurking just beyond the glory of

the present halcyon days."

 

One is tempted to quote at greater length but no quotation

can do justice to the address which deserves a wider circulation

than it has been accorded in the literary magazine from which

this extract is taken.

 

 

LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS.

Reference has been made in preceding pages to Mr. Ran-

dall's newspaper work. Following is a list of his writings, in-

cluding books and his more important contributions to periodicals

and other publications:

 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY.

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

Blennerhassett. 1888. v. 1, p. 127-163.

The Separatist Society of Zoar. An experiment in communism, from its

commencement to its conclusion. 1900. v. 8, p. 1-105.

Ohio in early history and during the Revolution. 1902. v. 10, p. 395-434.

The Dunmore War. 1903. v. 11, p. 167-197.

Clark's Conquest of the Northwest. 1903  v. 12, p. 67-94.

*Pontiac's Conspiracy. 1903. v. 12, p. 410-437.

Ohio Day at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 1905. v. 14, p. 101-120.

Tecumseh, the Shawnee Chief. 1906. v. 15, p. 419-499.

*This monograph was republished in Great Events by Famous His-

torians, volume 13, pages 267 to 288.

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