Sunday, March 1, 2020

The St. Louis Republic on Alexandra befriending Julia Dent Grant, dated August 24, 1902

Source:

The St. Louis Republic, published in St. Louis, Missouri on August 24, 1902

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020274/1902-08-24/ed-1/seq-45/#date1=1894&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=8&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=4


The article:

TWO FIRM FRIENDS IN FAR-OFF RUSSIA

The Czarina Likes Julia Dent Grant's Loyalty and Cheerful Temperament.

WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.
They say that the Czarina is sad.

And that an American girl is driving away her blues.

Julia Dent Grant, Princess of Cantacuzene, loves Russia and though she is an American girl, the daughter of a General, she remains in Russia because of her friendship to and loyatly [sic] to her adopted ruler.

Julia Dent Grant married Prince Michael Cantacuzene three years ago at Newport. The wedding took place at Beaulieu, the Newport villa of her aunt, Mrs. Potter Palmer.

The couple were three days getting married and the fame of the event stirred up all the big round world.

The Czar, under whom all the Princes of Cantacuzene for all time had served, sent his benedictions; the Pope was not opposed to the match; Italian society, for the Prince belonged to the Roman Embassy, was represented by several members; London and Paris sent its representatives; Victoria Regina ordered a wedding gift transported to America and the Prince of Wales had a bouquet delivered at the residence of the bride on the day of the wedding.

Thus with so many happy auspics [sic] the couple were married and three days later they set sail for Russia with no worse mishap than that the groom was desperately seasick from having been tossed about two nights and two days on Mrs. Palmer's yacht on the way from Newport to New York. The bride, who is a famous sailor, appeared on deck alone to receive good wishes of great joy.

The trip to Russia ended in the palace of the Czar; and there the couple were received with much joy. The Czar admired the girl at once and the Czarina linked arms with her and took her off to the conservatory for a good gossip over a cup of English tea.

The mother of the Czarina was the Princess Alice of England and to find a girl who could speak English was a joy.

The Czarina liked the Princess for her English dress.

She liked her for her English ways.

She liked her because they could handle the afternoon teacups together.

She liked her because they had the same ideas upon matrimony and believed in marrying for love.

She liked her because they believed in bringing up their own children.

She liked her because she found the American girl simple and unaffected and, like herself, fond of reading and poetry, of music and the fine arts.

In Russia the women love horses and they love smoking; they love ice baths and they love hunting. They are good, sweet, noble women, but they are not so gentle as the Americans, and so, the English Princess set down in a land of cold and horses found something very fascinating in the American girl whose greatest diversion was that she could yacht.

She liked to hear the American Princess talk about household matters; she liked to hear her chat upon the topics of the day: she enjoyed hearing her call her husband "Michael" and it was a treat to see the pair so fond of each other in public.

In Russia married couples are not openly demonstrative and the life of the home is kept quite separate. In America, as in England, a married couple carry home everywhere with them and a man may take his wife in to dinner, if he gets a chance, without violating social etiquette.

The Princess Cantaczene [sic] did not smoke cigarettes and she did love flowers; she loved fine gowns and she loved pets. She enjoyed gentle walks and she loved to get away from the palace and, with the Czarina, walk through the winter gardens and talk botany and babies.

The Czarina with her four little girls visited the nursery of the Cantacuzene home and the two little mothers chatted over the virtues of flannel and fur.

The Czarina, while a little older than the Princess, is by no means more mature. The life which Julia Dent Grant led was more public that [sic] that of Alix of Hesse, and, while the latter was growing up in the secluded little German Province, Mrs. Grant was being presented at court, spending her winters in Rome, sailing up the Nile, going to and from Constantinople, and, when at home, she was dividing her time between Newport, where her aunt's splendid villa lay, and Chicago, where the finest residence in the world awaited her.

In New York she went much in society and knew the army and navy as well as she knew the butterfly circles.

The Czarina is gentle and sweet and so is the Princess.

The Czarina admires Russian women immensely, though she cannot always imitate their splendid dash and enjoy their magnificent health — and so does the Princess.

And in more ways than these were the two in great sympathy.

The Princess visits every year in France for a month with her aunt, Mrs. Potter Palmer, and the two go to Paris, there to shop and enjoy a reunion. Mrs. Palmer loves her niece very dearly, and as for the Princess, she feels toward Mrs. Palmer as she feels toward no other person on earth.

But the Princess, after her visit to Paris, loves to get home again; and there, with the Czarina, the baby and the Prince, she lives her life and finds the lot of an American girl in Russia a very happy one.

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