Ungracious

They made money out of her and they laughed at her. She was a Queen--hard up, probably--trying to make a little money on the side by soiling her dainty fingers with ink, writing in a language she did not know to satisfy the curiosity of distant crowds. They were hard-boiled journalists who never soiled their stubby fingers with ink because the office boy changed their typewriter ribbons when necessary.

She wrote a series of articles for the U. S. press, contracted for in advance, to be run under the title A Queen Looks at Life. With a kindly thought, she sent off her articles across the ocean with a covering message of goodwill.

They, the editors, seized upon this letter, discovered that the queenly fingers, adventuring in the orthography of a foreign tongue, had slipped once or twice in spelling. So, to drum up interest in the articles they were about to publish, to make a better profit from the poor Queen's efforts to earn a little money, they published her letter pointing out mistakes--sic:

"I have already often expressed my great liking and admiration for America and its people. . . . I simpathise (sic) with their sincerity. . . . The Old and New Wrd (World) can learn much from each other mutually. . ; . Exchange of thought is a great richness we can develope (sic) on both sides. . . ."

(Signed) "MARIE"

Poor Marie of Rumania, the greatest mother-in-law in Europe.