OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (QUEENSBERRY REEVES.) 



535 



relative and friend of Bismarck his own rise was 

 extremely rapid. He was a strong Conservative, 

 and a prominent member of the party in the Ger- 

 man Reichstag, to which he was first elected in 

 1874. He was president of the provincial gov- 

 ernment of Silesia when in July, 1879, he was 

 called to succeed Dr. Falk as Minister of Educa- 

 tion and Worship, and carry out the details of 

 the compact which Prince Bismarck had made 

 with the Clericals in order to gain their support 

 for his economical and h'nancial schemes. His 

 measure enabling vacant sees and pastorates to 

 be filled did not go far enough to satisfy the 



lericals, but too far to please the Liberals. 

 When Count Botho Eulenburg resigned from the 

 "Linistry of the Interior on Feb. 27, 1881, Herr 

 yon Puttkamer succeeded to that post, and from 

 the beginning he was the target for shafts from 

 the whole Left, which looked upon him as the 

 jringer of reaction and the instrument for carry- 



]g out official coercion in elections. When he 

 Droceeded with energy, not only to apply the 

 socialist law against the Socialists and for the 

 irevention of public meetings in Berlin, but to 

 trill the provincial officials into active advocates 

 the policy of the Government in the spirit of 

 in edict issued by Wilhelm I and in accordance 

 with the views and intentions of the Imperial 



hancellor, the Radical leaders constantly as- 



liled him in the severest terms, and he replied 

 >'ith an invective as keen, which rankled the 

 more because it was delivered in an imperturb- 

 ible, contemptuous tone. He frankly avowed the 

 xbuses which they charged, intimating that he' 

 nxs carrying out the King's wishes. The Putt- 

 camer crisis came after Friedrich succeeded to 

 the throne on March 9, 1888. Eugen Richter, on 

 lay 2(>, delivered a speech exposing the methods 

 if influencing elections to the Reichstag that the 

 linister of the Interior had introduced. The 

 linister at once presented to the new Emperor 



memorial defending his conduct. The Emperor 

 expressed strong displeasure at what had taken 

 ilace to bring about the election of Conservative 

 candidates, and Puttkamer immediately resigned, 

 ind the resignation was accepted, whether with 

 the acquiescence of Bismarck, who had been the 

 sponsor, if not the author, of the Puttkamer sys- 

 tem, or against his advice, it is not certainly 

 known. Wilhelm II, who came to the throne on 

 June 15, 1888, was expected to recall the disgraced 

 minister, but he contented himself with appoint- 

 ing him chief president of the province of Pome- 

 rania. 



Queensberry, Marquis of, a British sportsman, 

 born in 1844; died in London, Jan. 31, 1900. He 

 was the son of the seventh marquis, and suc- 

 ceeded his father at the age of fourteen. His con- 

 tentions with his successive wives and other rela- 

 tives, his positive and combative declarations in 

 favor of agnosticism and free thought, and other 

 mnifestations of a vigorous mind and militant 

 spirit gave him a reputation for eccentricity. He 

 erved in the navy in early life, but afterward did 

 Tone of the things regarded as commendable in a 

 lobleman. After sitting in the House of Lords 

 is a Scottish representative peer from 1872 till 

 1880 he was not re-elected, but his son, Lord Kel- 

 tiead, who died in 1894, was created a peer of the 

 "Inited Kingdom. Lord Queensberry was known 

 imong sporting men as the author of the rules 

 }f the prize ring that bear his name, and as one 



the highest authorities on boxing. 



Ratisbonne, Louis Fortune Gustave, a 



French man of letters, born in Strasburg, Julv 29, 



1827; died in Paris, Sept. 24, 1900. He "con- 



ributed hundreds of literary and other articles 



to the Debats, but his fame rests upon his poems 

 for children, his work partaking somewhat of the 

 character of both Lewis Carroll's and Robert 

 Louis Stevenson's in the latter's Child's Garden 

 of Verses. As a writer of verse for children he 

 was excelled by no French author of his time. 

 He published three collections of prose essays 

 Impressions Litteraires (1855); Morts et Vi- 

 vants: Nouvelles Impressions Litteraires (1860); 

 Auteurs et Livres (1868) ; a translation of Dante's 

 Divina Commedia (186i)); Hero et Leandre, a 

 drama (1859) ; and the following books of verse: 

 Au Printemps de la Vie (1857); La Comedie En- 

 fantine (1860); Dernieres Scenes de la Comedie 

 Enfantine (1862); Les Figures Jeunes (1866); 

 Les Petits Homines (1868); Les Petites Femmes 

 (1871); Les Grandes Ombres (1900). Ratisbonne 

 was appointed librarian at Fontainebleau in suc- 

 cession to Octave Feuillet, and was transferred 

 later to the Palais du Luxembourg. 



Reeves, Sims (John Sims Reeves), an English 

 singer, born at Shooter's Hill, Kent, England, 

 Oct. 21, 1822; died in Worthing, Sussex, Oct. 25, 

 1900. He came first before the public as a singer 

 when eight years of age in local concerts. His 

 first studies of music were made under his father, 

 who was a church organist. The vicar of the 

 parish taught him French and Italian, and at 

 the age of fourteen he became organist and choir- 

 master of the church at North Cray, Kent. His 

 first appearance on the stage was at Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne in December, 1839, as the gypsy boy in 

 Guy Mannering, and his success secured for him 

 a continuous engagement. After a few months 

 of work in the provinces, during which he was 

 known by the stage name of Johnson, in 1841 

 he secured an engagement as second tenor at 

 Drury Lane Theater, then under the management 

 of William C. Macready. He first came into note 

 on account of his singing of the song Come if 

 You Dare in the opera of King Arthur. After 

 two seasons at Drury Lane, Reeves went to Paris 

 and studied for some months under Signor Bor- 

 dogni, then to Milan, where he was under the 

 tutelage of Mazzucato. He was invited to sing 

 at La Scala, and made his debut there as Edgardo 

 in Lucia di Lammermoor in 1845. After a season 

 of success in this and other Italian theaters he 

 returned to England, and in December, 1847, made 

 a triumphant debut in English opera at Drury 

 Lane in his favorite Edgardo. Hector Berlioz, 

 who was the orchestral conductor of the theater, 

 wrote of him : " He has a charming voice of an 

 essentially distinguished and sympathetic char- 

 acter; he is a very good musician, and his face 

 is very attractive." Early in 1848 Reeves made 

 his first appearance in oratorio as Judas Macca- 

 baeus, under the direction of John Hullah at 

 Exeter Hall, London. He next joined the com- 

 pany at Her Majesty's Theater, where he made 

 a great success as Carlo in Linda di Chamouni. 

 In the autumn of the same year -he was the prin- 

 cipal singer of the Worcester and Norwich mu- 

 sical festivals. .Still later in 1848 he achieved great 

 success as Elvino in La Sonnambula in Italian 

 at Covent Garden, and thenceforward he was 

 acknowledged the greatest of English tenors. He 

 sang frequently in Paris at the Theatre des 

 Italiens, and was almost as much a favorite there 

 as in London. One of his best stage performances 

 was in Macfarren's opera Robin Hood, first pro- 

 duced in London in I860. From that year he de- 

 v.oted himself principally to oratorio and concert 

 singing. He was always the most notable figure 

 at the Handel festivals in the Crystal Palace. In 

 the winter of 1878-79 he sang in The Beggar's 

 Opera and The Waterman at Covent Garden 



