The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-01-27 00:00:00

DEATH OF PRINCE CHARLES OF
PRUSSIA.

The death is announced from Berlin of Prince
Charles of Prussia, brother of the Emperor William.
He was born in 1801, and was the father of the famous
"Red Prince," who took so distinguished a part in
the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. In consequence of
this event the festivities in connection with the Silver
Wedding of the Crown Prince and Princess have been
abandoned. Writing on Sunday night the Berlin
correspondent of the Standard says :
Prince Frederick Charles Alexander, commonly
called Prince Charles of Prussia, last surviving brother
of the German Emperor, and grandfather of the
Duchess of Connaught, died at his Palace in Berlin at
eight minutes before two o'clock this afternoon. At
the time of his decease the Emperor, the Empress, and
Prince Leopold, brother of the Duchess of Connaught,
were present at the bedside. Thither the Court Chap-
lain, Dr. Lige!, had also hurried to administer the
Holy Sacrament to the deceased, who, however, was
too weak to receive it, and death took place while those
present offered their silent prayers.
Of the four sons of King Frederick William the
Third, Prince Charles was the third. He was born
on the 29th of June, 1801, in the Castle of Charlotten-
burg, a suburb of Berlin, and was, therefore in his
eighty-second year. Two of his brothers had pre-
deceased him—his eldest brother, King Frederick
William the Fourth of Prussia having died in 1859,
and Prince Albert of Prussia, the youngest of the
four, in 1872. The Emperor William is senior to the
deceased by two years.
Prince Charles's only son is Prince Frederick
Charles, popularly known as the "Red Prince" of
the Austro-Prussian and Franco-German wars, and
well known in England as the father of the Duchess
of Connaught. At the present time Prince Frederick
Charles is travelling in the East, whither he started a
few weeks ago, accompanied by half-a-dozen German
noblemen and officers, partly for the benefit of his
health and partly in order to visit the battlefields of
the late Egyptian campaign, in which his son-in-
law, the Duke of Connaught, had taken an active
part.

On the 3rd of June last Prince Charles, already close
upon eighty-two years of age, met with an accident
which could hardly have failed to carry off any one of
less robust constitution. While travelling from
Berlin to a Rhenish watering place for the benefit of
his health, the Prince missed his footing on a rail-
way staircase, and, falling, sustained a compound
fracture of the thigh. This necessitated his keeping
his bed for many weeks, but at length he ap-
peared to have almost entirely recovered from the
effects of the accident. The severe shock to his system
and the long confinement had naturally made him
more accessible to the assaults of iisease, yet his final
illness came on quite unexpectedly. On Tuesday last,
while taking an airing in a bath chair in the gardens
behind the Palace, the Prince caught cold, and in a
very short time this developed into inflammation of
the lungs. So rapidly did the patient grow worse, that
even by last night all hopes of his recovery had been
given up.

This Morning, at eleven:o'clock, shortly before the
beginning of the death agony, the Emperor and
Crown Prince visited Prince Charles. The patient
was already so weak that he was unable to recognise
his Imperial brother or nephew. The Emperor called
for the second time at half-past one, bringing with him
the Empress. They arrived only just in time to wit-
ness the closing scene.
Shortly after the Pi ince breathed his last all the
Princely guests invited to the Crown Prince's Silver
Wedding were informed by telegraph that owing to
the sad event the intended festivities would have to be
abandoned. Prince Frederick Charles, who is pro-
bably near the Cataracts of the Nile, has probably not
yet been able to learn of his father's death.
All the flags at the Royal Palaces have been lowered
to half-mast high since two o'clock, and numerous
visits of condolence were paid this afternoon to the
Emperor, who has also received many sympathetic
telegrams from abroad.

The Times remarks (in a leader) that the German
Court, like our own, cultivates the domestic senti-
ments and sympathies that make the whole world
kin. There is nothing peculiar to princes in the
calamity that has overtaken it just when all were pre-
paring for a festival. The humblest among us can
appreciate the sudden revulsion from mirth to sad-
ness, from the joyous celebration of a silver wedding
to the sombre ceremonial of death. The Crown Prince
and Princess occupyan exalted position which calls the
attention of Europe to their joys and sorrows; but
essentially they are exactly the same joys and sorrows
that come to every one of us. On their silver wedding
day they are simply a married couple looking back
over a quarter of a century with such thoughts as their
own lives and conduct are fitted to inspire. For them
the happiness of the heart and the hearth springs
from exactly the same elements that enter into the
fates of every other pair who take one another for
better or for worse. It ia sometimes said that all men
are equal in death; but it would be more to the puri,,Fe
to remember that all are equal in the central relaLions
of life. The same passim, that embitter life in a cottage
will destroy its sweetness in a palace; and if the heirs
to the throne of Germany find that five-and-twenty
years have only brought them closer together, we may
be sure it is because they have exercised virtues within
the reach of the humblest men and women who ever
tried the great experiment of two against the world.
Though there is no opportunity for repeating the de-
monstrations of five-and-twenty years ago, the Princess
Royal may be assured that the old affection is un-
changed, and that her welfare and happiness remain
dear to her native land,