Washington sentinel., 1855-02-08


The FUeside Journal (Mass.) has made
grand discovery--nothing less than second
Bourbon case-in which the lately deceased
keeper Of Long Island Light plays the principal
part, and is asserted to have been the son Of
Gustavus III, King of Sweden. We give the
substantial facts of the statement Of the Fire.
side
"The story, as we get il, and we have no
doubt Of its substantial truth, is this: The late
Captain Joseph Beck, so long known by our
maritime folks as keeper Of the Long Island
Light in our harbor, on his death. bed, last sum-
mer, disclosed to his family that he was son
of Gustavus III, King of Sweden, and q
younger brother of that remarkable knight
errant of a king, the late Gustavus Nv. An
unknown person, who had been seen at various
times to regard him with great interest, and
who was present at the time of his death, left
in the next European steamer for Sweden.
Within short time, the only daughter Of Capt
Beck, very intelligent and accomplished lady,
now the wife Of Abel L. Hayden, one of the
pilots in our harbor has been sent for from
high quarter in that country, and supplied with
funds for the voyage, to be restored to the pos
session of property and titles belonging to her
father, which were conGscated at the time when
his brother, Gustavus VI, was dethroned Mr.
Hayden and his wife, it is said, will take their
departure for Sweden in a few days.
The life and character of Captain Beck give
strong tinge Of dramatic propriety, if not
probability to this curious rumor. He was
stout, hale, athletic man, who always lived as
be6tted an exiled king, but maintained re-
serve as to his personal history which amounted
to mystery. All anybody knew of his origin
was, that he served on board the old frigate
Constitution, under Commodore Bainbridge, in
the early part of the war of 1912, and was
sometimes strangely honored by the Commo-
dore, by being taken on shore with him in his
gig, while his officers we're left standing on
deck; that he afterwards sailed as master in
brig named the Gustavus Adolphus to st. Bar
tholomew, and that for more than thirty years,
he was keeper of the Long Island Light, seldom
leaving his post, where at last he died, at an
age supposed to have been about seventy. y
1t is proper to remark, that in all the chroni-
cles.of Sweden we have been able to consult
Gustavus w. is mentioned as the only son of
Gustavus H., at the time when the latter per-
ished so tragically in a ball room, by the dag
ger Of Ankerstrom. He was born in l778, the
first fruit of a marriage which took place
twelve years earlier. 1t is, however, recorded
that on the 25th Of August, 1882, the Qneen
gave birth to prince who was named Charles
Gustavus, and declared Duke of Smolande;
and that he died on the 25th of March, 1888.
A person moderately given to suspicion may
easily see that the royal parents in the days
when perils began to thicken around their an.
cient line, with presentiment Of what was to
happeu in 1892 and 1909, transplanted the
tender offspring into another nursery and in
troduced into the royal one some dead plebian
baby to mystify the chroniclers. If such a
thing was done, perhaps amidst the troubles
which afterwards befel legitimacy, this dis
guised scion of it was sent to the United States,
to be kept safe against he was needed, just
as some worldly foresighted people, while they
make the most of the present, lay up treasure
in heaven by building church, and this ac.
counts for all we have said in regard to Cap
tain Beck. This is all the chance we can dis
cover for engrafting our fine old Lighthouse
keeper upon the royal tree of Sweden, and it is
not very considerable to be sure"