Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-06
Remtniscences Of King Leopold.

A correspondent of the New York
Tribune, writing of the death of the King
of Belgium, gays: 81
az am not going to write King Leo
pold's obituary, knowing that that will
have already appeared in the Tribune be-
fore the arrival of this letter, but it may
be permitted me to observe how old peo-
pie here seem to have been stirred up in
their recolleetions of Prince Leopold by
the Kings recent demise. They talk of
him as the lg, handsome, debonair
officer of SAKE CIObourg, the successful
rival of the Prince of Orange-whom the
lively Princess ChsTlotte compared to a
carrot, because he wore a red uniform,
with an immense green feather in his hat
of his marriage, the short, happy honey
moon, the premature death of his young
wife, the dark suspicious of foul play mot
against her husbandG the sudden death of
the midwife, the suicide of the ~aceoucheur,
and the open book found on his table,
with the marked and underscored pass
@ OH where's the Princess ?'-of the
communication of what had happened to
her most disreputable father, who struck
his forehead violently with both hands
and fell forward into the arms of the
Duke of York. but revived to busy him
self in arranging the p%ageantry of his
daughters funeral-and of much more, of
all the incidents of that strange, unhappy
time which seems half fabulous to us Of
the present generation, though its events
occurred only half a century ago"
George Augustus Sala, writing to the
London Telegraph about the same dis
tino uished dead man, indites the following
pIeasa.1 ut little paragraph:
of ~, 5 about this time that the then
landlord on the Belvidere Tavern, Penton-
Ill hoooT - notice that at about II
o'cIocI almost On cry forenoon during the
week, a gentIemsn, \ deep mourning and
on horseback would aN2o at the door Of
the tavern, leave his h0rS IN charge o.
his groom, enter the large Koo.H' car Ior a
pipe and a pint Of ale, and quieIly ENJOY
those Refreshments, for about the spA zee o.
one hour. The room would be at I'a'
early noun almost deserted. The one on
two tradesmen who would occasionally
drop in for 8 crust of hfead and cheese
and a peep at the Times would be hidden.
a good mornings i slightly foreign.
accent-by the stranger; but he never
entered into conversation he never read
the newspaper he KEEP hisself to hisself,'
the waiter said. But he was so punctual
and so regular in his attendance that the
people of the house came to look upon his
daily visit in his suit of sables; and a
special pipe was laid, a special dish of
tobacco prepared, and a special chair and
spittoon arranged every day for his use.
So things went on for many weeks till
one luckless morning, just after the de-
parture of the black horseman, a customer
of the house, believe he was a COM
mereial traveller who had Just returned
from a journey in the west of England,
and who had been enjoying his pipe and
pint in the society of the taeiturn stranger
called the landlord on one side. do
you know who. that chap ISL he asked.
Not a Bit answered the host. Why
bless your heart, man alive he's Prince
Leopold of SAKE Cobourg.' ? $ The
next forenoon when the sable horseman
arrived he found a roll of crimson baize
laid down from the pales before the tav-
ern to the doorway, which was lined by
American aloes in tubs. The staircase
was freshly carpeted; in the strangers
customary place was a table covered with
a crimson cloth, backed by a crimson
chair with gilt legs The landlady, her
daughter and the barmaid, were all in
holiday attire, and when the unknown
rang the bell, the landlord himself, in a
blue coat and brass buttons, and his hair
newly powdered, brought him the beer in
a silver tankard, and a wax candle at
which to light his pipe. The black horse
man said nothing, drank his ale and
smoked his tobacco, paid his reckoning,
made his way down stairs amid a pro
fusion of bows and c%urtsies, mounted his
horse, and-never came again. : : There
is something touching in the picture Of
the good-natured young German brooding
over his bereavement, yet consoiing him
self in the simple German fashion, over
his pipe and beer