The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-15
DE7YiRONEMENr Oh
KTNG on BAVARIA.

KING or BA VARIA.
A CABLE despatch from Munich gives MS the
important rumor that the Bavarian Council
is considering the dethronement of the King.
Exactly how the Council will accomplish this
VIC are unable to say, especially If his Majesty
should prove recalcitrant But there Is scarcely
any doubt that such an aot would be popular
and for the good of the country, for the King
is very much of q nuisance, on account of his
peculiar idiosynoracies, which render him
totally unfit to be the ruler of a nation. Louis
Otto Frederick William, the present King of
Bavaria, was born at Nymphenburg on the
25th of August, 1845, and he succeeded his
father, Maximilian Joseph II, in 1864. He
inherits, in an exaggerated degree, many Of
the peculiarities of disposition that made his
grandfather, the famous Louis Charles Au-
gustus, such remarkable figure In both of
these monarchs love of art developed into
monomania, and the old King devoted all his
energies and all his revenues to the acquisi-
ton of superior works, to the building of art
galleries, and to the promotion of artistic
culture among his people. The graceful
dancing of Lola Montez 80 fattered his
aesthetic tastes that she was able to win her
way to his affections, and for several years
her influence over the King was such that she
was practically the ruler of Bavaria. In
spite of his weakness in matters of art, this
monarch was a shrewd business man, and he
was on more than one occasion chosen as
arbitrator in matters of dispute between diff
ferent powers. .r-
The present King has none of the admins
trative talent of his grandfather, whilo he has
inherited from him an aesthetic culture that
has developed into disease. In other words,
Louis Otto Frederick William is crazy on the
subject of art, his monomania taking the
direction of passionate fondness for the
music of Richard Wagner. This is species of
perverted taste that can only find parallel
in the enthusiastic admiration which few
demented Englishmen express for the 'bar-
baric yawps" of Walt Whitman, Wagner's
emusic of the future" being likely to come
into general popularity about the same time
as Whitman's poetry, and not before. If the
King were to merely admire Wagner's noises,
and patronize them in a moderately royal
as one of those eccentricities
of taste that all highly cultivated men
are liable to suffer under to a greater or less
degree. His position, however, has relieved
him from the restraints of ordinary connois-
seurs, and has furnished him with means
and opportunities to crafty his tastes, until it
has become necessary to consider the ques-
tion of removing him as incapable of perform
ing the duties of his Office. The King has ex-
pended immense sums of money in the pro-
duction of Wagner's operas and in other
similar extravagances, to the material detri-
ment of the revenues of the country, and
the probabilities are that some new
| freak has convinced his counsellors
that he is no longer ft to retain even the
shadow of power. It is very doubtful whether
the King will make any very vigorous re-
sistance to the attempt to dethrone him,
especially if he is secured in his retirement
the means to crafty his musical and artistic
tastes. He has no wife or children, SO that
the usual family considerations do not come
into the question, and if the Council only
promises to appoint Wagner to the position OF
chief fiddler of his household, to beguile his
retirement, he may be induced to abdicate
without making any trouble about it or neces
stating forcible measures to procure his re-
| moval.