The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-11-28
Aneed0tes Of the Late King.

Of Victor Emmanuel, as of all popular
Kings, a great many anecdotes are told.
People take an interest in every, even
the slightest, popularity of such sOver-
eigns, and the late King of Italy had
great many peculiarities. He never ate
in public, for instance. He sat out all
State dinners at which he was obliged to
be present, with his hands resting on the
hilt of his sword, without tasting any
thing, except perhaps some tritie at des-
sert. His long and superabundant mus
taChes were the cause of this public
abstemiOusness. He made up for it,
however, in private, when he could bind
up his ObstruCtives on each side of his
face without becoming public laughing
stock. He was no gourmet, and his con-
tempt for the art of cookery was q con-
slant thorn in the side of the court cOTCens
bleUS, which, for them, deprived life of
One-half of its attractions. Nothing
more depresses an artist than not to be
appreciated at the value he sets upon
himself Victor EmmanuePs meals con-
sisted of meat dishes, and of those he
preferred game shot by himself, contrary
to the proverb which says that Ie chasse1r
ne mango point de son gibier. Fruit and
the PalazzO Pitt, in Florence, he allowed
the State apartment to remain empty,
and installed himself in q couple Of
rooms on the ground floor. He did the
same at Rome in the Quirinal, where the
whole palace was at the entire disposal
Of inquisitiYe strangers. In spite Of his
well-knOwn physical bravery, he had a
superstitiOus dread of the Quirinal, the
former dwelling of the POpes. The first
night after his government was transterr-
ed to Rome he dared not sleep in the pal
ace, but went to pass the night incognitO
with friend in the country. He smoked
halfpenny cigars, those cigars which the
French bOUleUdTdier calls SOntGdOS or iYltec-
tddOs, and which the Italians pretend
poison the air of their country. They
have been named after his greatest Min
lister, CavOur. He was frequently seen
in the streets of Turin, Milan, Genoa,
Florence and Rome. As it was under
stood that he was out ineOgnitO no one
seemed to recognize him, though every
child knew him quite well. Like Har-
rOun Al Raschid, he went by night and
alone into the poorest and most distant
quarters of Turin. There he heard with
his own ears the opinions of his subjects,
and admired unhindered the beauty Of
even his most lowly country-women.
We cannot close these "reminiscences
without giving the story of the English
correspondent who some years ago went
prowling around the Palazzo Pitt anx-
iOus to get into the Kings apartments
and write a description of them. At last
he went up to a gentleman who was
leaning against q side door smoking, and
asked him how he might be able to get
a sight at the Kings rooms. "Come in, +"
said the gentleman, who showed and ex-
planned everything to him He then in
vited him to sit down, offered him a cigar,
and on his departure shook hands
warmly with him. 1t was only some
time after he had left the palace that it
dawned upon the correspondent that the
King himself had been his cicerOne and
entertainer.