Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-09-10
AN ECCENTRIC KING.
The Idiosyncrasiss Of Busy Little Bavariss
Sovereign.

Sovereign
The career of Louis the Second, the
present King of BavariaS affords al
singular and sorrowful example OF the
evils of unbridled and long-continued
self-indulgence. At the age OF forty
in the early prime Of middle-age. this
Prince has become such q moral and
mental wreck that it has been seriously
proposed to depose him from his throne
and consign him to some safe retreat.
Louis came to the Bavarian throne
twenty-five years ago. on the death OF
his father, King Macmillan. He was
then very tall, graceful and strikingly
handsome youth of eighteen. When he
appeared, on state occasions, in the
snowy Bavarian military uniform, he
called forth the admiration of all who
saw HIS erect, slim figure, his rich curly
hair, his large. bright brown eyes and
the right kingly carriage with which he
bore himself. The Bavarians were
enthusiastically fond and proud of their
young monarch. He seemed the very
ideal of youthful majesty and grace.
They were glad, too, that his tastes
were like those of his people. Above
all, like them, did he passionately love
music, and was an ardent patron of
the arts.
1t was not long. however, before
Louis began to betray odd and eccen-
trio ways. He took no interest in the
serious affairs of his busy little king
dom. He neglected his royal duties.
He avoided those public ceremonies of
which, in such a country, the sovereign
is always the central figure. The first
of Louis eccentricities which became
painfully apparent to his subjects was
the development of his love of music
into an abnormal and unnatural pas
sion. He took the great composer,
Richard Wagner. as his most intimate
friend, companion. adviser. He re-
iected the counsels of his Ministers if
they confiicted with those of Wagner,
and he loaded the musician with favors
and honors. He built opera houses
and hired musicians and got Wagner
and other composers to write music
He spent his money on these things
with lavish recklessness. He had per-
formances given in his theaters to
which he listened as the sole auditor.
He would sit alone in the great audi
torium and hear the harmony produced
by a hundred performers.
Among other strange things Louis
once caused an artificial waterfall to
be built at the end of one of his cham
bers. Over this waterfall an artificial
moon was made to rise, cross the mock
armament and set behind the rocks.
When night came band was stationed
in neighboring alcove; the water
would be let ON and 60 splashing down
over the rocks, the moon would rise
and sparkle upon the cascade; while
Louis, stretched on a lounge at the
further end of the room, would listen
with ecstasy to the mingled sounds OF
the music and the waterfall. After .
time, the eccentric Kings passion dice
away, to give place to an equally in
tense and extravagant passion fol
architecture. Without regard to ex
pense, he had all sorts of fantastic
buildings, with all sorts of queer decor
atoms, erected, and would live in them
for months together, entirely secluded
from the world.
He was several times engaged to b.
married to princesses of royal rank
but his strange pranks and his gro
tesque manners in each instance soor
drove his betrothed to sever the bond
So he has never married.
At last Louis has degenerated into 8
self-indulgent glutton, caring little 70
any thing but eating and sleeping. HI
has become bankrupt, having spent al
the money he could by any means
scrape together; and with the rest, hi
intelligence has waned until now he is
perhaps, fit for no other abode than al
insane asylum. Such is the end of
Supremacy selfish, self-indulgent career
ending in the gloom of intellectual
night. Had Louis striven to be goo'
ruler, to fill well the place to which hi
destiny assigned him, he might easil.
have retained the love of his subjects
which, in his early youth, he inspired
But he chose the path of selfishness
and his life is only useful as havin
pointed a moral and a warning
YOUTHS Companion
ClIRIOlIS COINCIDENCE