Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-06-17
A CRAZY KING.
Some OF tho Antics OF King Ludwig,
OF Bavaria

London dispatch: The attempt to throw q
veil OF romance over The crazy antics of King
Ludwig of Bavaria, is regarded as amusing by
those who have known of his mad brutalities
| for the past ten years. He was no devoted
| student of art with his mind fully overthrown
by the excess Of his devotion. He was simply
man of commonplace mind, whose god was
| himself. 1t was merely the case of a man
| who, in addition to his absolute egotlsm, had
wealth and power enough to carry out every
selfish fancy Of his mind. The papers are full
of stories of his rascally exploits, but the pa
pers are all under pressure Of the monarchies
in which they are published, and the hldeous
and selfish character of the incident is CLOSED
One story that has never been in print is as
follows:
The king sent for new soprano, who had
| made wonderful success at Munich, to en-
terrain him with her singing at his castle at
Hothenswangen. When the singer arrived,
the King told her he wanted to hear her sing
ing on the water at midnight. They proc ed
ed to a shallow lake in the castle grounds,
and King Ludwig produced gaudy pleasure
boat, with model somewhat between a canoe
and gondola. He seated the singer In the
bow Of the boat, and placed himself on lux
urious pile of cushions In the stern. The lit
tie craft was propelled by one oar, which was
skillfully welded by the king There he kept
the poor artist singing fully three hours.
At last she begged to be allowed to stop,
saying she had already contracted . severe
cold and was unable to control her voice.
The king sternly ordered her to proceed,
but she could not. Then the king said he
was going home, and he supposed she
knew the way ashore. He stepped over the
side Of the boat into the water which was not
more than three feet deep, and calmly waded
ashore and walked up to his castle. The ar
tiste remained tn the boat, filled with despair
For the first hour she thought the king would
surely send some one to her rescue, but no
one came, and after two hours of waiting, she
too waded to shore. She went to the castle,
but nobody there knew anything about her
and she was turned away as an imposter
She started to walk to Munich, notwitista
ing her clothes were soaked with water and
bedraggled with mud. Fortunately she soon
met hackney coach, which took her to her
apartments. She Immediately summoned a
doctor, but fatal mischief had been done
and she died within week of pneumonia.
The king sent an extravaganza sum to pay for
her funeral. All these facts were known to
the theatrical and society people at the time,
but the awe of the king caused the story to be
suppressed beyond those circles.
Another series Of his madcap brutalities
was the riding at midnight over the snow and
mountains in luxurious sleigh drawn by
four Of the finest horses in Europe. He was
snugly ensconced in a multitude of furs,
and the sleigh was brilliantly lighted by
electricity. He always commanded his
driver to drive at break-necS speed, and he
took no notice Of the sufferlngs of the cavalry
guard, which was always in attendance in
their efforts to keep up, although their horses
were no match for those Of the king and poor
unfortunate guards wore shabby contrast to
the kings furs. Most every night some horse
was foundered, or some guardsman killed, but
the king cared nothing for all this, so long as
his craving for selfish enjoyment was gratified. |
In the same way every act of the king de-
scribed in the papers here, although spoken OF |
as royal pranks, kiugly eccentricities, will be
found to be caused by his majesty's unbound |
ed selfishness bristlipg with acts OF brutality.