Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-15
ROYAL INFIRMITIES.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DECLINE OF
EUROPEAN REIGNING FAMILIES.

EUROPEAN RElGNIN6 FAMILIES.
Terrible Results Of PrinceIy Exclusive
ness In Marriages-Curse of the House
of witteIsbach-EpiIeptic HaPsburGs
and Crazy HohenzoIIerns-
The grand old house of Wittel,hach is the
most ancient and the most noble in EuruIe.
Ii prides itself on the purity Of Its ancestry
from any plcheian taint, and considers even
the HaISburgs aS b.ing more or Ies- UPSTAIRS.
Insanity is the CurN" of thI, house. King
Ludwig's shocking and mysterious death IS
still fresh in eyeryboIys mind, and his sue
ceSsor, King Otto, is II raving maniac, who
may he seen occasionally rushing about stark
naked in the gardens of the chateau Of
Nymphenhurg, seeking to escape from his at
tendants. \ few years ago he did manage to
get away, entered the cathedral at Munich
during high mass, and, proStrating himself
before the altar, began public confession Of
the most horrible and yet purely imaginary
crimes. Another member of the same FAM
lily, Princess Alexandra, who died "A short
time ago, would not allow a single sofa in her
palace asserting that she had one in her head
to the strange freaks of the present kings
father; of his granduncIe, ex King Othn, Of
Greece, and of his grandfather the protector
of Lola Montez.
AFFLICTION OF THE HAPSBURGS.
The two next heirs to the throne are mar
ried to Austrian arrhduchesses who are scarce
ly likely To improve the strain; for epilepsy
has long been the bane of the imperial house
T
generaliSsimo Of the army, who is the kind,st
and most benevolent of men, is terrible vic
tic thereto. Hi, fit, have been worse and more
frequent .iIrc tn uw.ul death of his fayOrite
daug hter some years ago. The latter was en-
joying the forbidden luxury Of a cigarette,
when she suddenly heard her fathers footsteps
approaching. While attempting to hide the
cigarette behind her she set fire with it to her
muslin dress, and was So shOckingly burned
that she had To be transported from Schon-
brunn 10 Vienna swathed in cotton wool and
lying in a kind Of oil bath. The empcrors
brother, Louis Victor, and his cousin Johann,
are likewise afflicted with this most horrible
malady, while his father, Archduke Francis
Charles, and his immediate predecessor, En-
peror Ferdinand, were also victims thereto
In the case of the latter, who abdicated in
1910, tlistsiSe tph u lsNuAAElN 0btFlblt
form, reducing the unfortunate monarch to
the verge of idiocv, and rendering the life of
his wife one long martyrlom.
Insanity has also made it, appearance in
the house of HOhcnzollcrn The late king Of
Prussia died mad, and Prince Alexander.
without being Il complete Iunatic, is some
what daft or, to Use French simile, ''Sev-
eral spiders have spun cUbwebs in his brain.
Thanks to the unremittng and devoted care
of the late Gen. de RoSsder, the prince, who is
now gray headed. has been rendered more or
less presentable, and has been cured Of his
inveterate habit Of proposing to elOpe with
every pretty girl or married woman he met,
several ladies being sometimes favored with
these royal offers in the space Of single after
noon. Appointed an honorary general, he
has never pariOned the emperor for refusing
TO intrust him with a command in 1870 Hi,
brother, Prince George, who claims to lie a
dramatist rendered himself conspicuous some
time ago by his ridiculous and Singuarly in
appropriate attentions to the ex-empress of
the French during her stay at Carlsbad
ENGLISH ROYALTY AND RELATIVES.
Epilepsy, which may be tru v termed
royal malady, has made but rare appearances
in Queen Victoria's family. Her father, the
kindly Duke of Kent, was afflicted herewith,
but none of her children, with the exception
of the late Leopold, Duke of Albany, appears
TO have inherited it. This young man, it will
be remembered, expired during terrible fit
at Cannes. Nine months before his death,
while in the act of cutting Il newspaper with
a pair of scissors, he was suddenly seiztd
with an attack, and inflicted terrible wounds
on himself before the scissors could be torn
from his hands.
The king of Wurtemberg, notorious through
out Germany for his gIuttony and stupidity,
is a victim TO spinal disease. He has no chill
dren. The royal house n Sweden has suffered
severely by its alliance with the Wittselbach
and Nassau families. 1t appears that Prince
Oscar teeth, especially the wisdom teeth, in
stead of growing right up or straight down,
shoot out in a horizontal direction, forcing
the points into the flesh of the cheeks, an in
trinity which DR.. Evans, the famous Ameri-
can dentist, is now trying to relieve His
brothers and sisters all have very poor consti-
tutions in consequence of which their eyes,
ears, threats and noses are affected The
only son Of the king of Holland died a short
time ago of spinal disease, complicated with
other maladieS. Deafness seems to he a very
prevalent complaint among royalties and
perhaps this may explain how it is that SO
many petitions remain unanswered New
York World.