The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-16
TWO KINGS THAT WILLB Be
The Future Rulers Of AUSTRIA Hum
gary and Roumania and
Their Status.
Frederick Ferdinand Ie Very Far
From Being an Admirable
Young Man.
A Better Wife Than q Lady In Waiting
Demanded for Prince Ferdinand
= of Roumania.

It is believed by many who are most COM
petent to judge that the next great Euro
pean war will follow Immediately upon the
death OF the emperor of Austria. THAI
event may occur tomorrow or ton years
therefrom, but the personal devotion to the
house of Hapsburg which now keeps to.
eether the political mosaic known rs the
Austro-H Hungarian empire will collapse with
the deoease o. Francis Joseph. The pre-
sumptive heir to the throne is Prince Fran
dis Ferdinand, eldest son of the Archduke
Charles Louis, brother of the reigning en-
peror. The prince who takes the place left
vacant by the suicide of Rudolph is now in
his twenty-eighth year. He is described by
M. de Blowitz az a man who has no claims
whatever upon the loyalty or respect Of
those who may have the misfortune to be-
come his subjects.
He IL not known to have any friend of
either sex. He is almos. always seen alone.
He has the lorg wan face of the H%apsburRs.
shespish and without character; a leaden
eye, a thin and e1pressionless mouth, a slow
and timid gait. His physiognomy ia at
once timid. shy and malicious. He hunts,
he rides, he drives a four-in-hand, and that
is about all he does. He IL one of the most
ignorant princes of the day. He can
scarcely write even German; he writes
meager and worse than ordinary French;
he has never been able to speak a word of
English; and he is ignorant of all the
languages spoken on the soil of Austria.
At eighteen. when he was emancipated, and
when his professors babe him adieu, he
burned all his books, vowing that he
would never touch another book in his life,
and he has so far kept his word.
While il garrison at Linz one day, after
a hearty lunch. he galloped across the
fields, followed by a few officers who had
been his guests. On the way he met a
coffin carried by four peasants. He or
dered i. to be set down on the ground and
made his horse leap over it, indulging in
of the bereavsd family. The bishop OF
Linz was angry, n went to complain to
the emperor. The latter sent for his
nephew, struck him, fined him 1000 forms
for the benefit OF the outraged family and
the same sum for the church and banished
succession of such a man is calculated to
disrupt the Hapsburg dynasty and precipi-
tate a European war for the division of the
spoiis. VII
The political destinies of its king, the
gifts of the queen and the all too public
lOV6 experiences OF Eu6 U6lr 10 GQ6 throne
continue to excite an unhagging interest in
the little kingdom of Roumania. King
Charles, of whose abdioation there ia some
talk, wass born in 1887, and entered the
Prussian army at an early age. serving in
the First regiment Of guard dragons until
his twenty-seventh year, when he was
offered and accepted the throne Of the
new principally Of Roumania. Roumania
was declared q kingdom May %, 1881. and
Prince Charles became King Charles
I. of Roumania. Queen Elizabeth,
however. has warmly espoused the cause Of
the young people. and, if her advocacy
should triumph, an untitled lady may
yet become queen of Roumania. Carmen
Sylvia, the reiRning queen, was a German
princess of the famous house of Wied be-
fore she married King Charles. She il dis
.tinguished ap q poet, musician and philan-
thropist, and IL a woman who in ordinary
life would have won high reputation by the
exercise of intellectual and moral qualities
which require no royal title to make them
noteworthy. The crown prince Ferdinand.
around whom SO much interest has settled
of late, is the nephew of King Charles, and
il twenty-six years Of age. His alleged be-
trothal to Mile. Vacaresco, lady-in-waiting
to the queen of Roumania. renders his sue
cession difficult, if not impossible, az the
new kingdom is compelled to look for some
imperial or royal alliance to support the
new kingdom, and Mile. Vacaresco is merely
a Roumanian subject.