Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-18
THE CARS DOUBLE.
Haunted to the Madhouse by the
Shadow of Nihilists.
A STRANGE STORY FROM ABROAD.
Wealthy Copenhagen Banker Who Re-
sembles Russias Ruler
NOW REALLY BELIEVES. HE'S A KING

NOW REALLY BELIEVES HE'S A KING
Advices from Copenhagen of the latest
mail record the tragic ending of a comedy
that has furnished amusement for the
Danish capital and its fun-loving people
these last 10 years or more. M. Carlsen,
the wealthy retired banker, who never
went by his own name but always by thst
of 'the Cars double, has ended his
erratic career in the madhouse, an incurable
lunatic, the victim of baleful resemblance
to the Russian Emperor that wrecked his
life.
No more remarkable story than this of
Carlsen has been told for many day. He
was wealthy RENTER, a retired banker, who
lived by his means and enjoyed life in the
rational manner of his gay townsmen until
the Gar and his imperial household began
to come to Copenhagen to spend the summer
months at the Danish Court, at Bernstorf
or Fredensborg.
1t was then that the strange likeness of
Carlsen to the Russian aatocrat was noticed
and began to make people talk.
A Remarkable Resemblance
1t was at all times really remarkable. He
was of the same heavy build, with the same
hslfsinister, halfgood-natured count enance,
of exactly the same height and with the
same sort of beard, eyes and hair as the EN-
peror. ANY one might have mistaken the
one for the other at any time, and many
persons did.
The Gar is a great favorite at Copen-
hagen, and the astonished banker suddenly
found himself cheered and celebrated in d
hundred ways when he showed himself in
public during the imperial visits. At first
he laughed at it. He was good-natured
man with rather weak head and prone to
vanity. Then, gradually, as he saw how
much adulation the odd conceit threw in his
way, he began to encourage it by half un-
consciously adopting the ways of the real
Gar, his manner of smiling, of bowling in
response to salute, with one finger upon the
brim of his white cap
From that to adopting the dress of the
Gar, the white cap itself, the gray cloak,
every item of his wardrobe down to the
boots and trimming his beard as he did, was
only step, but it was the wretched mans
first step toward the madhouse. To coun-
terfeit the Gar became his overmastering
passion, his one conscious aim in the sum-
mer season when Alexander came to town.
His cowardice saved him from carrying out
his crazy notion across the sea, where it
would be dangerous. He played Gar only
in Copenhagen-but kept out of the reach
of the Nihilists.
Always Ahead OF the Parade.
The first gun from the harbor that an
nounced the arrival of the Russian Court
saw Carlson down as near to the pier as the
police would let him get. Sometimes, be-
fore Carlsen came to be the character he
was of late years, even they would be i'm
lines with great show and circumstance only
to find they had been fooled.
If not, he would next appear, as likely as
not, in the harbor Just ahead of the i'm
perial procession from the direction of the
Russian ship in boat exactly like the
Cars launch, rowed by a'crew like his, the
observed Of all of course, and thus his
vanity was tickled and his ambition salts
fed. In the reception of the real Gar the
bogus one would be forgotten moment
later with a laugh, but he had had his
triumph and was content
Before the procession Of carriages could
be formed to go to the palace of Amalien-
borg, Garrison would reappear on terra
parade in his livered carriage, guiding his |
team exactly as the Gar had |
been often seen to do, and bowling right |
and left. All the old women along the |
street would courtesy and green sentinels |
would present their arms as he passed, with |
his one index finger laid solemnly upon the |
shade of his cap.
The gamins would yell "Hurrahp' and
the Cars double would 60 home happy.
If, as it often happened, some one stopped
him to hand up a petition or to ask for
help, his satisfaction would be complete,
and such petitioners would be likely to
The real one, who never learns what shoals
If begging letters beset him while he is at
He Had Plenty OF Money.
Carlsen would generally heed the requ est
or help He had plenty of money. 1t
vas his great misfortune that he had. There
vas nothing else for him to do than to
pend it in following out his crazy notion,
md it mad full swing.
The result of it all, on q mind like Carl
ems, could have been forseen. He wound
p by believing himself really to be the
Ear he had long so successfully counter
cited. He built himself a villa in imta-
ion of one owned by Alexander, out on the
fore road, as close to the palace of Bern
torf as he could crowd, and gave up his
1entity altogether.
Then the mischief was done. He had
rossed the threshold upon which he had
fingered SO long and entered the shadow of
he Cars throne, as be thought, and the !
hadow struck terror to his weak soul
arisen was no Alexander The shadow of
ne Nihilist and his bomb frightened him =,
ut of what sense he had lett. ,
His smile died. He no longer drove
bout in his four-in-hand. His sleepless
lights we're spent in his villa in haunting
read of the approaching dyamiter. He -,
his cook, fearing poison, and
lrrounded himself with an armed body
uard OF men, who had orders to let no q
ranger approach without searching him for ]
eapon or bomb. He fenced in his estate
ith walls strong enough to repel attack by
lie enemy.
He Goes Mad at Last.
He refused to see his agents, when they
anne to report to him upon financial mat Z
rs The story went abroad in the CITY that Q