Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-12-18


lease az any time he should therefore
bear the full moral responsibility of all
the lniquit practiced at Monte Carlo
The princes present wife, the Wild
owed Duehesse de Riehelieu, daughter
OF the Partisan Hebrew banker Heine.
did not bear the very best of repnta-
tions previous to her marriage. She
has been the heroine of several sensa-
tional scandals. and is known not only
20 have lived with the prince of Mona
co, but also TO have borne him two chill
dren previous 10 her being united 10
hirt in the legal bonds Of matrimony.
Her character, indeed, was 50 no.
torious that the princes father.
the late Charles ILL.,, of Monaco. would
not hear of the match, which he pro-
nouneed as in every way unworthy
eyen for his son. and il was not until
several weeks after his death that the
wedding at length took place. Al
though the prince possesses long
string of titles and is received with the
honors due to crowned head at GER
tain of the courts of Europe, yet the
blood that runs in his veins is of a very
plet.ian character, as his grand
mother. Marie Louise Gilbert, was
the daughter of a sEaall shopkeeper at
Paris, while his grandfather was an
actor at the Ambigu theater in the
French metropolis. His existence as
reigning sovereign tends to bring roy
atty into contempt and ridiculs, while
his life as an individual is of a charac-
ter Gl,loSt as i,rnoble as that of Prince
Constantine Radziwill, whose vices arc
of the most Undesirable character.
The prince of Monaco's career has been
one long succession of shameful scan
dals. which have been kept out Of the
press mainly through the efforts of his
paymasters, the Monte Carlo firm, who
consider it to their interests to endeavor
by all means in their power to maintain
the remnants Of his reputation and of
his prestige rs much as possible unim-
| paired. Few people are aware Of the
| factthat when, by his shameful immOr-
allties, practiced even under his very
roof, he drove his first wife, Lady Mary
Hamilton. to seek refuge abroad with
her child, he attempted to subject her
| to the same treatment suffered by
Queen Nathalie, of Servia, few years
| ago at Wiesbaden. That is to say, q
comrnissary of the Italian police, accom-
/ panied by several constables in uni
form, called at the hotel at Milan
where she was staying and demanded
| in the name of the Italian government
that the princess should surrender to
I fhorvH hnp <hreo<o-snD 90
| force UNLESS she did so. Just as
they were in the very moment Of
! putting their menaces into execution
the door suddenly opened, and
Grand Duchess Katherine of Russia,
| who had been attracted to the spot by
the noise, darted into the room, seized
the little prince in her arms and re-
| treated with him to her own apart
ment, daring the oommissary of police
to modest her in any way. Aware Of
the rank of the grand duchess and also
| of the trouble certain to ensue if so
near q relative of the car were to meet
with any official discourtesy in Italy,
the police withdrew, and on the follow
ing day the grand duchess, accompa-
MED by the princess of Monaco and the
little prince, crossed the frontier into
Switzerland without any further at
tempt being made to seize the child.
The latter remained with his mother
until her marriage was finally annulled
by the pope, since which time he has
spent part of each year with his father
and part with his mother, who is now
the wife of the Hungarian magnate,
Count Tassilo Festecics.
From this it will be seen that the
four men who own and run the gam
bling tables at Monte Carlo are entire
ly unworthy of any consideration. re-
spect or confidence. Indeed, there are
many other things that might be told
of each one of them, but which will not
bear repetition in print. American
visitors to the south of France this
winter who enter the doors of the
Monte Carlo gambling establishment
will do well to bear in mind the char.
acter of the owners of the place in
whose hands they place themselves
Possibly. however, they may avoid this
beautiful spot when they remember
that although the population OF
Monaco does not exceed 1000 all told
yet that there have been during the last
seven years no less than 4,2l2 duly,
authenticated cases of suicide in the