Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-08-04
ROYAL MICAWBERS
NOTABLES WAITING FOR SOME
THING TO TURN UP.
Royalty Out Of Job-It Is Like the
Fifth Wheel of 4 Cart-Princes,
Dukes and ex-kings-Rove Free in
Every Foreign City.


to cart. 1t can't engage in any OF
the professions OF ordinary vocations of
life; it must maintain it's traditional
dignity. In the affairs of state it has
no voice. Consequently it's life is an
uneventful round OF pleasures, with
often more or less pronounced flavor
ing of dissipation. Now and then a
man or woman of the blood royal does
SO employ his or her talents and op-
portunities as to win renown independ-
emily of his or her royal birth. But,
as Il rule, the members of the royal
families of Europe rarely rise above
the plane of princely mediocrity.
There can be no question about it
the royal families Of Europe are
slowly but surely deteriorating. Inter-
marriage has had deal to do with it.;
lack of serious occupation Or incentives
to action is also largely responsible
Occasionally, in time Of war, some
prince Or other hitherto unheard Of
rises to the emergency and makes a
name for himself on the field Of battle
More rarely, one of the princely tribe
interests himself in science, art OF liter
allure and wins laurelS for himself and
| family. But the men and women o.
royal blood who have done anything
Aristocratic mediocrity is the rule and
, Europe is full of royal Micawbers who
are waiting for something to turn up.
The lives of the heirs apparent to
the various thrones of Europe are a
trifie more serious than those Of their
royal kinSmen. Coming events cast
their shadow before them,' and the
! weight of the impending crowns is felt
in some degree by the predestined
wearers even before they actually rest
upon their heads. With the exception
of the heirs to the several thrones
F, there is scarcely 4 prince Or princess
of the blood royal in all Europe who
would have any claim upon public
interest barring his royal lineage.
| Take the descendants Of the Bona
parties, for instance. None Of them has
; so far amounted to anything, nor is
, it probable that any of them will dis
i tinguish himself Prince Victor Napo.
leon, at 81, and Prince Louis Napo-
; leon, at %, are about as useless young
men as one could imagine. They are
! of a very slender intellectual capacity,
, have mo serious occupation whatever,
and are simply living on their names
, with the aid of a pension subscribed
! by the remaining adherents of the
Boaaparre family. The Empress
| Eugene has wearied of supporting
nd hnc oftic. IVY .11f off hot,
supplies, leaving them as charges on
+; the Bonapartists.
| The aged, if not venerable, Princess
Mathilde Ronaparte, a daughter of
Queen HOrtenSe and 4 niece of NapO-
i leon, despite her GO years, is quite
active in her own peculiar society and
has made herself much talked about by
/ her rather indiScreet conduct. Like
the princess Victor and Louis, she is
living in hopes of the impossible, the
restoration of the Bonaparte family.
! The Orleanist princes are not much
better, though the head of the family
and the once possible successor to the
| French throne, the Compile de Paris,
f, did cast off his inertia and come over
to this country to aid in the struggle
for the maintenance of the Union.
The Due d. Aumale is, perhaps, the
best of the lot; but the Due D. Orleans
has repeatedly dragged the family
j name in the mire, one of his escapades
being his notorious pursuit of an opera
singer in Vienna. The OrleanistS are
pretty well fixed financially; in fact,
| are wealthy. They are exceedingly
avaricious, however, and have repeated
ly evicted tenants from the miserable
| tenement houses owned by them, and
cast them out into the street to live or
die, as the case might be.
! Paris is the mecca of deposed
monarchs and worthless princess, the
most notable member of its royal colo
ny, perhaps, being ex-Queen Isabella
Of Spain. Her character is too well
known to require any lengthy review
here. Suffice it to say, she is probably
blood in Europe-at least has borne
that unenviable reputation for many
years. Thought well advanced in
years, she still clings to her old as
sociations-she certainly did so up to
! three years ago-and her unsayOry
character has made her a marked
woman even in the French capital In
every respect she is as unlike her
daughter, the Infanta Eulalie, as she
could well be.
! Another promising specimen of royal
ty who graces Paris with his presence
is ex-King Francis H. of Naples, who
was expelled by Garibaldi. Mentally,
and in every other way, he is man
of little Importance, but for the fact
that he once actually sat on a throne.
He cuts quite a figure in certain
, Partisan set, nevertheless, and at the
! formal receptions of President Carnot
he is very much in evidence, then ap-
pearing as king, probably on the
theory, .'once a king, always a king"
i Don Carlos, the representative of the
Carlist party in Spain, is a gentleman
, whose fame is chiefly of an undesirable
kind. Among his other exploits was
the theft of his wife's diamonds. In
! vestigation disclosed the fact that he
had pawned them, but the discovery
did not seem to particularly annoy
the blue blooded Don Carlos, who
treated the whole matter as one of the
pardonflble peccadillos of a gentleman
of leisure
The grand dukes of Russia and other
members of the imperial family, with