The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-25
THE son OF LOUIS XVI
Prof. PrOvius Thinks the Prince
Did Not Die i'm a French Prison,
But Was Spirited Away and Lived a
Long Life of Exile-Achievemen
of Switzerland's Sons.


some man. who dresses well. and who.
while on the rostrum. in true French style,
drinks water sweetened with loaf sugar,
gave lecture the other day to an invited
audience of the uppertendom of Geneva
society. His subject was an inquiry into
the fate and true history of Louis XVII,
of France, and during two hours he dis
cussed the much controverted question Of
whether the ten-year-old boy who, on June
s, 1895, died at THE Temple" in Paris, was
really the son of the guillotined Louis XVI.
the deposed King, a substitute only.
He argued from voluminous data, and. TO
him, incontestible evidence, that the young
Prince, the veritable Louis XVII, did not
die, but was by Barras, then one of the
heads of the revolutionary government,
whom Theirs calls ia Roi de Ia canaille,"
and Josephine Banharnais spirited away,
and that it was discovered by the physi-
clans that the dead body produced had on
it unmistakable evidence of scrofula, when
nothing OF the kind had ever existed in the
royal family of the Capets. The Professor
told us that the delivery had been effected
by and with the connivance of his jailors.
the shoemaker Simon and his wife, and, in
order to cover up the release, it was given
out that he had died, and the body OF a
young boy of the same age who much re-
sembled the Prince was substituted. His
existence thereafter seems to have been
hidden from public knowledge and during
a considerable time of his life he is said
to have led the humble existence of watch
maker. The lecturer traced him as plying
that trade in Germany under the name of
Naundorf, and when at the age of near
sixty he died, which event occurred on
Aug. 10, 1915, in Holland. The etat civil or
certificate issued by the Ministry OF the
Netherlands speaks of the deceased as
Charles Louis de Bourbon, Due de Nor
mandy, Louis lie diX-sept, ne au chateau de
Roi Louis lie Seizieme Roi de France, ct
S. a. l ct r. Marie Antoinette. Archiduch-
esse dAutriche, Refine de France" Much
has been said and written on this subject
and even at the present day opinion in
France is much divided to whether this
Prince, born in the royal puppies, actually
died in his youth during the reign of ter
ror, from neglect and cruel treatment,
whether, as DR.. Provius asserts, he dragged
out in exile a sorrowful existence, Union
ored and unknown. On the Place Neuye,
in Geneva, between the opera house and
the public garden, stands the bronze eques-
trian statue OF General Dufour. he was a
Genevese, and in his day soldier of great
distinction. In 1917 he commanded the
mics of the Swiss confederation in the
war against the seven seeded cantons, and
whipped the rebels into submission
in less than month. This man used 10
late that in 1880. while travelling from Berne
to Thonne, he fell in with a companion
who shortened the weary hours OF stage
coach travel for him with interesting con-
verSation and impressed him with his
lofty bearing and refined manners, and
who, on parting at the end of the voyage,
astonished him with the disclosure, that he
world and forgotten by his country long
ere them
THE CARNIVAL SEASON.
When the sun is SO disposed it takes but
little effort on his part to coax from willing
mother earth responsive smiles Already
in sheltered hooks she is decking herself
out with early violets. Wild large-leaved
and fragrant; from the Mediterranean we
at this early season receive anemones in
all shades of colors, and pinks and mimosa
of much splendor and in great profusion
They raise flowers enough around Nice and
Cannes to supply half of Europe, and then
have left an abundance to pelt each other
with when, in time of the carnival flower
corsos and battles Of flowers are INDUCED
in. This year these occasions were not
successful as in former seasons. Rome,
which for years and years witnessed the
eccentric caperS of the carnival in its gay
est humor and most Respondent glory, this
season neglected it entirely, and the fleet
footed riderless horses which used to run
races the whole length of the corso from
Piazza del Popolo to the Venetian Palace.
were things or the past, as are other great
spectacles of the ancient city. Paris keeps
ored custom, and the sole and only at
tempt at a public turnout is made by the
honorable guild of the washerwomen of the
city. The masquerade balls at the Grand
Opera have degenerated into very stale and
commonplace affairs. The only occurrence
of any note in this line took place a year
ago at the Moulin-Rouge, and consisted of
masked ball which was given by the
-Four Arts'-painters, sculptors,. engrav--
guests numbered in the neighborhood of
four thousand, and the general public was
in their day eclipsed Uneven and Babylon.
The subsequent attempt at arrest of some
of the airily dressed Phrynes and Mesa
friends, students from the art schools and
ateliers of Julian, Colarosse, Bougereau,
Laloux and others, came. very near bring
quences. But have no intention of at
tempting to paint a description of this
| witnessed, nor would the Journa! print
it if 1 did.
A GLORIOUS RECORD.
Six hundred years have rolled around
| since the peasantry of three small cantons
| in what is now the heart Of the Swiss con-
| federation tired of submitting longer to
! the CALLING yoke Of the feudal lords, swore
| to stand by each other in defense against
| their common enemy, the Dukes of Haps-
| burg. They also pledged themselves to
| each other that the compact made should
1 stand perpetual, ana, WOnuer1ul TO relate,
| it has so proven up to the present day, at
least Their exalted examples and the
steadfastness of their purpose in time
| brought to them their neighbors, and as
| our own Republic from the small begin
| ming of four colonies, grew to be the power
full empire that ii is, so this sturdy de-
| mocracy with the years, has grown from
the small beginning covering of
| what in one of our Western States, would
be not much more than so many townships
TO it's present extent of twenty-five can
tons, states, with a population OF three
millions prosperous commercially, united
politically, and respected by all of it's
neighbors for the prowess and undaunted
| valor of its people: serving, by virtue of
| it's geograp hical situation and topogra phical
conformation, as a neutral bulwark, one
against the other, of hostile neighboring
states, 1t holds the keys to most of the
great highways OF southern Europe in it's
| unassailable mountain passes OF the Alps
| and offers safe asylum TO the prosecuted
from the tyrannieS of other lands. What
these miniature states lack in size their
| people make UP in patriotism and bravery.
That the Swiss confederation fought its
| way through all surrounding and often re-
| curing difficulties which the centuries
| brought them up TO its present state OF Sc
curity prosperity and unassailability, is
due solely TO the great I-owess of its
people and their undaunted love OF liberty
We seldom find during these six centuries
| beginning away back in the middle ages a
| defeat marked uDOn the tablets of his