The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-23
TOREFORM% ERNSTGUNTHER
THE ROUE'S BETROTHiL TO a
SCHOOLGIRL PRINCESS.

The betrOthal OF Duke Ernst Gnnthor OF
SchleswiR- Holstoin, brother of the German EN-
press, and Princess Maria Dorothca Of Coburg-
Kohary. opens up a wide perspective for scan
dalmongers and moralists. She is but IL years
old. Her parcnts-Princc Ferdinand Philip,
Austrian Field Marshal, and the eldest daughter
OF tho King Of the Bolgians-arc strong and con-
sistent Catholics, and have reared their daughter
in the strict adherence to tho doctrine and prac-
tice Of their religion. She is n pink OF innocence.
She has a fresh pink.and.whito skin, large hazel
eyes, and n we'll rounded though youthful figure.
She wears her wavy hair down hor back and 10
as strange TO the ways of the world rs any To-
year-old Princess can be. even though her grand
mother, the intriguing old Princess Clemcntino
of Coburg, is the most accomplished feminine
politician in the wide world.
On the other hand. Duke Ernst Gnnther has
learned all the wlckedness accessible toa man Of
his thirty.four years. He is a roue-not Of the
ordinary, negative kind such as the recent
Princes OF the house of Hohcnzollern have been.
but OF the aggressive, active sort, which long
had its typical exponent in the present Prince OF
Wales. The women with whom he has been in
timatcly associated are scattered all over the
Continent, from Berlin to Paris. His relations,
not only with members of tho nobility. but also
with adventurcsscs, have been notorious for ten
years. He has provoked scandals and ruined
homes in Berlin. Dusseldorf. Dresden, Frank
fort, Wicsbaden, Paris. and Carlsruho. Tie has
boon a social wrecker wherever he has set foot;
also In his gambling prociivities and his willing
ness to borrow money Economically from any
body who will lend IL to him. He has given out
gambling obligations by the hundred in Bcrlin.of-
ten moving his brother.in:law to Examinations
against the ~iniqnity Of card playing. for money.
lie has run horses at all the PRINCIPAL German
tracks. and has not h~csitated to back them TO
the extent of all the money he could lay, hands
on. He has suffered from. tho Tapacity OF
usurers and blackmailers. Ho has run up debts
in the milliOns-that Is. millions OF marks-and
Williams determination to uphold the legend
regarding the sacrednesso of princely pledges and
the stainlessncss OF princely honor. Five or six
times he has been eNiled from court; three times
he has been virtually banished from, Berlin.
perinl brothor-in-law is one Of stormy scenes,
~slecpless nights at the old castle. and unceasins
What, then. can be the object of this coming
union OF vice and Innocence, Of the finished lib,
schoolgirii Tndoubtedly the checking Of the
~libertine and spendthrift's wild career. Tho
OF y the imperial n peieii brotSer.in'law. Tho hope proba,
bly, is that the old saying about settling a rou6
by tying him t9 childish in y ~ AS no dy,
imagine any other reason for the unholy union.
To understand the unusual extent of the sac
rifice to which the. young Princess Is to be led,
it is necessary only to relate Ernst GCinther's
part in the Kotze anonymous letter scandal. As
has been told a hundred times, this scandal was
Of unsigned letters, the immortality OF many
kotze was arrested on suspicion that he wrote
the letters. He was proved innocent and was
been published to explain the source of the
letters and the motives of the writer. Two OF
these books have appeared IN sWitzerland IN inc
amount Of fiction, Ernst Gdn,hcr,s completely
may be learned from the following facts, on
which most of the chroniclcrs agree:
The Duke was infatuated with the Countess
at the Berlin court, and had the reputation of
being as irreproaGhable as she was beautiful.
openly. almost avowedly, to the intense irrita-
ton Of her husband, Who was an officer ct The
e cd SIm at s soer %Ts}Ss ails' 81 she a resnrnsa his sh prS sxS1a;
his calls only when her husband was
afterwsrd she began receiving abusive anony-
ferociously. and Inherently, accusing her OF fol-
lowing habitually, the ways into which the Duke
had tried to lead her, reviling her with imprint,
able terms of reproach, referring TO her alleged
intimacy with the present Emperor, and threat,
banished from court. At the same time she re-
ceived letters. written in the same hand. warn
ing her against the Countess Hohenau and her
relations with the Emperor.
BY a series of references in the letters the
Countess bohemian became CONVINCED that tho
attack upon her was inspired by the Duke. 1t is
not necessary here TO trace the Dukes relations
to a certain member of the Kotze family. Suf-
fee it TO say that most chroniclers of the anony-
nous letter scandal arc convinced that she
wrote the letters; that she was bitterly preju-
diced against the Countess Hohenau. and that
she was a convenient and ready instrument Of
the Dukes spite. At his suggestion, under his
When Herr Leberecht Won Kotze, Court Cham
berlain, was arrested unjustly for writing the
letters. which he did not write. the Duke found
It convenient to be at II summer resort far from
Berlin. Iii the racking and straininR of social and
political tics at court. tho raising of friends
hand against friends hand, the chaos OF threat
ened separations. and the ruins of regulations
and careers. which Immediately succeeded tho
arrest of Kotze. the Count and Countess
Hohenau sought an audience with the Emperor
and laid before him the strongest circumstantial
evidence that not Kotze, but another member
anonymous letters and that the Dnke was this
prise. Doubtless the Count and Countess OK
pected no evil for themselves from these revola-
lions to the Emperor; they were actuated 10 a
to the revilcd and deserted kotze. who was then,
in his innocence, the most bitterly execrated
ever We was to nah the Dukes hands fast to the
a~trocious papers which no had helped to send
abroad TO disgrace and humiliate them.
Even in his wrath against the Duke, however.
the Emperor did not forgive those who had tho
f fS%as'Bis Berlin III 't 70 ma n'%;; ne H ft"I s ave to- ta0 t that
Kotze, though discharged and distinguished by
special marks narI;s Of IN imp e g in ref Koil was fsmi hyr wSa
knew of the HOhenRu revelations and OF the
truth that was in them. 30 much for the fate
OF the innocent and the guilty outside OF the inn
perial family circle:
Tho reckoning with the Duke was moro dra"
matte. No sooner had the Emperor finished bis
conversation with the Hohcnaus than he hurried
off Gen. Won Hahnke, Chief of the Military Cabi'
net, to the hotol in the mountains where the
Duke was staying. IIahnke was TO lay the
Hohenau accusations before the Duke. and
demand, in the name of the Emperor. that
the Duke return at once TO Berlin to explain
just returned from II ride whom no received
Hahnke, and he stood. whip in hand, while
tho imperial envoy manguvred diplomalically
toward the point OF his diificult mission. When
the nature OF the Empcror's suspicious and de
mands became fully apparent, the Duke sprana
10 tho door. threw 1t open. and, raising his whip
over Hahnke's bend. fold him to get out quickly
or be whipped out. Hahnke went. Later the
Duke related how by the next train he sent this
letter to his imperial brOther-in-law:
leave me alone; i want none of your female
affairs bothering me, They are z lot of -
-. feel deeply insultcd by the disgrace
full suspicious east ON me. Had he not been YOU
Adjntant ! should have chastised Hahnke with
my riding whip"
The upshOt OF this rumpus was tho temporary
Punishment of tho Duke from court-a punish
ment which. by It's frequency, had lost most O
Its terrors for tho .scapegrace brother-in'law