The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-28
PEREANDER,s EXPERIMENTATION.
In the Swiss Alps--Romanee and Tragedy
 in the Life of the Duchess dAlenoon-
 Notes on French, English and German
 People.

In the Swiss Alps-Romanee and Tragedy in the Life of the Duchess d'Alenoon- Notes on French, English and German People.
 Lucerne, May 9, 1897. To the Editor of the Journal and Courier:
 The Duchess d'Alencon, who was burnt up the other day with so many other partisans of the Orleans family, was thirty odd years ago, when she was only seventeen, the heroine of a. TO- nance not without tragic clements, Her cousin, Louis IT., King of Bavaria, fell wildly in love with her and deter mined to make her his queen. Louis himself was only about twenty and was very unbalanced and sentimental youngster. Thirty years ago Wagner was only beginning his career. Louis was one of his earliest and most enthu- siastic followers. In fact Louis went Wagner mad. One day he would imag- inc himself Slegfried and the next To- hengrin. He would have performances 
 and not allow a blessed soul inside the building but himself and the perform CTS. He would have swans trained to pull him in boats. He would have pie lures and statues made of himself as Wagner's heroes. He did everything a shallow -pated and enthusiastic boy would do who had plenty of money, couldrdo anything that came into his head, and was a crazy votary of the Wagner cult. Wagner, of course, en- couraged him because there was money in it. His relatives didn't like to have him make such an ass of himself, but, on the supposition that he might be do- ing worse, kept quiet His lady love had always thought him spoony and required persuasion in the matter. He entered upon his engagement with true Wagnerian frenzy. She was his Elsa, his Brunhilda, his whatever all their names are. She submitted in a dull kind of a. way which he was too much up in the air to perceive. Then his TO- nance took another turn. She must be painted and sculptured. Not music alone but all the other arts must know her and offerlher to him in their respec- tive ways. Painting and sculpture and impatient. He must have immedi- ate representations of his beloved. So he sent for photographer, and therein made the one colossal mistake of his life The swell photographer of the day happened to be the very reverse of his majesty. He'was not bit spoony. On the contrary he was magnificent specimen of superb German masculini- ty. He was tall and strong. He had the true Siegfried build. He had the tawny hair and thelfowing beard of the Niebelungen hero. Wagner must have seen him, and must have selected him as model in forming his type. He was everything the king was not, but wished to be and tried to imagine he was Of course it didn't take Bavari- an princess five minutes to take the magnificent creature all in, and to fall wildly in love with him. That's the way with Bavarian princesses. Then there was a how-do-do. Here was a state of things. Discreet history draws a curtain and hides from sight the inn mediate ensuing circumstances. About @ week afterwards a sentry on duty in front of the kings palace heard a win dow burst open over his head and had to jump like 8 cat to escape a huge proiectile which fell where he had been standing and broke to pieces on the pavement. Examining, he found 1t was one of the new-made busts of the uueen who was to be. Another window and another projected bust! Then a canvas within huge frame; volumes of Wagnerian oaths surrounding each protection. Finally the sentry dropped his musket and ran for life. It is the greatest pity in the world that the cu- rious investigator cannot get all the spicy details All that Is known is that the engagement was broken; that the nrincess was sent off somewhere and kept as prisoner; and that from that time on the king would never look a young woman in the face. His insani- +y and his sad death are facts of histo- ny. The most singular part of the whole business is that nothing was done to the photographer. He contin' ned to walk about Munich adored by the love-sick and continued to take photographs as usual. His business in creased to such an extent that now ht has branch houses all over; one in New York city.
 When, after a certain number O. years, the Due d'Alencon was attracted by the large fortune the young woman had inherited; did he or did he not in uuire into the photograph incident; ant was he told? Or was he sufficiently gallant homme to let by-gones be by
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