The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-22
QUEEN LOUISE AFFLICTED.
1t Is Said She Has Lost Her Once Bril-
liant Intellect.

LONDON, Aug. H.-Private letters re-
ceived from Copenhagen serve to explain
the mystery which has until now surround
ed the extraordinarily sudden departure of
the Princess Of Wales for the Danish cap
ital, departure which it may be remem-
bered gave rise to all sorts of sensa tionaI
stories, some of which were based upon the
belief that there had been revival of the
former bitter quarrel of the prince and
princess in connection with the Countess
of Warwick
The fact is that Queen Louise. of Den
mark, who up to a short time ago was
celebrated as the most remarkable politician
of her day and as superior in statescraft
even to Prince Bismarck, whom she worsted
on several memorable OCCASIONS, has lost her
reason and fallen into complete state of
senile dotage. The destruction of her
brilliant intellect seems to have been very
sudden. almost like the extinction of a
lamp of which the oil has become exhaust
ed 1t occurred on the day following the
arrival of the dowager Czarina and her
children at Copenhagen, and it is ascribed
by the doctors to the excitement caused
by the meeting with her favorite daughter
The mental breakup was accompanied by
a species of physical collapse, which, al
alarming a
subsequently yielded to the treatment. al
though the miEd of the royal lady, who is
now over eighty years of age, is almost a
complete blank.
1t the widowed Empress of Russia
who first observed her mothers condition
and she was so alarmed thereby that she
at once, on her own responsibility, dis
patched kilograms TO her brother, the King
of Greece, at Aix-les- Bains, to her sister
the Princess of Wales, at CoWeS and to
her youngest sister the Duchess of Cum
berland, at Gmunden, in Austria, request
ing them to hasten to Copenhagen at once
instead of waiting for the date originally
hxed for their assembling there-that is to
say, fortnight later. The physical col
lapse of the queen was merely momentary,
and this explains why, on the very day of
the departure of the Princess of Wales from
her mother, dispatches were received from
Copenhagen announcing that the aged SOW
ereign had been out driving with her daugh-
ter, the widowed cZarina.
The Princess of Wales, it may be added
was accompanied to Copenhagen by her
principal physician, Sir Francis Laking,
Prince of Wales, but who proceeded to CO.
penhagen in the hope of being able to re-
store to some extent the mental faculties
of Queen Louise, who has often been nick
named the "Mother-in-law of Europe"
owing to the fact that she has married off
her children so splendidly, besides obtain
ing throne for her second son, William.
who rules King George, of Greece. No
woman has exercised a more remarkable
influence on the course of events during the
last forty years. and it is, no secret that
she was the chief counselor of the late
Car, whose domestic and foreign policy
she inspired and for whose anti-German at
titude she was mainly responsible. The
Franco Russian alliance. indeed, was
brought about not at Paris, or at ST
Petersburg, but at Copenhagen, and it's
chief author was Queen Louise, who has
become a mental wreck within few days
Of the death of her most hated foe and
most bitter adversary, Prince Bismarck.