The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-02-20

| his way back from Jerusalem, whittier
/ he. had gone on his bridal trip. He left
| behind BIN an American widow. a
| daughter of David Lee of New York,
who had been created by the Austrian
| Emperor Princess of Noer on the
occasion of her marriage, and who is
now the wife of the Prussian Field
Marsnal. Count Waldersee. the success
sor of Moftke as chief OF the head
| quarter STAFF of the German army
| A PILGRIMAGE SUPERSTITION.
| These are only few OF the large
number of analogous cases that could
be cited in this connection But they
are sufficient to show that superstitious
/ people have some grounds for appre-
hendlng misfortune in the event of the
Kaiser taking his wife with him to
Jerusalem next spring. For, curiously
enough, those who make the pilgrimage
alone, and who leave their wives or
their husbands at home, appear TO es-
cape the fate that overtakes those royal
personages who neglect this caution.
and with the exception of Empress Eu-
genie, who lost her throne a few months
only after her return from the Holy
Land, the Emperor of Austria, the late
| Emperor Frederick of Germany. the
Prince OF Wales, King Leopold of Bel
GUM, the Empress of Austria, the
Crown Princess of Sweden, King Os-
car, the Crown Prince of Italy, and
Prince Henry of Prussia have all been
| able TO visit Palestine without being
| overtaken by subsequent misfortune.
| 1t may be questioned whether it is
purely spirit of religious devotion that
leads these royal personages to journey
to the Holy Land, and there are reasons
/ for believing that the Zionism of the
crowned heads and of the members OF
their families is prompted by other
sentiments than those of mere piety.
| For. speaking of them as a class, the
Prince and Princesses of the blood can
not be described as really religious in
the ordinary sense of the word. They
seldom govern their private conduct by
the rules of any church, and almost
never regard ecclesiastics as nearer to
the Divinity than themselves. They
conduct themselves and speak in a
manner to convey the belief that they
feel themselves above the mere details
of religion, and il may be doubted
whether they have any real preferences,
save such as are dictated by questions
of mundane policy. for one form of
worship more than another Queen Vic
| toria, for instance, when she is in Scot
land takes the Communion from the
| hands of Presbyterian ministers and
according to the Presbyterian rites. al
though south Of the Tweed she receives
the Sacrament according to canon laws
of the Church of England, of which she
| is not only a member, but also the
supreme head. The present Car when
at Balmoral attended Presbyterian SER
vices, while the King and Queen of It
| ally, as we'll as the Catholic Princes of
| Bavaria and of Saxony, in defiance of
| the laws of their church, We're conspicu-
Gus at the Lutheran services held at
| Hamburg the other day under the au-
spices of Emperor William. The latter,
again, although he considers himself
| to be the "summus Episcopus' of the
| Lutheran rite does not disdain to kiss
| the crucifix that is rendered to him
when he visits any Catholic institution,
church or monastery in his dominions,
and his grandmother, old Empress Au-
gusta. was quite as fond of attending
Roman Catholic services and functions
as are the daughters and grand
daughters of Queen Victoria.
In olden times consideration of creed
on the part of royal Princes and Prin-
cesses determined the fate, not merely
of dynasties, but of nations, and some
of the most sanguinary wars of the Old
World, notably the Thirty Years War,
which devastated all Central Europe,
were fought out on no other grounds
than these But to-day the religion
of Kings and Princes seems to have be-
come a subject of Indifference to them
selves, as to every one else. Thus, no
one exactly knows to what church be-
longs the Crown Princess of Rumania,
who is a granddaughter of Queen Vic
| toria She was christened and reared
as a. member of the Church of Eng
Hand. was confirmed and married as a
Lutheran to a Prince who is a Roman
Catholic. whike her children are now
being brought up as ,>1MUers of the
orthodox Greek Church, to which her
mother belonged.
| CREEDS OF CROWNED HEADS.
Much criticism was leveled at the head
of the French Marshal Bernadotte,
grandfather of King Oscar in DESERT
| ing the first Napoleon and in making
war upon his own country-namely.
France-after being elected Crown
Prince Of Sweden But there is not a.
word of condemnation to be found in
any contemporary history of the fact
that he abandoned Roman Catholicism
and became a Protestant solely in order
| to secure possession of the crown or
Sweden. In fact, the matter is not even
| mentioned, as though 1t were not or
sufficient Importance. The Protestant
| population of the Kingdom of Saxony
| has been perfectly content to be ruled
| for nearly a century by Catholic King
Charles of Rumania, while Prince Ferdi-
nand of Bulgaria when it was pointed
tout to him that he would conciliate Rus
sian sympathies by having his eldest
| boy, the four-year-old Prince Boris,
converted to the orthodox Greek faith,
did not hesitate a moment to cause the
child to abandon the Catholic Church,
/ to which he had until that time be-
| longed Ferdinand himself, since his re-
cent visit to Constantinople, when he
kissed the hand of the Sultan, being the
| first Christian Prince of the blood to
accord that act of homage to a Mahom-
etan ruler since the days of the Cru
saders. is, according to all accounts, con-
sidering the advisability of becoming
Mahometan, since he is debarred by Or
der of the Pope from participating in the
sacraments of the Catholic Church. He
has nothing further to gain by joining
the Greek rite, but would immensely
strengthen his position were he to turn
renegade and become follower of the
| Prophet.
| King Leopold of Belgium makes so lit
| tie pretense of being religious man