The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-02
THE PRINCESS
AND THE BULGARS
. BYLUoIEN JULIEN WALKER

Much of romance and dark tragedy Is
brought to mind by the passing of the
beautiful Princess Ferdinand, of Bulgaria,
whose sudden death was announced yes
terday. Before her unhappy marriage she
was the Princess Marie Louise, daughter
of the Duke of Parma. The press reports
are to the effect that she died of pneu-
monia Immediately after giving birth to a
daughter. but the student of recent history
and the base passions of the Bulgars is led
to suspect that she passed from earth by
foul means-the work Of the poisoner or
the stranger
The throne of Bulgaria. a dependency of
the Ottoman empire, was going a-begging
in 1887, when Prince Ferdinand, a grandson
of King Louis Philippe, of France, accepted
the tinsel crown and undertook the diff
cult task of governing the ignorant and
turbulent Bulgars. Prince Alexander, of
Battenberg, who was head of the princi-
pality. and who had in tho Servo Bulgarian
war proved himself to be one of the ablest
soldiers of modern times, had been spirited
away by hirelings of the Tsar, and Bull
garia was without a head. The Princess
Clementine, daughter of a former Bourbon
king, aided her son Ferdinand with her
great store of money, and he attempted to
occupy the throne which the deeds of the
Battenberger had made illustrious.
Ferdinand is rather an effeminate prince,
vain, and proud of display, and without the
brain to guide his ambition. His first OBJ
ject was to attempt to induce his kinsman,
the Austrian emperor, to acknowledge him
as royal. In that he failed, and then he
turned his attention to the Tsar and the
Sultan After some years the Sultan con-
scented to receive him, but the Tsar of that
day would have nothing to do with him,
and the present ruler of the Russias has
persistently ignored him.
Six years ago the Prince Ferdinand mar
ried the Princess of Parma, whose sudden
death throws nearly every court of Europe
into mourning. Both were Catholics and
were married according to the rites of the
Catholic church; being bound anew to the
church by the most solemn vows. In good
time son was born of this union, and the
next day Prince Ferdinand issued a procla-
nation to his people proclaiming the birth
of an heir to the throne, naming him Boris,
in honor of an ancient chief Of the Bulgars,
and, without the semblance of law or au-
thority, comforting upon the child a list OF
titles as long as the Lords prayer. All
Europe smiled at the conceit of the young
popinjay in his dirty palace in the dirty
capital Of the unspeakable Bulgars.
Soon after the birth of Master Boris,
Prince Ferdinand petiioned the pope to per-
nit the child to be baptized and christened
according to the rites of the orthodox Greek
church, the state church of Bulgaria and
all the Balkan and Scavonic countries.
The pope Indignantly declined to grant the
request, and the pious princess mother OF
the child begged her husband not to be
guilty of the great sin he contemplated.
She also brought to bear all the influence
of the reigning Catholic families. But her
tears and prayers were of no avail. The
protestations of royal and imperial person.
ages amounted to nothing. The threatened
curse of Rome was disregarded. The poor
little Boris remained for weeks the great
unbapti2ed, and then his father had him
christened according to the Greek church,
and the little prince was passed from the
religion of his ancestors. The heart-broken
mother did not witness what was to her an
act of greatest sacrilege. She fled to the
palace of her father in Italy~ and thence
made pilgrimage to Rome, where the pope
received her with stately ceremony, follow
ed by the most fatherly concern of the il
lustrious pontiff. She received the papal
blessing; but Prince Ferdinand had broken
her heart and she lived out her remaining
years in unhappihess. The next year after
her visit the pope conferred upon her the
famous Golden Rose, which is never given
to any persons but women born in the
Catholic faith, and who have done the
given each year.
The princess remained nearly a year away
from Sofia, and then returned to an unhap-
by home, an innocent apostate and an
unloving husband All her life was dark
ened, and the beautiful woman grew old in :
her youth.
One day during the height of the contro-
versy over Prince Ferdinands proposition
as to the baptism of the hapless Boris
was lounging about the western platform
of the great central passenger station of
Vienna Suddenly the railway servants and
the police began to clear the platform of
all persons present asked the big, burly
stationmaster what it meant, at the same
time showing him a consuls special pass
port. He called interpreter, and the
large document with the big seal was read
carefully, after which he turned to me very
courteously and said in excellent English:
Her Highness, the Princess of Bulgaria, is
passing through. You may remain" In a
moment the train dashed up to the plat
form. A stately woman in black and close
ly yelled got out of car in the middle of
the train, attended by a lady and gentle
man-in-w waiting, and walked two or three
times up.and down the platform. 1 uncev-
cred in the presence of the princess of many
virtues and many sorrows.
In July, 1885, Stefan Stambuloff, the great
est Bulgar of two centuries, was foully as
sassnated in the streets of Sofia. There
was mad cutlery all over the world.
Prince Ferdinand feared Stambuloff, and he
was charged with instigatng the crime.
The gentle princess detested him on account
of the Boris baptism and for other reasons,
and she too was suSnectad. Her lnhappv