The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-04-04
FRESH GOSSIP or
FOREIGN C4PITHLS.

| FRESH GOSSIP or
FOREIGN CAPITALS.
! Queen wilheimina's action IN placing at
| the disposal of fhs Forthcoming Peace
/ Conference at The Hague her palace.
known as the Huistenbosch, which in
/ English means THE house in the woods"
I constitutes a happy augury for this con-
/ grCss. which is expected TO exercise such
| an extraordinary degree OF influence upon
| the future civilized world II is impossible
10 imagine spot more calculated TO
promote sentiments Of peace and harmony
/ than this sylvan retreat OF the rulers OF
/ the Netherlands
/ Il is just a pleasant drive from The
/ Hague among a fine, wide avenue known
as the "VeerhoUt," lined with rows OF
/ great trees and beautiful mansions.
/ The palace stands IN the midst OF 4
/ beautiful park. with herds of deer and
/ hundreds Of gay-plumaged birds-a Eark
/ that far and away surpasses the home
! park al Windsor. in magnificent timber.
| dense underground, winding lakes and
] streams, crossed by rustic bridges, and
! views over hill and dale, calculated 20 en-
4 uGrce an artist and all admirers of na-
| tire
/ Externally. the palace is OF an unpTe-
| tending character but within ii is char
/ acterized by an extraordinary degree o.
/ luxury. The feature of the interior is
/ the celebrated orange Hall, where the
| sessions Of the Peace Conference are
to be held. 1t was built by the grandmoth-
/ CT Of that Prince of Orange who after
ward became King William III OF Eng
I land I'm memory Of her husband, Prince
/ Frederick Henry of Orange The walls are
/ entirely covered with pictures descriptive
| Of events Of that Princes life, painted by
pupils Of Rubens, while the ceiling Is
painted in part by Rubens himself. and
partly by Jordaens. The hall in question
! is octagonal in shape. and the lofty
| roof is domed. In the Chinese hall the
walls are covered with tapestry of chi
| nese rice paper, while in the so-calied
| japanese hail. and in the Queens bOu-
| doir. the tapestry is OF japanese embossed
] needle-WOrk on silk, presented by the
| Emperor of Japan to Prince William V
| of Orange more than 100 years ago.
| The chandeliers in the palace are all of
| Dresden and Sevres porcelain, OF else of
! exquisite Venstian glass.
! The moment when the house in the
| woods is at its best is, of course, in
! spring. that is TO say. the time appoints!
| for the meeting of the conference, when
| the gardens surrounding the palace recall
| to mind the scenes described in the Ara
| bian Nights.
Baron Alfred de Stern, the London
| multi-millionaire who has just been Judi
| cially pronounced insane, and whose pc
| culiar form of insanity lies in his firm
/ conviction that he is the Prince of Wales.
| presents. striking resemblance to the
/ British heir apparent. Indeed. the insan-
/ ity specialists do not hesitate to declare
1 that the lunacy of the Baron has been
! largely developed and fostered through
| his being so frequently mistaken by
/ strangers for the Prince of Wales and ac-
| corded the homage and tokens of respect
/ due to the latter
! The Baron, who is a brother of Lord
/ Waudsworth, and likewise of Lady Sher-
! borne and of Lady Salomons. invariably
| of late has insisted in being addressed
| as Sir and as Royal Hghness," and
among other peculiarities which he
| adopted was that whenever he drank
/ bottle OF wine at dinner or at luncheon
| he insisted upon finging the empty bot
! tie through the window into the street
/ below, declaring that royal personages
/ always get rid of their empty bottles in
| this fashion.
! Last year he created a considerable
/ disturbance in Pail Mall at the very
( height of the season by endeavoring to
| force his way into Marlborough House.
! declaring that he was lis master and that
/ he had right 10 enjoy admission into his
| own palace.
Owing 70 his extraordinary resemblance
| to the Prince of Wales, the spectacle
/ yE-hf ph ha tod
hands of the police threatened at one
| moment to result in a riot. some of the
/ spectators being under the impression
/ that it was their future King in person
| who was being thus roughly handled and
| the object of an outrage
| What convinced the court, however
/ that the Baron was wholly insane was
when he solemnly assured the masters
/ in lunacy and the jury that the real
/ cause Of President FauTe's sudden death
was the shock sustained by Frances late
| Chief Magistrate. on learning that he, the
/ Prince Of Wales was locked I'D as a
! lunatic at Ethan Park a place. by the
! by, which formerly belonged to Colonel
! North, the Nitrate King
Baron de Stern is by no means the only
man whose insanity has been brought
/ about by his extraordinary likeness to a
| royal parsonage Thus the late Emperor
| AleXander's double was the WelI-knoWn
! Danish banker, Carlsven, a man almost
| as wealthy as Baron Stern.
| Flattered, in the first place by the
/ comments excited by his astonishing re-
| semolance to the MuscOvite autocrat. he
! set 10 work to increase ii by every
means in his power. copying the cut of
| the Emperor's beard initiating his ma
! Jesty's gestures and the full tones of his
| voice, and actually going 10 the length
| Of having the top Of his head shaved, in
| order 10 ape the Cars badness.
BY and by he refused to 90 out driving
IN anything else than carriage and
| four. deeply gTatified when the peouIa
/ occasionally mistOok him for the Car
| and saluted him as such. manifestations
I OF respect which he receives in the most
| condescending manner very comical to
| behold.
Everything would have been all right If
matters had stopped there But the hank
/ er became so thoroughly imbued with the
! idea that he was not the Emperor's don
| bic, but the Emperor himself that he
| became convinced he was in danger If
| assassination by the Nihilists, and that
/ day to take his life
| he became afflicted with what is redi
! cally known as the persecution mania. and
| after attempting suicide with the OBJECT.
! as he declared, of e,aping the nitro-giv,
| cerine bombs, with Which ne imagined he
was threatened, he had finally 10 be lock-
/ ed up in lunatic asylum as hopeIessIv
/ insane.
The fact that many prominent peo-
| pie possess doubles goes far to con-
firm the doctrine held in India that all
men are created In pairs, and under the
! circumstances it is by no means improb-
able that many OF the SHORTCOMINGS laid
10 the charge Of these or Of those great
| personages may have been perpetrated by