Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-06-08

| ludJ pOeIlCdl WOMEN are very rare.
Wagner, however, returns the kings
confidence, and says he has found such
a woman-the wife Of a friend No
doubt this is Cosima Bulow, whom
| Wagner later married.
In the evening of that selfsame day
the king walked along the jessimine
paths to the hearing of his song. He
rowed across the lake to the opposite
shore, and believed he heard the sing
ing of the swans. 1t was a mistake.
AS he approached the shore he heard
| a melOdious human voice. He could
distinguish the wOrds-it was the song
of the wondrous fower-his song,
which said the wondrous flower is the
purest love.
This is my song!" the king cried,
jumped out of the boat, ran across the
lawn to the castle, where delicate
woman's figure appeared at an open
window. The moon was shining, and
she recognized the man below and
cried: "The king!'
He confirmed this and asked her to
come down. The young lady i'm
mediately obeyed, and appeared in the
frame of a porch in the ivy-grown
tower. The king, asking who she
was, she answered: Your majesty
cousin, Elsa!'
of Bavaria, the youngest sister of the
late Empress Elizabeth of Austria,
who lived in such complete retire
ment with her parents, so that the
king had not seen her before she was
II or Is.
A few days later the king is re-
solved takes an official trip to Castle
Possenhofen, and asks his uncle for
the hand of his youngest daughter,
which he is promised with the great
est alacrity. Princess Elsa finds her
self the Kings BRIDE" and finds her
chief delight in repeating this to her
self. Countess Larisch describes a
meeting of the king and his bride, the
trysting place being the park around
Possenhofen. Bride and bridegroom
composed verses, and each read the
latest composition to the other. In
the meantime the beautiful Wally Won
Sartory was at work to attain her
ends. She crosses the lake at night
and watches the king and the princess
in the park, and hears the song, which
she soon learns. Countess Larisch
gives her readers the text and the
music of the wonderful song-but she
does not mention either poet or COM
poser, and only says Princess Elsa re-
ceived it in some mysterious manner.
Wally Won Sartory gets herself made
lady-in-waiting to Princess Elsa, and
| when she is alone with her she uses
| hypnotic powers, sends the princess to
sleep, and suggests to her that she
must not love the king-she must not
! become the kings bride. The prin-
cess suffers from these suggestions in
her sleep, and she wakes up with a
painful sensation. Still the suggestion
has taken effect. She shows her
| lady-in-waiting blue silk watch
guard on which she has embroidered
a crowned silver swan
The princess worked it for the king
but now, obeying the suggestion, she
| dOcS uOL Cdl z LII II anu SIfCS IL ~ hCl
| lady-in-waiting who is treacherous
enough to show it to the king as a
present from the princess, and then
gives it to the kings aid-de-camp
Baron Decker, saying she was desired
| by the princess to present him with it.
One evening she arranges the candles
on the piano at which the princess is
4 10 CHI CIT 10 RI he
king in such manner that they top
pie over on the music, and the only copy
of the song is burned. The princess
cannot sing the song because her maid
of honor has before this suggested In
her sleep that she must forget the
words and music of the song. In the
confusion he discovers the watch
guard on Baron Decker's waistcoat
and, accustomed as he was to being
deceived, he Immediately suspected
his intended bride.
i This is the beginning Of the rupture
which leads to the breaking off OF the
bethrothaI between the king and the
princess. The king refuses to be IN
j formed of affairs of state. Like Fred
erick the Great all he wishes is tt
suffer and be silent" At last he re
solves to retire to the solitude OF hi
Swan castle in the Bavarian Alps
where he built splendid castle con
tanning hundreds of works Of art, al
referring to the myth of the swan
This is Neuschwanstein, the actua
marvel of the Bavarian Alps. He sui
fers from insomnia and can never g,
to sIaep without drugs He dimes a