Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-17
MAD DUKES QUEER RETINUE.

Can any one recall a Shaker community
at New Bremen, ILL.,, which flourished
three or four years ago? asks the WASH
ington Post. One Of it's leading members
was a very eccentric old German noble
man Of the name of Prince Louis Sui
kowski, Duke of Belitz, who migrated
thither with his second wife. a woman
of the name of Gamberle. He was one
of the wealthiest members of the Euro
pean aristocracy, his Hungarian estates
alone yielding him an annual revenue of
S., 0c0,0 GOO, n he owned the entire town
of Beilisk, a trading center Of eastern
Austria, with a population of about 3d.
coo. At least four of the old dukes chill
dren We're born in this country, and are
consequently, although German princes,
entitled to citizenship of the United
States. ~ 81
Prince Sulkowski's eldest SON, the pres
emf head of the family, is just now figur-
ing in an extraordinary suit brought
against him in the Viennese courts by a
woman of the name of Charlotte Fried
lander. She is suing him for a sum of
1000 as her share Of the reward which
he solemnly promised her for helping him
to escape just ten years ago from the
great lunatic asylum at Doebling, near
Vienna, where he had been placed under
restraint by his wife and his brothers
and sisters. He is one of the most ex-
traordinary characters of the European
nobility. His first wife was his, sisters
governess, a woman Of the name of Vic
toria Lehman, whom he persuaded to
elope with him and to marry for the
avowed purpose of exasperating his
father, the ex-Shaker. His amiable in
tentiOns were crowned with success. The
old gentleman died of a fit of apoplexy
on hearing that the wedding had taken
place.
Having come into the possession of his
fathers titles and estate, the duke de-
clded that he had no further use for the
ex-governess, n divorced her, after set
thing 100000 a year Upon her. He then
set to work to seek another partner and
commenced travelling from one end Of
Europe to the other, as he still continues
to do, attended by the most extraordinary
retinue, comprising secretaries, cham
berlains, cooks, servants. a band of mu-
sicians. several female acrobats, a cage
full Of monkeys, two full-grown lions,
this enormous suite necessitates the use
not alone of one special train, but fire.
quently of two, while the duke is usually
obliged to hire an entire hotel.
In the course of time he married one Of
his ballerinas, named Ida Jaeger, first in
Switzerland and subsequently at Bonn.
The union resulted in the birth Of a little
Au "io eAGt', an luC uuNC COIH-
menced to show signs of becoming tired
of his wife, n there were indications
that ne would subject her to the same
treatment as the ex-governess, she had
him put in a lunatic asylum at Vienna
not a difficult job, as it is pretty gener-
ally acknowledged in Europe that, to use
a French expression, there is a. very big
spider at work spinning cobwebs in his
upper story. 80,
In the lunatic asylum he remained for
three years, during the course of which
which his name figured. To begin with.
his brothers and sisters. while agreeing
that he was in every sense of the word
fit for a lunatic asylum, insisted hat the
duchess had no right to rave control of
his fortune while he was under restraint.
They took the ground that she was not
really his wife, owing to the alleged in
validity of the divorce from his first con-
sort. This was, however, decided in her
favor, and the courts declared hat she
was his lawful wife and as such entitled
he was demented.
Eventually he escaped from the asylum
and got away to Switzerland and from
there to Germany, where he assumed the
seat which was his by inheritance in the
Prussian house of lords, and then, on the
strength thereof. secured a decree from
the Prussian tribunals to the effect that
he was sane, the courts naturally being
reluctant to pronounce mad a member
of the most august molety of their ma
tional legislature. From that time forth
when the tribunals of Germany. Austria,
Russia and France have not had before