Daily inter mountain., 1900-07-07
IS KING OTTO
AN INSANE MAN?
Growing Belief That the Bavarian
Ruler is Being Confined for
Political Reasons Only.

Is King Otto really insane, or is 1t
possible that his confinement is the result
of a political scheme on the part of his
enemies? These are questions that have
been asked more than once in high
European circles of late and the semi
official announcement of the Augsburg
Abendzeitung that the king has had sane
moments with remarkable frequency of
late has led to the revival of all the
rumors that once threatened to make
no end of trouble in Bavaria.
1t is safe to say that the matter will
now be well investigated, and if it is
discovered that the confinement of the
king has been the result of court In
trigue, something will drop in Bavaria
that will be heard all over Europe.
Those who have no personal knowledge
of affairs in Bavaria little realize the
extent of affection that common people
feel for their king. They idolize Otto
just as they idolzed Ludwig, and the
greatest Bavarian festival Is still the
annual celebration of the royal house
of Wittelsbach.
Before King Ludwig lost his few wits
he was the most loved ruler in Europe,
and when he became insane the people
still loved him with a sympathetic pity
such as one would give to sick child.
When Ludwig died and his brother Otto
assumed his position as king the people
accepted him with pleasure, and when it
was announced that he, too, was crazy
they could scarcely believe the fact. 1t
was stated that he was suffering from
an incurable malady, and that a regency
must be declared
After some hesitation the people sub
mitted to what seemed the inevitable,
but those who know Bavaria have long
been aware that there We're many people
who still believe that the story of the
/ kings insanity was a piece of political
fiction.
A LIFE PRISONER.
The fact that years have passed and
left Otto still a prisoner, has done much
to quiet these rumors, but now that it
is admitted that there are times when
/ he is sane, all the sleeping suspicious
have been aroused, and already the peo-
pie are talking, about the day when the
loved Otto will once more sit upon the
2 throne. setss4 y.
How much reason there is In these
suspicious 1t would be difficult to state
OF course, it would not be the first time
that a king has been the victim of court
intrigue and romances are as possible
today ais they We're a few hundred years
ago. Still the supposition that the king
rs really insane Is a perfectly reasonable
one. It would never do to deny the
crazy streak in the Wittelsbach brain
The strange life and stranger death of
Otto's musicmad brother, Ludwig H.,
the quirks of their grandfather, Ludwig
l., the insane passions which, the chron-
iclers say, distinguished even the found
er of the house, bespeak for this last
scion clear title to madness.
The history of the realm of Bavaria
goes far back into the dim past of the
Middle Ages Otto the Great of Ger
many, who renewed the imperial office,
invading Rome and establishing Holy
Roman Empire of the German nation,
encountered trouble of serious kind
with a rebellious duke of Bavaria.
Henry the Quarrelsome of Bavaria
claimed the regency under the infant
emperor Otto Ill, but was denied by the
mastery in the chaotic political condi-
tions of the times. Bavaria fell to the