The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-22
"RING DIES NIBELuNGE,1 AS,
CRIBED TO FIRST WIFE,S
INFLUENCE
RoUMANIAN ExILEs' PLIGHT
Archduke's Marriage Directs Atten-
ton to Unequal UniOns-Right
of Succession to Other
Lands.

| phle Chotek. Since she is not a member
| of any reigning house, the marriage Will
| be morganatic one. In Austria the sue
I cession is regulated by so-ealled house
! law of the imperial family, and that
| law prescribes that If the emperor's con-
| sort before her marriage was not his
| equal in rank her union with him does
not raise her, and, although his lawful
wife, she cannot bear the title of en-
press; further, that the issue of such a
union, although legitimate, shall be ex-
cluded from the throne. AS the dignities
Of emperor of Austria and king of Hun
gary are by law united in one person, 1t
follows that the archduke's morganatic
wife can never become queen of Hun
gary. After her husband has assembled
the throne she will still be merely a
countess and his consort. If the present
emperor confers the title of Fuerstin on
her, as he is expected, yet she will not
acquire her husbands rank or become
member of the imperial family.
In order to establish all this beyond
any doubt, last Thursday, in the pres
ence of the emperor, the archduke and
the chief dignitaries of court and state,
the archduke, by oath, solemnly bound
himself never to alter these stipulations.
MORGANATIC MARRIAGES.
This approaching moTganatic marriage
has turned attention to the nature of
such unequal unions IN general to the
different ones that have taken place in
the house of Hapsburg and their effect
on the succession to the crown in diff
ferent countries 1t appears that NOR
ganatic marriage was first defined in the
code Of laws of the Saltan Franks and
reduced to writing in the fifth century A
y. The whole tendency of that law is to
favor the male sex. BY a marganatic
marriage it understands only that of a
| man with az woman of inferior rank, and
| it prescribes that the children of such
| union shall have only the rank of the
lower parent. Now, however, the term
morganatic is used also in the reverse
case.
Nowadays the term Sale law is con-
fined to the exclusion of the female line
from the succession, and it is in force in
| France, throughout Germany also in the
| dynasties established in recent times
Belgium, Roumania, Bulgaria, SerVia,
| Greece-but not in Austria or Hungary.
| 1t is not in force in England, Russia,
| Spain, Portugal or Holland, though in
| some of these countries the female line
| is excluded till every member of the male
| one is dead. In England, however, if
| the monarch be not survived by, a. son,
! the crown passes to the eldest daughter,
| she taking precedence over the late mon
arch's brother. Thus in 1887 when Will
| lam ", king of England and Hanover,
died without issue, his deceased brothers
| eldest daughter, 81 Victoria, succeeded to
/ the crown of England. AS the Sale law
excluded her from the crown of Han
! over, it passed to the late kings third
brother the Duke of Cumberland.
Holland is the only country which, in
recent times, has settled the right of
succession, so that the female line comes
| to the throne as soon as the male line is
extinct. AS, however, the Salic law is in
force in the Grand Duehy Of Luxem-
! burg, which was united to Holland by
| personal union when the Princess Will
helmina, the present queen of Holland,
| assembled the throne of that country the
union was dissolved and Luxembourg
| passed to the former Duke of Nassau
In England and Russia there is no such
thing as morganatic marriage of
member of the reigning family for as
! soon as the sovereigns consent to the
unon is given it raises the one contracting
party to the level of the other. But, on
, the other hand, should an English prince
or princess, without the English sover-
/ eignis consent, marry a member of even
the oldest dynasty in Europe, the issue
of such union would not under and pos
sible circumstances have claim to the
/ English throne. For this reason the
| Princess Maria Louisa, daughter of the
Duke of Cumberland who is about to
marry Prince Max of Baden, obtained
! Queen Victoria's consent. If a Russian
grand duke marry beneath him, the law
recognizes his children as capable of sue
ceeding to the throne, but, usually, the
emperor agrees to the union only on con-
dition of the exclusion of the children
! He Is, however, equally at liberty to de-
! eide in the opposite way.
JEWS FROM RoUMANIA.
A pitiable sight was witnessed on the
| quay, in the Prater, for some days this
week. A party of emigrant Roumanian
Jews had managed to pay their fares by
the Danube so far, but then were abso-
lutely destitute. On being questioned as
to the reason of their voluntary exile they
related that it was caused by the bit
ter persecution Jews are subject to In
Roumania. In nearly all cases they are
excluded from the rights of citizens; in
the higher callings they are boycotted
and cannot earn a living; no employer is
permitted to have more than Is per cent
of Jews among his hands; Jewish shops
are Stunned by the Gentiles; an inoffen-
| sive Jew walking across the street In
broad daylight may be mercilessly beat
! en-, and yet he has no redress; in the
| sure of his life. Matters have recently
! become worse, owing to last years bad
j harvest, and so the Jews scrape together
a trif1e, organize themselves into compa-
MES, and then leave the country In Which
generations of their ancestors lived. In
many cases, for the one at first referred
to is only a typical one, the men tramp
the whole distance to Vienna, but send
the women and children by boat or rail
The distress among them is direful The
people living near the quay are them
selves poor, but still they did what they
could to relieve the most pressing needs
of these unfortunates, who had no pro-
lection from the weather till a humane
captain obtained PERMISSION to shelter
them on board tug. After some days
money enough to send them to Nuremberg
was collected. Some of the emigrating
Rouman1an Jews go to Asia Minor, or
Cyprus, but many hope In Canada to
earn their living Some of them are edu-
Gated men, even doctors, some speaking
perhaps three languages. So strong is
the anti-Semitfc movement in Roumania
that one of the ministers has publicly de-
clared his adherence tesft.
SOME WAGNER ANECDOTES.
Some interesting particulars, not before
known, concerning the origin of Wagner's
Ring des Nibelungen, as well as his rela-
lions to his first wife, have just come to
light here. On Feb. 4, 1884 Wagner then
conductor at the Stadt theater at Magde-
burg, informed his brother Albert that
he was engaged to Nina Planer, an ac-
tress at the same theater.- His brothers
answer seemed cynical enough to the en-.
thusiastic young lover. 1t ran thus;