Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-26
Followed Upon a Base Act Of the
King Of Portugal.
A RULER OF THE old STYLE
May Be Said to Live Only for
Amusement and Revenge.
HIS MANY LOVE AFFAIRS
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.


Marie Victor Michael Raphael Gabriel Con-
zaSues Xavier Francois d'Assise Joseph
Simon, King Of Portugal and of the AL
garves Of this side and the other side of
the sea in Africa, Lord of Guinea, Duke Of
Braganza and Duke of Saxony, goes his
royal way determined only by his royal
will. When his high-handed acts affect the
world at large, as in the selling of his In
huence to England, he needs backing; but
when they are mere acts of intimacy, bear
ing only on his subjects, Charles Ferdi-
nand the First proves himself to be indeed
king of this side and the other, and an
swerable to no one. The tragic romance
that has just shocked all Lisbon into a
futter OF revolt gives a good idea OF his
ways and works.
Portugal Is a land blessed with a consti-
tuition. Its chamber of peers is composed
OF hfty-two hereditary members, thirteen
prelates, I39 members appointed for life by
the king and fifty members elected by dis
trict delegates and scientific institutions.
Its chamber of deputies is composed of 17S
members elected for four years by direct
Suffrage. Ministries rise and fall, accord
ing to the rules Of the game where minis
tiers are responsible to parliament as in
England and France
one small stipulation Of the constitution,
far to disturb the tranquility of the realm.
NO subject may be elected to the lower
house who cannot justify an Independent
income Of 400 milreis; that is, 400 900 reis.
Whlch means productive capital of 1000.
When Portuguese subject has this big a
stake IN the country he Is regularly a con-
sentative at heart a supporter Of the dy-
nasty and solicitor of royal favor, in
spite or the republican agitations with
which he now and then enlivens existence
In the vale of Braganza.
state councillors who do most of the
business OF the nation, are appointed for
justice is in the hands of other royal APP
pontments. All the important cities have
governors, appointed by the king. The
army Is the kings army. It SO happens
government the king can generally bring
about the thing he wishes to happen.
SOlidly Fixed.
Charles Ferdinand. himself very much a
king, is also the relative of many kings.
Thirty-seven years of age, tall, heavy,
ford and blond he Is mixture Of ma
tionalities. His mother, Maria Pia (still
alive), is an Italian sister to the late King
Humbert and to the CIotilde who was the
mother of the present Bonaparte pretend
ers, Victor and Louis.
Charles Ferdinands father was the son
Of the German Prince Ferdinand of Sake
Coburg-Gotha and first cousin of Queen
Victoria of England and of her consort,
Prince Albert. He became King of Por-
tugal by his marriage with Maria II of
the house of Braganza. being in this i'm
portant detail luckier than his cousin AL
bert or the present princely bridegroom of
Wilhelmina of Holland. for Braganza gave
Its kingdom with It's princess. The Prin-
cess Antonio, aunt of the present king
married German, Prince Hohenzollern, of
the Catholic branch Of the emperor's house.
so that the family may be said to have set
tied itself in that decisive generation even
more snugly than is the Snug-settling habit
Of these Germans.
Charles Ferdinand, when 1t came his turn
to settle, took to wife Amelia, the eldest
sister of Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the
legitimist pretender to the throne of France
things may turn in France, legitimist or
Napoleonic, Charles Ferdinand will find
himself on the ground floor, as he Is already
with England Germany and Italy.
A king so solidly fixed and imposing him
self on a weak little country like Portugal
can do no harm. Having handed over the
foreign relations Of his kingdom to Eng
land for financial considerations which are
the scandal Of Europe. this oid-fashioned
potentate makes its internal government
the plaything of his pleasure. All advance
ment and favor come from the court
through the favorites Of the day. Thanks
to this system. Lisbon remains one of the
most brilliant capitals of Europe.
Inside the court circle all is brightness
and pleasure. Outside Of 1t there Is moth
ing but stagnation and darkness. The life
of pretty woman in this darkness is IN
deed sad one If she cannot find full salts
faction in the restricted circle Of her init
mate family. young girl not Of the
court set Is never permitted to make the
Of young man outside of her
family until the day she becomes engaged
to be married. After her marriage she
never leaves the house unaccompanied by
some elderly female, and that only to morn
ing church and market. She may receive
only women. And at rare dinners and
parties she must keep by her husbands
side. A gloomy consciousness. Of mixed
gossip and religious severity, checks all
the spontaneous gayety of youth, SO that
a girl of good family may grow up to ma
turity and look back to summers on a lone
ly farm as her days of real happiness and
freedom.
The temptation to get out of such a life
into the brilliant Lisbon court set is great
one. The heroine of the present tragedy
had made the passage Her husband, a
physician of rising reputation, distinguished
himself during the plague scare, and he,
man of science imagined
his rise in court favor to be due to his de-
votion to duty in the time Of his country's
danger. Had not Queen Amelia wept by
the death bed Of another Portuguese ply
sician, victim to the plague? Alas! Queen
Amelia Is one and her royal husband Is
another. The beautiful young wife soon
began to have suspicious of the real foun-
dalton Of their new success. and when sus-
picions ,ripened into certainty she found she
had to make her choice, She chose success.
Price Paid for Fame.
Her husband became physician attached
to the royal house. He was decorated with
the ribbon Of the Order Of Our Lady of the
Conception of Villa Vicosa. From an OBJ
scure general practitioner, giving I'D his
leisure to Independent Investigations, he
found himself to have become, without ef-
fort, a high-paid specialist Of the govt, for
which he was supposed to be treating his
ROYAL patient and the fashionable consulta-
lions that overwhelmed him left him no
time to wonder how and why they came to
him.
At the same time his young wife became
a court beauty. Her photographs circulated
to Paris and London. and the Lisbon
branches Of the great dressmaking estab-
lishments sent costumes to her without the
bills. At the kings desire she became at
tached to the household Of Queen Amelia
That noble lady, who has for long time
gone her own way of neglect bravely, put
no blame on the new favorite. She had
seen too many others come and go to be
disturbed by the advent of this little out
slider.
When the unhappy physician at last
learned his fate It is characteristic of
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