The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-14
MoBs IN HIGH PLACES.

the mouth of King Henry ". by Shake speare, Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" received a brutal and bloody illustration in Servia last Thursday when King Alexander. Queen Draga and sev- eral officers were assassinated in the dark hours Of the early morning. It was an- other instance of the mobocratic spirit which sent Louis XVI. and Marie An toinette of France to the block more than century ago, only in this latest instance the work was done by officers of the army who. 1t might have been sup posed. would have been most ready to defend the royal household.
 servia Is small country. but little more than one-third the area of Ala bama, and with a population but little larger, but the little Kingdom and its rulers has been q hot-bed of turmoil and dfssensions for centuries. 1t has only been an independent kingdom about a quarter of a century, but nearly all of those years have. been marked by broils and internal quarrels, as well as by for eisn complications. The head of the nom- inal ruler has lain uneasily at all times.
 To say that the King and his Queen were unpopular is to put 1t mildly. His father, King Milan. was virtually forced to abdicate in 1889, in favor of his son. Alexander. who was but 13 years old. When the latter was r he overthrow the regency which had been governing in his name and became King. Some years later he made trip through various European countries in search of royal wife, but his disreputable boyhood and the indifferent reputation of his family were against him and cold .rejections met all his overtures for a mate. He even tried to obtain the hand of rich Amer loan girl, but had no better success. An Incident that followed is thus related {:
 | Returning to his capital he visited the palace of his mother, Queen Natalie Al sexander, and as he ascended the steps he saw passing in the garden woman or wondrous beauty. who who % shot at nan nim from from fatal than most of cupids darts. From that time his doom was sealed, ana ne would have no other than Draga-for It was. sheds his wife.
 This woman was Draga Maschin, lady in- waiting to Alexander's mother. and daughter of a colonel In the army. She had beauty, wit. accomplishments and ambition, with little moral character be- hind them. In this she was a good match for the husband whom she ruled and ruined She was nine years older than he, possessed infinitely moro force of character and more daring. and was fully as interruptions. That such royal pair should live a sort of cat-and-dog life Is not to be wondered at, and in this case 1t was fomented and intensified by Queen Natalie, Alexander's mother, who never forgave Draga for marrying her son. Quarrels and threats of separation were common, and that they did not occasion ally fly at each others throat is a won der. Among the Queens other escapades was an attempt to palm off her sisters child as her own in order that there might be an heir to the Servian throne. Rolled in this she attempted suicide, the King threatened to divorce and drive her off, and, in general, the court and it's inmates seem to have been a thoroughly disreputable lot.
 But all this and much more forms no excuse for the brutal and cowardly man. ner of their taking off. They were un- popular with the army and people, but were probably as good as the latter de- served. That the assassination was the | result of conspiracy, including both civi and military officials is beyond Q doubt It was premeditated and carried out ac' | cording to the program. The brutality oi the act Is equalled only by the equally brutal treatment of the bodies after, wards. They were buried with as much indifference as would have marked the interment of paupers, and then the last scene was a fitting finale to what had gone before. Perhaps they will rest just | as well as though they had been buried
 with all the pomp which usually marks
 the interment of royal personages.
 So ends, for the present, at least, { | bloody drama and a brutal exhibition O mob spirit which reaches from the thron | to the lowest strata of humanity. Tn
 mob which shoots or hangs criminals fuon
 our jails displays the same spirit whicl
 actuated the murderers of Alexander an, Draga. Whether their new ruler. Pete
 Karageorgevitch. will be any improve
 ment on those who have been put out o
 the way remains to be seen. He is no
 yet King and may not be. Probably h
 will be a better ruler than his prede
 cessor. but he may expect an unpleasan
 reign. however he conducts himself. D
 as he may, he must make enemies, an
 the same spirit of mobocracy which ele |
 down. His head will lie uneasy, just a Alexander's did, and his life may als go out before the assassin's bullet. Mob
 in high places are as unreasoning as ar
 those in low places.
 FRUIT AND THINGS.