The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-10
One of Europe's Many Scandals
Discussed in Emily Crawford'S
Paris Letter.
PRINCE PHILIP MEAN
Nobody Believes He Has Paid the
Creditors of His Seques-
tered Wife.
YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS
What She Had to Contend Against
at Home and at the Aus
TRAN Court.

PARIS, April 9.-NObOdy believes Prince /
Philip Of Coburg's account given in letter |
to Vienna paper under tie hand of his |
advocate. OF his handsome treatment Oh
the creditors of his wife. the Princess |
Louise of Belgium, now in a private asylum
near Dresden. He states that she costs |
him near 72.0oo francs a year. and that he |
paid her debts to the amount of 100000 |
francs. He does not give the name OF a
single creditor whose debt he discharged.
She is. he says. not sequestrated. though
her weakness OF mind has been we'll es-
tabIished, and she even makes pleasure
trips and has been TO Elster and to Schan-
dau for sea bathing and has been to Italy.
What she still owes, he adds, will probably
be covered by her share of what money
the late Queen of the Belgians left The
prince ignores the late Queens will and
the suit against King Leopold that is still
pending at Brussels. If the King is defeated
and he has not made away with his great
private fortune. then the daughters would
each have the third of the half of that
fortune. But it would be easier to catch
a bird by casting salt on its tail than to
get the better of King Leopold in a money
affair.
Prince Philip denies that he was a party
10 the proceedings in criminal law against
Lieutenant Mattachich, the lover of the
Princess Louise, who, ii may be remem-
bered, was prosecuted for having swinded
by forged papers Marcus Splitter and Fried
rich Reicher of $4,000 forms, convicted of
having attempted to do So" and given
five years Imprisonment. The prince ex-
pressly, his advocate states, declined to
interfere in the prosecution because he had
fought duel with Mattachich. No doubt.
But Prince Philip. brother of the Prince of
Bulgaria, father-in-law Of the German En-
press's brother, and society king in Buda-
pest and Vienna, could crush Mattachich
without appearing In court. The trial was
military and Dreyfus affair.
RELEASE is ORDERED
I prefer believing the gross abnormal ex-
preston of Prince Philips countenance to
his advocates ex parte statement. The
Indignation of the Emperor of Austria at
the Mattachich trial, and his order for
that officers release the moment he ascer-
tanned what lay behind the prosecution
speak loudly for the Croatian lieutenant.
Why SHOULD there have been a prosecution
were 1t net for a wish to give satisfaction
to the prince. who had been thrice in the
duel with Mattachich at the mercy of the
latter. and felt Inundated when it was
over at owing his life to his adversary?
THE Recollections of Louise of Coburg,"
which Mattachich found in her desk and
has published in volume. is to come out
here as a journalistic feuilleton. The book
Is suppressed at Vienna and the copyright
will be strictly guarded. The princess
gives an account. it appears, of her sad
childhood; Of what she used to overhear
about King Leopold's going-on, but with
out any hostile animus. She breaks out
into anger, however. when speaking of a
telegram received from him in the spring
Of 1896 1t is thus worded:
Father desires daughter to keep screen.
Screen must be husband. In that case
what passes behind it will not concern any
one.
By this he meant that he did not mind
her beng unfaithful wife as long as
she k pt outwardly on good terms with
Coburs. This. must say, is the rule OF
high society all over Europe. 1t appeared.
however. to the princess, who was sick of
the matrimonial chain, "a filthy. dirty bit
OF advice" She went shortly after to Brus-
sells. where her mother said to her: ION
the whole. I think it would be more moral
to divorce than to live as you are doing"
Prince Philip is fourteen years older than
his wife. She speaks of having felt the
greatest aversion to him and wanted badly,
when the hour came for her to leave Bru.;-
sells with him, not TO go. She would have
insisted on staying if her mother had not
persuaded her. After a short honeymoon
Trip, which included visit to the Chateau
dEu, (to the Comte and Confess de Paris
and to Chantilly, the castle of the Duo
A1 UNI e., her great uncle and the uncle
OF the bridegroom, they settled down at
the palace or the Coburg Koharys at
Budapest
Il was" said Louise. beautiful. and did
not lack admirers. / became the spoiled
child OF Hungarian society / had high
spirits, the joy OF life. and liked fun and
mischief My mirth. though innocent, was
tll-interpreted by envious persons. As TO
the prince, he neither felt nor knew how to
treat young. inexperienced wife There
was something revolving in his manner of
regarding me as his property-as a pretty
woman who belonged to him Just as much
as the watch in his fob His brother the
Prince OF Bulgaria. fell passionately in love
with me. His passion impelled him TO pur-
sue me with his attentions. He saw how
cramped were my means and offered me
any money l wanted. All this used to sick
en- me, and awoke TO the consciousness of
living in vile world"
DID NOT SUSPECT HIM.
The princess stood in respectful awe of
the Emperor Francis Joseph. He appeared
to her unswervingly just, and when the
court and society cast stones at her she
never suspected that he gave them encour-
agement- The attacks would have been
made by persons who had access to the
back stairs of the palace and TO the private
inquiry Office of the court. The police sys-
TEN Is great organization and its ramifi-
cations extend all over the city and the
residential districts. 1t may be a necessary
evil seeing what a rookery the court and
the subcourts OF the different archdukes
and archduchesses form. The young arch
dukes want To sow wild oats, the elderly
want 10 compensate themselves for having
teen Obliged TO marry women of their rank
and the latter try TO avenge themselves for
being neglected by their husbands
Each has his or her house hold of honor
Each draws handsome civil list income
Not one OF them is obliged TO make a
strenuous effort In any direction. They
and their courtiers form combinations of
small ill-natured, not 10 say spiteful, men
and women.
The Emperor has a hard time trying 10
Keep the big tribe OF cousins in order and
his police are not less busy in preventing
scandals from breaking out
An art bookbinder tells that the Car
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