Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
STIREWDEST OF
EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS
KING OF THE BELGIANS, is SEW
ENTY YEARS OLD TODAY.

| Born on the 9th of April 1885. Leopold II.
King of the Belgians, today makes fifth
| in that little coterie of mouarchs who com
| pose 1.-THE old guard of Europe's rulers"
| Christian of Denmark, at eighty-siX, the
| Nestor among them, Oscar of Sweden and
| Norway, Carol of Roumania, and Franz
Josef of Austria-each of these seventy
! five-are the others, with whom the gray
| bearded old gentleman who knows Brussels
as his capital, may now be popularity as
ISOLATED. 1t seems to have been accepted
that one must have rounded out the biblical
three score years and ten to become d
| grand old man."
Endless are the stories told of Leopold.
No living monarch is more in the eye of
the world. He is heartily disapproved of
by certain ones because of gay happen
ings' which are said to have come into his
career. while others speak of him only en-
Enthusiastically because of the simplicity of
his habits and the broad democracy of his
life He is said to be the richest of all
Europe's sovereigns. He has proved him
self one of the ablest business men of the
century.
Married in August of 1858 to Marie Hen
rlette, daughter of ArChduke Joseph of
Austria, Leopold is today widower with
no sons. There are three daughters-C lemen-
tine, the youngest 0hirty three. Louise and
Stephanie-but the heir presumptive to the
throne is the kings brother, Philip, Count
OF Flanders, now sixty-eight
Discordant Domestic Life.
AT one time another the monarch has
| quarreled with each of his daughters, be-
ing at present decidedly ''at outs" with the
Princess MISUNDERSTANDING the most
beautiful of the three handsome women
| because of her recently expressed determin-
alton to marry Prince Louis Napoleon
Clementine has not been on the best of
terms with her father since last Decem-
ber when her sisters brought action against
nun to recover portion of the late queens
estate, but should her present plans carry
| she Will have no need for this or any other
money, as Prince Napoleon will inherit
very considerable fortune from the ex-Iim-
press Eugene
| The world has heard much of the troubles
| or the other two princesses. Louise of
SaXe-Coburg, married to her cousin Philip,
mas out recently escaped with Count Mata-
| cflich, from the madhouse wherein her hus-
| band had confined her, while no longer
| ago than the funeral of Queen Henrietta in
| the autumn of 1902, the Brussels dispatches
| told how Stephanie, widow of the Arch
| duke Rudolph of Austria and wife of Count
| Lonyay, had by her fathers orders been
| driven from her mothers bier
While that same memorial service was
| being held, hawkers threaded the crowds
in the streets outside the cathedral selling
| post cards as mementos of the sad occa-
| sion. They were calling out: Buy some
thing which has never been seen!'-for their
cards bore 'faked-up" photograph of the
entire royal family, grouped happily to-
gether. For years before the death of the
queen, Leopold had not been on speaking
terms with her. leaving her in seclusion at
Spa, while he travelled through Europe
playing the gallant in half its capitals"
the Partisan boulevardiers declare.
Calls Them Legends"
AS may be natural, the genial old mon
arch himself denies these stories The
gayety of nations has been enlivened no lit
tie by the accounts of his royal attentions
to pretty actresses and stage dancers, but
he Classics them all as mere legends.
THAT Mademoiselle Cleo yarn is an espe-
cially pretty one" says he but it is purely
legendary. 1 have had the pleasure of see
ing the lady but once, and that was at a
ball where she introduced to me as a
rising star at the Academy of Music L con-
graduated her upon her beauty but that
was all.
These scandals connected with the kings
name have created the impression that he
is merry old monarch with an eve to moth
ing but the frivolites of life. On the con-
trary he is one of the busiest and most
methodical men in Europe. At Laeken his
hab1tual residence, he rises at in summer
and but little later in winter. After brisk
walk in the palace gardens, he goes to his
desk and examines the Brussels mail All
Of this comes before the o'clock breakfast,
which Leopold usually eats alone the Prin-
cess Clementine keeping her apartments
Afterward he sets to work again in his
study, until time (9:30) for his 'constitu-
tional" which he takes with an orderly for
company. Returning to the palace about
II, he proceeds to his "boule d'eau" a
carafe containing two tumblers of distilled
water, and then 1t is mail and reports again,
then a horseback canter, then luncheon and
then the drive to the capital where audi
ences are held from l to 4.
Between tea and dinner the king enjoys
his only hour of relaxation, for even the
evening is usually given to affairs of state
His reading, too, has become a matter of
duty more than pleasure, and consists of
newspapers first and foremost; then COM
mercial reports of various sorts and then
when by chance bit of time is left after
all these have been devoured there NAV
come, last of all, some present-day novel
The Laeken library is fine one but its
royal owner is too busy with the actuali-
ties of today to spare time for literary
classics
His office resembles nothing so much as
that of some money king in the states
There Is one big easy chair, well worn but
beyond this no comforts. Everywhere stand
desks and cupboards, with many drawers
and roomy shelves, all we'll filled with ma
pers eloquent of practical work.
A Millionaire Promoter.
M. Lorand, writing in 'LEuropeen,"
called Leopold 1.-The richest ruler of the
orally so accepted, the mans wealth is not
due to his civil list, for that amounts to
but 100000 year, while the monarchs of
Turkey, Russia, Germany and Italy, Eng
land. Austria, Japan and Spain all received
salaries ranging from the sultan's S1O,-
100000 to Alfonso's 81 100000. The secret
is that Leopold 1 was a wise economist,
placing his money cleverly in the DAYS
when royal investors had rich chances to
increase their personal funds The second
Leopold is in this "a chip of the old block"
or perhaps, even, goes few better on the
old blocks example.
Only the other day the news came out of
the far east that the Belgian king had
transferred to ]. P. Morgan his holdings in
the Canton-Hankow road, a railway line
covering some 1000 miles of most promis-
Ing virgin territory. This was but one of
Leopold's Chinese investments, while there /
are others in the south of Africa and in the
United States, as well as in half the CAPT
tails of Europe. On the continent 1t is real /,
estate mortgages which this very business
like monarch buys; in South Africa it is