Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-06-21
THE sERvlAN THRONE.
Two Press Agencies Are at Work on
Its Heir.

It's HGtr.
Servia is the land of comic opera
when it is not the scene of hideous
melodrama, says p. T. o. For the
moment, fortunately, the performance
is one Of pure farce. For some time
past there have been ugly rumors
abroad that Crown Prince George, the
heir to Peters tottering throne, is out
OF his mind, and that the Karageorge-
witch dynasty has again come nearly
to the end of his tether. These sto-
ries, the ministry in its wisdom discov-
cred, were prejudicial to the dignity
and reputation Of the country in the
comfy of nations. The minister-pres-
ident has therefore hit upon the happy
idea of inviting a self-conducted party
of Viennese journalists to visit Bel
grade in order to convince themselves,
by the evidence of their own eyes,
that the heir to the throne is we'll
behaved young man, and that there is
no conspiracy on foot against the dy-
nasty AT the moment, therefore
party of press men are inspecting the
Konak and enjoying an interesting
trip, with a full sense of their self
importance. What the manoeuvre
may prove, except the guilelessness of
M. Passic, one is at a loss to discover.
Nowhere is truth hidden in deeper
well than in the Balkans, more espe-
cially in Servia. There the party of
the malcontent regicides have started
press bureau" for the propagation
of news" and the government has
founded an opposition establishment
to contradict it. This news filters
through Vienna, where it is edited for
the purposes of consumption else
where as may best suit the views of
the wire-pullers in Austria. Russia, 1t
is true, has her own news service
but not for publication. Hence the
wild stories of the escapades of King
Peters son are very likely to lose
nothing in the telling. At the same
time the sullen looking, heavy-jowled
boy-a thoroughly ill-conditioned spe-
cimen of the spoilt child, is just the
type likely to be addicted to ungovern-
able fits of temper. On one occasion,
when a servant was too slow in pull
ing off his riding boots, he drove his
spurs into the unfortunate mans
face. On another attacked his aide
de-camp with a drawn sword.
1t seems pretty we'll established
that last year he bolted to Vienna
on none too creditable an errand, and
was fetched back by the scruff of his
neck. He is now saddled with debt,
and one can understand that the
Skuptina requires lot of persuasion
before it can be induced to grant him
an appanage, and that King Peter can
do without his company in the Konak
Whether the more sensational stories
of his misbehavior are true or not, one
would not care to have to decide;
otherwise, weakness of intellect would
be the only charitable excuse for them
Thus on the day of the Festival"
while the king was driving to the
church in state, his hopeful son was
seen driving to the palace none too
sober in a hired conveyance after a
nights debauchery. On another &C.
casion, after an orgy in his own apart
ments, he and his companions went in
the dead of night to the throne room,
and, with a paper crown and an i'm
provised regalia, went through the par.
ody of mock coronation. These are
only an anthology of the more repu-
table stores which refuse to be hushed
up. In these bouts King Peter is the
only man who seems to have any
authority over his own son and he
can only exercise it by keeping him
loced up in his bedroom till the fit has
passed. The remedy that finds favor
in Belgrade at present is to put the
crown prince into a home, and to
transfer the succession to his brother,
Prince Alexander. If Nemesis were,
indeed, on the track of the Karageorge-
witches, it would, all things consider
ed be little more than poetic justice.