The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-26
nS|MPLE ELIFERS"
 STARTLE BERLIN Mad King Otto Spends Birthday Looking for the Past THE MOCKERY OF A COURT Domestic Help Problem to Be Solved By one-Kitchen Flat House sys- tem-New Kind of Umbrella
 Invented
THE MOCKERY OF A COURT
BY MALCOLM CLARKE.

BY MaECOEM CIRHkE.
 Special Cable to The Age-Herald. Copy
 right 1907, by W. R. Bearst)
 Berlin, May &.-An American couple of s'Simple Iifers' have startled Berlin cit- izens by walking in the principal streets wearing costumes of extreme simplicity.
 They are Fred Duncan, a brother of Isa- dora Duncan of barefoot dance fame, and his wife. Although they live on nuts and fruit and dress like the ancient Greeks, they have the courage of their convictions to mingle with the populaee fin the streets of a great city.
 MT. Duncan, who has long, flowing hair and beard, wears sort of sheet which reaches to his knees and is thrown over his left shoulder. His arm and shoulder and his legs ar SA.e e and he wears sandals on his feet.
 Mrs Duncan's costume is more ample, reaching to her ankles, but her right arm and shoulder are exposed. She wears sandals, and her hair which Is dressed in the classical style, is uncovered.
 The mad King Otto of Bavaria spent his flfty-ninth birthday as he spends all his days, wandering apout the halls and gardens of his prison castle of F'ursten- Ided He stares vacantly into space, s.looking," as he once said, flor the past"
 The royal lunatic keeps fairly good health but refuses to eat any hot food. For weeks he never breaks his silence. He is attended by his chamberlain, two gentlemen in waiting and two mental specialists These physicians are relieved every month and keep a close watch on the Kings movements.
 A hollow form of court etiquette is serupuousy kept up around the mad king, who sometimes upsets the ceremo- nial by outbursts of frenzy. The sight of any of his relatives throws him into raging passion, so the Regent Prince Leopold keeps away from him. An off call report upon the kings condition is made annually to the Bavarian Par liament by a member of the royal house. hold at Munich, who visits Furstenried once a year.
 The Bavarans celebrated King Otto's birthday as Loyalty if he were a sane and governing monarch instead of a. rav- ing lunatic, imprisoned in a strongly guarded castle and surrounded by the noekery of court.
 The German Emperor has bought the beautiful Achilleion, the residence of the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria in the island on Corfu. He intends to use it as a health resort for the imperial family.
 The announcement of the Kaiser's pur- chase of the Achillelon was quite unex- pected, no preliminary negotiations hav- ing been heard of It was understood that the ill-fated Empress pleasure house was to be acquired by a company for sanatorum and that it was also coveted by a French syndicate for gaming house.
 The Achilleion, which cost $1 ,000 000 to build, has been sold to the Kaiser by the Archbuchess Gisela, the Empress Eliza beth's eldest daughter to whom she left it by CT will. The archducless is the wife ..,1I r,.tn 1.oY of the Austrian imperial family has vis- tied it since the death of the empress in 1898.
 The domestic help problem is to be solved here by the Cne-kitchen flat house system, Houses will be built each con taining many flats, but only one kitchen, where cooking will de bone for the whole of the flats. so that the tenants need keep no private servants at all. All do- mestic work in the flats will be done by the staff of servants common to the whole house,
 Meals will be sent up to each flat by elevator at fixed hours The One-kitchen House company, which is running the scheme, claim that the catering will be no more expensive than if each househoid did their own cooking.
 A Vienna architect has invented new Kind or ulhDftlN Wlllcn lie tldllnS will be almost universally used before long. It docs not require to be touched by the hands at al but is fastned to the shoulders Ii consists of a sort of roof shelter made of silk or stuff and by means of two thin rods and a band across the chest can rest upon the should CTS. When not in use the umbrella can be folded into a very small compass. It is not easy to predict vogue for this new umbrella among ladies, who are so careful of crushing their frills and laees, but for architects, artists, engineers and others who are obliged to work in the rain, it must be very useful and should be found very practical
 The Kaisers renunclation of speeding is intended as an example to be followed by Berlin automobilists generally. all though very few of them ever equalled the pace set at which his majesty used to rush through the city.