Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-19
QUEEN AMEL|E IS
NERvY MOTOR|ST
KING LEOPOLD, ON DUTY, IS A
MARTINEZ
Prince Victor Napoleon Says Of Her
in His Memoirs That She Is
an Accomplished Short
Story Writer
Special Cable to The Herald.

Special cable to The Herald.
BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 1S.-That
Prince Victor Napoleon has renounced
his right as the Bonaparte pretender to
the French throne, in favor of his
brother, Prince Louis, lieutenant gen.
eral in the Russian army was made
public three months ago. 1t seems now
that the prince abandoned statecraft
for literature He has just published
a volume of memoirs, which will GER
tainly rank among the most entertain
ing royal productions of the kind. The
second volume, to appear soon, will
contain sketches of famous court beau
ties, including some American women.
Through his mother, Princess Clo-
thilde of Savoy, he is related to most
of the reigning royal houses of Europe.
and he is on terms of intimacy with
the prince and princesses who figure
most conspicuously in the history of our
own times.
Prince Victor throws some interesting
sidelights on royal litterateurs he has
known. OF these he considers Queen
Amelie of Portugal entitled to the first
place. The queens great hobby. as is
well known, is medicine. She has taken
her degree of M. D., and has, when oc-
casion required it, acted as physician
to the king, her husband, and to her
sons. What is less generally known.
says Prince Victor, is that Queen Anne
lie is an accomplished short story
writer, and the author of several novels
dealing with social life in Portugal,
and published under the non de plume
of Chilosa.
Queen Amelie is the most enthusiast
tic of royal motorists, and has done
much to make motoring popular among
women in Portugal. The queen was
a the ninnanrG of motoring a,
pursuit for women, and started eight
years ago with French twelve horse
power machine. The first day on which
she took the reins, or rather the wheel
of office on her motor, she guided it
successfully through the thick of Lis
bon traffic. Prince Victor was present
on that occasion and states that never
before or since has he seen woman
motorist possessed of so much nerve"
Since that time the queen has driven
her car considerably more than sixty
thousand miles. Her present automobile
is a twenty-four horsepower French
car with whose performances she is
delighted. She literally lives on it,
travels everywhere by road, and re-
CARDS the railroad merely as a conven-
ience for the conveyance of the SER
wants and luggage.
Queen Amelie is an expert in artistic
time ago, a guild in Lisbon for the en-
couragement of this art among ladies.
The jewelry designed by the queen is
both original and beautiful. At the re-
cent exhibition of applied art in Brus-
sells she received a first prize for her
gold and applique jour enamel pend
ants.
Leopold at Heart an Autocrat
Prince Victor tells some things about
7 1rrI,i cI1 a monarch
up in a new light.
LEOPOLD H." says Prince Victor, 'is
by nature an autocrat and would have
found himself in congenial surround
ings as czar of all the Russias In de-
fault of the Muscovite empire King
Leopold has been obliged to console
himself with the Congo. The Belgian
sovereign is credited abroad with being
a man of democratic tastes whose con-
ception of the mission of kings is dia-
metrically opposed to that Of the Ger
man emperor The king in his inter-
course with foreigners of distinction,
more especially with Americans like
Pierpont Morgan, with whom he has
had business dealings, gives the i'm
preston of being a man with up-to-
date ideas, entirely free from caste.
prejudice.
"As a matter of fact no European
crowned head is more thoroughly aris-
tocratic in his feelings than King
Leopold. AS disciplinarian, he could
give points to the k~iser. Never, un-
der any circumstances, does he allow
himself to be questioned. On this last
point the king is inflexible, as is shown
by the following anecdote:
1.-THE king, on one occasion, was Wis,
iting the town of Client, accompanied
by an aide-de-camp. On approaching
the new port of Client the aide-de-
camp took it upon himself to point
out to the king the advantages which
the town would derive from the port
and ended by asking Leopold his opin-
ion on the subject. The king made no
reply, and the aide-de-camp attribut-
ed the sovereign's silence to absent
mndedness. On the following day,
however, the loquacious aide-de-camp
received an order from the kings sec.
retary to send in. a detailed history OF
Client as a seaport from the earliest
times to the present day! Since then
the kings aide-de-camps have re-
Trained from addressing their SOW
ereign until questioned by him."