The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-02-23
THE SIMPLE LIFE WHICH
SOME ROYAL PEOPLE LIVE
European Rulers and Their Kin Grow Tired OF
Grandeur and FormaIity---Sweden's DEM
ocratic King---ExampIes From Austria.

and at every hour of the day and
night He longs sometimes for escape
from that gaze of the audience which
necessarily subjects his nerves TO a
strain And so it is with rulers, with
princes and princesses of the blood
They. too, become wearied of being
perpetually in the eyes of the public,
of playing a role, no matter how exaIt-
ed, to the gallery. of feeling that their
every word and gesture, their appear
ance and their apparel, are the SUD-
iect of comment, and Of prying
curiosity which at times does not dis
dain the use of opera and field glass
es. To some of them who suffer from
shyness. the consciousness of feeling
themselves the cynosure of all eyes is
a positive torture to which they can
never become entirely accustomed.
The three daughters of King Edward,
the late Duke of Clarence and the late
Empress of Austria all have suffered
from this form of sensitiveness. and
those who best know Emperor William
insist that, at any rate throughout the
earlier years of his reign, much of his
aggressiveness of manner was due to
an anxiety to conceal shyness that
was all to his credit.
SEEK CHANGE OF SCENE.
A few weeks hence will find most of
the crowned heads of Europe leaving
their dominions in search of change or
scene at Southern winter resorts. If
they are always so delighted to get
away, and if they consider the absence
from their own country in the light
of a real holiday, 1t is not because
they are in any way lacking in love
for their native land, but merely be-
cause it means temporary emancipa-
ton from the ceremonial. the pomp,
the etiquette and, above all, from the
publicity of court life. When away
from home they can mingle with the
crowd, can pass among the latter I'M
perceived and unmolested, can obtain,
indeed, a taste of the existence or a
plain everyday citizen-and it would
seem that they like the taste, that they
appreciate it's advantages. In fact,
when they are forced to return ana
to resume the harness of monarchy, 10
submit their necks again to its yoke,
they talk fegretfully of their holiday
being at an end" and of the resump-
ton of their illustrious status as II
it were a species of gilded captivity.
Every reigning family furnishes in
stances OF princes and prineesses who
have sought the simple life, and who
have manifested their sympathy with
the sentiments to which the new King
of Sweden has just given notable ex-
pression. He himself has brother
Oscar by nane-who resigned his pre-
negatives ard rank as q prince of the
blood and became an ordinary Swedish
citizen in order to wed the non-royal
maiden of his choice, Miss Ebba Munk,
who was one of his mothers maids Of
honor. Oscar is to-day Count Wis
borg, and it is possible that his domes-
tic happiness sometimes causes his
brother, King Gustaf, to roget that ne
himself was not permitted to sacrlnce
his position as crown prince IN order
to wed the girl to whom he was pas
sionately devoted-a pastors daughter
and was compelled in lieu thereof to
contract a matrimonial alliance based
on dynastic considerations. The king $
youngest brother, Prince Eugene,
spends much of his time abroad, chief
ly at Paris and Berlin, where, under
the name of IN. Eugene" he leads the
life to which he is devoted-namely,
that of an artist. He is extremely
clever with the brush, exhibited a
number of his pictures at the worlds
fairs of Chicago and st. Louis, and for
several years had a studio in the ar
tistic quarter at Paris, where no one
had any idea of his identity, knowing
him merely as a painter.