The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-25
KING FERDINAND
IS A FRENCHMAN
Really a Member of the House
of Orleans
CUPID HAS DIFFICULTIES
Relief stands In the Why of Marriage
Between Ex-suItan's Daughter and
Prince Alexander of servia.
A village Tragedy

Paris, July 24-The recent visit to
Paris of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria
with his queen recalls that while the
Car of the Bulgars was German
princeling before he was called to the
Bulgarian throne, he is really a member
of the House of Orleans and his train
ing was largely French. He was the
younger son of Princess Clementtne of
Orleans, and it was largely due to her
efforts that he was given the Bull
garian throne when Prince Alexander
was deposed
-Four and-twenty years ago Ferdin-
and figured in the court set of Vienna
and the Hungarian Society of Buda-
Pest as a brilliant and very handsome
cavalry officer, voluptuous, something
of petit .maitre in his love of mater
ial elegancies, and only serious as a
botanist and ornithologist
He was member of the brilliant but
dissolute circle of which Crown Prince
Rudolph was the center He has since
deveoped into a wise statesman and
has advanced Bulgaria from Turkish
province to an independent kingdom.
Twenty-three years ago Sofia was a
sordid village; 1t is now a fine modern
capital with public buildings that would
be a credit to no matter what great
city. The wild country has been cover
ed with roads, and mountain gullies
are being damned to store water for
irrigation. The peasantry thrive. greatly.
They pour into Sofia on their ox-drawn
wains to bring their farm and garden
produce to the markets there.
The king Is a seeker after knowledge.
His visit to the rose garden of Baga-
telle with the Queen was at once made
for pleasure and the good of his people.
One of their staple trades Is rose Gull
ture for the making of essence. He kept
secretary busy through his long
visits writing down the questions he
put to the head gardener and the
answers. His botanic garden at his
place near Varna covers nothing less
than territory, and has many distinct
climates Ferdinand aspires to make
1t a wonder of the world and Will
doubtless do 1t.
Particular pains were taken to show
attention, to the King and Queen. while
here, notA only because he Is a son of
France but because 1t is generally
recognized that he Is the most domi-
nant force in the Balkans and 1T is not
beyond the realm of the possible tn at
he will In time practically rule that
country.
As to the talked-of marriage of a
daughter of the ex-Sultan and Prince
Alexander of Servia, there are still diff
ficulties in the way. He could not be
converted to the Koran, and there Is a
great fear that were she to go from
STEAMBOAT the bride OF a Giaour, the
common people might rise in rebellion
against the union and progress commit
tee. One of the reasons why they and
their step-mothers were removed from
the villa serving as the fallen Sultan's
prison is that he used to test his medi-
cines on them If they showed symp-
toms of poison he had made up his
mind to discard the pills, powders. or
draughts the chemist might have, on a
doctors prescription sent in to him.
Professor II. Vincent of the Val de
Grace military hospital, seems to be
on the high road towards a discovery
which will be of the utmost import
ance to mankind, if. indeed, he has not
already achieved 1t. A faithful disciple
of the great Pasteur, he has been de-
voting particular attention to prophy-
Tactics against typhoid fever. Ever since
M. Chantemesse and Vidal started on
this path a number of savants. includ-
Ing Wright, Leish mann, Pfeiffer and
Koch have followed in their track.
They employed vaccines from dead
bacilli, but there were manifest draw
backs. Then recourse was had to live
baccilli, but even in an attenuated form
LA
ing SO far as to produce typhoid IN
subjects which happened to be predis-
posed to 1t. The problem, therefore,
remained extremely puzzling. TIL ere
ought to be some solution, but in what
direction did 1t lie?
This is question to which Professor
H. Vincent claims to have found an an
swer, and he has developed 1t in an i'm
'portant communication which he has
made to the Academy of Medicine, or
which he is one of the youngest men,
bers.
A grim village tragedy was reported in
Bordeaux recently. An old man of 70,
named Drouot, was dying in his cottage
at Seoncourt, and sent for his three
sons so that he might, he said, divide
his money among them.
The old man was known to be miser,
message sent by their father They re-
fused to go to his death bed, but the
third son went. AS he entered the room
the old man raised himself In bed, drew
a gun from under the clothes, shot his
son through the heart and blew out his
own brains.
In the mattress of the dead mans bed
were found notes and gold to the value Of
over $4,000. .-t
Princess Ghika, who is better known
as Nine. Lame de Pougy, has been
awarded $50 damages against a, man and
two women who made rude remarks
about a hat she wore some months ago
at st. Germans. The princess lawyer
telegarphed the news to his client In
these words you win the hat stake,
SEQ"
A "resister,' passive or otherwise, is
a rare bird among French taxpayers
they are generally more inclined to be
of the opinion Of the lady who-the other
Gay protested Indignantly because the tax
collector had forgotten her, and wrote to
the minister of finance, asking: Am l
nobody that i should receive no tax
papers?''
But one, NJ Georges LHermitte, offers
a rare, perhaps a unique, example. He
can hardly, perhaps. be called passive.
but an active. resister, and has embarked
on a campaign which he intends to see
through Only the lawyers know what 1t
will cost him, and perhaps even they
don't.
This gentlemen observed that the MEM
bers of the Paris Municipal council, who
are supposed to be unpaid. have made
themselves out of the towns burget an
allowance described not as salary. but as