Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-03-17

very decided opinions, at the time Of
the one-night revolution, that it was
the kiss of Mile. Gaby Deslys that
cost him the throne.
Just Boy King.
To look at Nile. Gaby the average
man might confess to a willingness
to sacrifice bouquet or two or the
front seat in the motor car for few
kisses; but he would think several
times before he would take a chance
on swapping gold-plated ancestral
throne for her, luminous eyes includ-
ed.
The trouble about being a boy king,
as Manuel was. is that boy kings don't
even think twice, especially Spanish
and Portuguese kinglets Manuel had
sought all over Europe for a pretty
princess who would take her chances
beside him on the throne, with the
dynamite and the rifle bullets which
the Portuguese conspirators handle so
loosely liable to happen along any
minute; and he was really in quite
an unhappy frame of mind when he
ran across Mile Deslys.
And that is the time when a pretty
woman's lips look most alluring. He
was not much more than boy, and a
boy can't be expected to know that
kisses are expensive, because he is
so near. to his childhood, when all
womankind seems eager to give them
20 him for nothing.
The revolutionaries needed only
that single indiscretior to give them
the weapon they needed to insure
popular support-the boy king was
going the way of all kings, duplicat-
ing the career of his father. Carlos.
wasting the wealth of the people on
a French actress. Mile. Gaby Deslys
may not have received the price he
paid for the kisses that her pretty
mouth vouchsafed him; but Manuel as
suredly paid 1t over to the blood-stain-
ed creditors who demanded 1t. The
bitterest part of it has been that near
ly every other pretty woman who had
met him was believed to be willing to
let him take twice as many kisses for
neutrality-suspicious. young kings being
rather scarce-while he still held his
royal position.
But he came of rather luckily In his
misfortune as compared with the ap-
palling tragedy that was enacted a
few years ago in Servia, when King
Alexander, equally foolish king and
yet more ardent lover, closed a career
OF miserable ineptitude and the rash
est follies with all the splendid cour-
age of the primal, heroic man, defend
ing the woman he had mated with.
Queen Draga was of the same class
as Manuel's inamorata, but far more
notorious. She gave the same weapon
for her lovers destruction into the
pitiless hands of his foes.
Servlan Monarch's Romance.
But Servia's monarch, If he was
reckless, had the courage Of his love.
He married her, made her his queen,
with full knowledge of the risk he ran.
And when, in the alarm of that as
sassins midnight raid, he might have
saved himself by leaving her to the un-
escapable fate they confronted, he
fought out the hopeless fight there
beside her, and persisted with her.
Life and throne Servia's king gave
for woman's kisses; but there are few
men with blood in their veins who
will believe that royal lover gave his
soul
But all three may have been the
price paid by Austria's Crown Prince
Rudolf for the kisses of the Baroness
Betsera, with whom he was desperate
ly in love. The pair were found dead
In the hunting seat Of Mayerling, and
the only explanation of the tragedy