The Washington herald., 1911-12-24
THE BLACK GEORGES.

| Numerous are the members of the
| Karageorgevitch family (the BLACK
| GeorSes'D, who in recent years have
| visited Paris and resided in the beauti-
full capital by the Seine There was Ar
sene Karageorgevitch, who at one time
was engaged to be married to the portly
dame who presided over the destinies of
| the Bar du Helder in the Rue du HeIder
When Cousin" Peter succeeded to the
blood -bathed regicide throne of Servia,
the lady herself broke off the engage
ment. 1t would have been a mesaIliance,
she said. and all the big hated damsels
| who were the chief frequenters of that
bar applauded her resolution.
| What has become of Kara ?'-the
nickname bestowed upon Arsene by his
| Partisan confreres.
: This is what his old boon companions
are pathetiCally asking. He was a good
| natured, popular Bohemian type of per-
son. and he leaves them without news.
Bojdar was another of the Kings
: cousins. perhaps the most intelligent and
! cultivated Of them all. His whole life
| had been spent in poverty with his old
mother in a shabby fiat near Montpar-
nasse. waited upon by one old servant.
too devoted to expect the wages which
her employers could not afford to pay.
|
| Boiidar and his mother after Peters &C
cession. but he died of consumption, ac-
celebrated by being run over by a bus,
before help could reach him. He eked
out his narrow income by manufac cturing
art objects-spoons, leather pocketbooks.
dish trays. and the Iike-but his designs
| were heavy, dismal reflections, poor fell
low. of himself.
King Peter of Servia on his arrival in
ariS rouSf felt DOpe n
Genoa at Versailles in his triumphal
drive from the BOs de Boulogne station
to the foreign ministry. An effect of the
sensational monstrosties and surprises
with which the Partisan press furnishes
its readers every day is to make them
confuse foul with fair.
The few persons still living who could
not forget the coup detat'' massacre
on the boulevards in the eighteen years
of the second empire have no memory
for the midnight tragedy that hoisted
King Peter from a Photographic studio
at Geneva onto the throne of Servia.
What greatly surprises is that one OF
the three presidents forming the state
trinity who went TO greet him as he
stepped from the train. is a man Of
truly upright conscience. and of a long
and spotIess Iife-namely. Brisson. You
its level as this triumph of King Peter
not to stimulate the growth of anarchism.
There is a grim side to the levity with
which he was paraded in what regal
state a republic can employ in that drive
between lines of troops in gala uniforms
and from the Bois Station TO the foreign
ministry There were no artificial fruits
and flowers stuck on the trees of the
houlevards. when the Car and
Czarina came to Paris; hut otherwise the
ceremonial was the same.
There was not an iota OF difference
from that with which Kings Edward.
Oscar. Gustav, Haakon, Alfonso, and
Victor Emmanuel were received and en-
: tertained. Peter had the additional
feather in his cap of being hailed
by the president of the town council of
Paris and the prefect or the Seine as a
hero on the French side of the war OF
1870 and an honor to st. CYr. from which
he was graduated. 1t appears that he
has behind him a bank that is prepared
to issue a Servian loan.
King Peter in 1870 saw his opportunity
in the war to issue from obscurity. and
dare say from poverty. He then was
thin to attenuation with long neck. at
that time a mere youth. But the future
majesty of Servia looked not A bit ma
iestiC. Gambetta spoke Of him as n pre-
tender of some sort. He had been thrust
the Germans have since accused ii of
being. I asked whether 1t might not he
dangerous to have him near Bourbaki
and possibly near the German commander
at AuXerre.
Kara-then his military name-hated
the second empire for having, when the
news that MiIosch had been assassinated. !
preferred young Milan. a schoolboy at
the Louis lie Grand Lycee, to himself. a
st. Cyr graduate.
The tart correspondence between the |!
Spanish Infanta Eulalia-as published in |
her 'memoirs''- and King Alfonso bares |
a phase of modern royalty little known !
to the public. The natural and inevitable !
impression which the outer world has of |
the European royal clan, which number |
only about 1.5O0 persons in all it's fami- |
lies. is that they live care-free lives. re- |
lieved of-most of the bands and bonds of |
morals. enjoying all the luxuries of life !