Mexico weekly ledger., 1911-03-09

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 a 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
TO him for nothing.
The reyolutionaries needed only
that single indiscretiOn 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. Nile. Gaby Deslys
may not have received the price he
paid for the kisses chat her pretty
mouth vouchsafed him; but Manuel as
suredly paid it over to the blood-stain-
ed creditors who demanded it. The
bitterest part Of 1t 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
nothing-handsome 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 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 be 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
pttiless hands of his foes.
Servian Monareh'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
ever accepted has been that ven
geance found him out suddenly. in
stantly in the midst of his sin.
The whole houseful of heirs to the
ancient and powerful empire of Aus
tria has proved cheerfully ready to
give up all for love. Archduke Jo-
seph Ferdinand, madly in love with
Fraulein Nitzko, the daughter of a
Viennese restaurant keeper, flung
away his chances for the throne by
fleeing with her to Germany. He had
been placed In line of succession by
the same sort of romance on the part
OF his brother, the Archduke Leopold
Salvador, who married a soubrette
named Adamowicz eight years ago.
He has been followed in the success.
sion by the Archduke Francis Fer.
dinand, who as openly defed Emper-
or Francis Joseph and all the laws of
the realm BY marrying Countess So
phia Chotek, the lovely widow Of a
Hungarian nobleman.
But that last defiance, with the Low.
er the only heir left, broke the anathe-
ma that had been previously visited
on all those royal lovers Of the reign.
ing family. After years of futile ef.
tort TO part them the old emperor has
been compelled to acknowledge his