Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 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 rife 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 revolutionaries 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-
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 it. 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
rather scarce-while he still held his
royal position.
But he came off rather luckily in his
misfortune as compared with the ap-
palling tragedy~t was enacted
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.
Servian Monarch's Romance.
But Seryia'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 I'M
escapable fate they confronted he
fought out the hopeless fight there
beside her, and persisted with her.
Life and throne Seryia'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. Arohduke 10
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 scubrette
named Adamowicz eight years ago
He has been followed in the success
sion by the Archduke Francis Fer
dinand, who as openly defied Emper
or Francis Joseph and all the laws Of
the realm by marrying Countess So
phia Chotek, the lovely widow of q
Hungarian nobleman.
But that last defiance, with the Low
err 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 eff
fort to part them the old emperor hal
been compelled to acknowledge hi