The Washington herald., 1911-02-24

| Copyright 1911 by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate)
There are in Europe two gravestones
marking the last resting place of the
daughin (crown prince of the Bourbon
dynasty OF France). One is in France.
over the remains of a man called Richie
mont; the other in Holland. at the grave
| of the original Naundorff In purport the
inscriptions are identical, each setting
! forth that the dead was the son of Louis
| NVI and Marie Antoinette. The graves
of thirty-eight other claimants to be the
| dauphin are either unmarked or un-
known. for it is a fact that no less than
| forty persons in the last 115 years have
| alleged themselves to be the son of
| Louis XVI or descendants of that son.
| At one time there was a three-cornered
| fight going on between three claimants,
each one warning the people of France
| that the other two were spurious.
Within less than ten years a book has
| been published to support the contention
| of Eleazer Williams that he was right
fully king of France and Navarro" but
the Naundorffs now have the center of
the stage. A committee of the French
Senate recently has reported in favor of
the Naundorff claim. The chairman OF
this committee, Boissy d'Anglais. who
| for years has been a stalwart champion
of the Naundorffs. has apparently ac-
cepted their theory that the original
claimant was the dauphin.
The Naundorff story is that the little
prince was smuggled out of his prison
and another child, who died therein, was
substituted for him. This is the legend
of thirty-nine other pretenders also. The
French courts rejected the Naundorffs
years ago, but still their representative
maintains a mock court, whose members
call him king"
There is much ingenuity displayed in
all these legends, but there are facts that
are fatal to them. The Duchess of An
gouleme daughter of Louis XVI, who
shared the dauphin's Imprisonment, was
convinced that he died in prison. She in
teryieved a score of claimants and pro-
nounced them impostors. They bore but
little resemblance to her brother. She
died in 1851, when there were half dozen
pretenders soliciting her acquaintance in
their proofs" Napoleon, who was anx-
ious 10 find the Gauphin alive, that he
might show up Louis XVIII as usurper
of his nephew's rights, spent years and
money in the quest, only to come to the
conclusion that the wretched little pris-
oner died as set forth in the official GER
ti0cate of his death. However, the world S
delight in mystery will keep the ''dau-
rhin's" alleged descendants prosperous,
for each and all Of them have been liber-
ally supported by credulous legitimists,
and the first Naundorff is said to have
collected almost $1,O00,0Oo.
The present German empire is essen
tally different from the Holy Roman EN-
pire of the German nation, which came
to an end during the political upheaval
caused by Napoleon. In the Middle
Ages, at the time of Henry V, surnamed
.'the Lion" the Emperor was chosen
by a vote of the feudal princes. who
rjled the federated kingdoms. duchies,
and Municipalities That system also was
intended for the present German empire.
but Bismarck ruled otherwise, and King
Wilhelm of Prussia was elected En-
peror in 1S1 by the Reichstag of the
German confederation, which, at the same
time. made the imperial dignity heredi-
tary In the male line of the house Of
Hohenzollern. Since Charlemagne en-
perors representing eight different dynas-
ties-that of Saxony. Franconia. Hohen-
staufen, Hapsburg. Luxemburg. Bavaria,
and HohenzoIlern-ruIed in Germany.
The Holy Roman Empire comprised all
German speaking peoples in Europe. En-