The Washington herald., 1911-02-17
Some Inside History About Monte Carlo

Copyright 1911. BY Mcclure Newspaper syDdlc1tel
The granting of a constitution by the
| Prince of Monaco to his people suS-
gests to the mind of the average Amer
! lean mainly that the prinCipality OF
| Monaco is the land where the notorious
gambling hell of Monte Carlo is flour
| ishing. with its attendant joys and mis-
cries, mainly miseries. not to speak of
suicides. And yet this so-called Rouge
et-Noir" principality has furnished the
only instance in history OF the eleva-
| tion of an American girl to the throne.
| For the second wife of Prince Albert,
! the present ruler. is a native of New
( Orleans, where she was born as the
daughter of the banker, Michael Helne,
and although judicially separated from
| her husband in 1902, after thirteen
wears of marriage, she retains her title
! Of Princess of Monaco, spends much OF
| her time at Monte Carlo, enjoys in for
| eign countries the immunities and hon
| ors accorded to visitors of sovereign
rank, while the princes steam yacht on
which he spends so much of his exist
| ence engaged in oceonographlc re-
searches, continues to bear her first
name-that of Alice" 1t may be Of
interest to add that her eldest son by
her first marriage to the late Due de
Richelieu is now living in New York,
not as Due de RiChelieu ct de Fronsac,
but as Jean Chapelle, the latter being
the patronymic of his house.
Another reason why Monaco is deserv-
ing of attention in the United States is
because it is in the throes of a political
crisis, which threatens its independence.
Some are convinced that France is pre-
pairing 10 seize the principality. This
would lead to trouble with Italy, as well
as Germany, for three-QGarterS of the
population of Monaco are of Italian birth
or origin, and the reSigning house halls
from Genoa. while the Congress of Vienna
placed the principality under the protec-
ton of the kingdom of Sardinia. which
has now developed into the kingdom of
Italy For several decades of the nine
teenth century Monte Carlo was garri-
soned by troops of the Italian army.
Germany's objections would be based
on the fact that in default of the reign
ing Prince and OF his only son. Prince
Louis, the next heir to the throne of
Monaco is the Duke OF Urach of Wurtem-
burg through his mother. who was Prin-
cess FIorestine, sister of the late Prince
Charles, of Monaco. The Duke of Urach
is a general of the German army, has
the blood of the reigning house of Wurt-
emberg in his veins, and is married to
a royal princess of Bavaria. His sue
cession to the throne of Monaco would
mean that the latter would become part
of the German empire, and would de-
velop into a German naval station in the
Mediterranean, on the shores of which
Emperor William long has been looking
for foothold.
Thus it will be seen that from an inter
national point of view the future of Mon
AGO is fraught with difficulty. OF course,
there is the Transformation of the prin-
cipaIity from a monarchy into repub-
lie. But while this might suit Italy, it
would not meet with the approval of
France. In fact, the enmity of the ma
tive population of the principality and of
the Italian element established there,
against France, is so pronounced that one
of the principal demands made upon
Prince Albert by his subjects, on the
occasion of the recent rising. was that
he should dismiss all French officials and |
should govern the land through his own |
people instead of through French retain |
ers The French have protested against |
this on the ground that three-fourths |
of the landed and commercial interests |
and nearly the whole of the financial in
terests of the principally are in their
hands.
II Is because of this monopolization by |
the French that the people are 50 dis '