The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-30
HOUSE 0F SAVOY
 HAS SAD HISTORY Family Rarely Without Its
 Tragedy A STRANGE FATALITY Pope Plus Is Theme of Many Inof- fensive But Silly Anecdotes.
 Story of Cardinal Hosse-
 wissy's Cremation
A STRANGE FATALITY
By CLEMENT J. BARRETT

Rome, July 29-(Special. )-The sad death of Dowager Queen Maria Pia at Turin' following so closely that of her sister, Princess Clotide emphases ihe fac that barring the house of Hapsburg no royal house in Europe has had saddec history in recent time than that Of savoy. From the staying of Umperto until now the family has rarely been without its tragedy.
 The late Queen was the last bride in Europe to be married by proxy, her union to the late King Luiz of Portugal tax ing place at Turin when she was lo, tte royal bridegroom being unavoidably de- dtaiped. A second ceremony was per formed on her arrival at Lisbon.
 When her son and grandson were mlii'- dered Queen Maria Pia was awaiting their return to the palace. and her hrst intimation of the awful catastrophe wa. when, by lamentable oversight, tic bullet -ridded bodies of the king ano Grown Prince were borne into her pres ence, and that of Queen Anelie. who had lost husband and son at one selI blow. Always possessed of a high cod' age Queen Maria Pia set herself to the task of aiding so far as she could the heavy task imposed on King Manuel, and she was present at Lisbon when tie
 
 leave Portugal It was then that tho dauntless lady showed the spirit os her horse by slowly driving out of the palace gates. the very revolutionaries taking ott their hats in silent salute to the proud old Queen, who had spent the greater mart of her life in their midst. After the revolution Queen Maria Pie accepted the hospitality of the Italian court. Tn a''- dition to an allowance by the Portu- guese constituent assembly. King Victor gave her 5000 year. The Qaeen who had gone as a friendless Italian to Portu- gal, returned from Lisbon Portuguese in herat and min, and died to all 'h- tents on foreign soil A strange fatality. it has been said, attends the royal house of Braganza, inasmuch as two of its members have often died at or near the same time The tradition seems, to be IT, illustrated in the case of Princess Clotilde and Queen Maria Pia-two devoted sistes who pass away within ten days of each other King Luiz and his brother. Au- gustus. died within & day or two al most, while King Carlos and his son were shot down simultaneously.
 A good deal of legend has grown np about the person of Plus X during the last eight years-silly, or harmless, or pic
  of it not worth contradicting. A poetica' contemporary recently described his holi- ness picking violets in the vatican gar dens, and preserving them in his room in a glass of water; two or three weeks ago the author of "Chantecler' Tapped his wings again and burst into song at the sight Gmagined by newspaper core spondent) of the pontiff standing on a lofty terrace of the vatican and blessing the winged Beaumont as he swooped downward over the plain of Parioli: and who has not heard of the famous return ticket from Venice purchased by Cardinal Sarto and never used for the return jour- nev by Plus x, who instead gave 1t as precious souvenir to the King of Greece two years ago? Then there are all the alleged sayings of the Pope to persons received in audience, which, if compiled, would make several volumes of interest: inc fiction, inoffensive enough in the main But in what class of fiction are we to rut the extraordinary story recently cir oulated on the authority of the Swiss colonel who Is president of the Interna- tional Cremation society, that the Pope when patriarch of Venice. expressed him. self strongly in favor of cremation tc no less & person than the famous Car. dinal Hossewissy? Cremation is stricti, forbidden by the church. and is only tol. erated in case of epidemic. The fact wat certainly known to the patriarch, and | he must have felt that in revealing his sympathies for cremation to his friend lthe illustrated Cardinal Hossewissy. El