The Washington herald., 1912-04-02
GOSSIP OF INTERESTING
NOTABLES OF OLD WORLD

Nicholas Petrovitch Niegoch. son oi
Mirko Petrovitch. and until a year or SC
ago the ruling prince. but now the king
Of Montenegro CZernagora), a small
| mountain fastness. no larger than Della.
ware, in the southernmost tier OF the
Dalmatian and nlyrisn Alps. hemmed in
on the north and east by Turkey. on the
northwest by the Austrian Herzegovina,
but with quite a stretch of coast on the
Adriatic opposite Perugia in Italy. Is
greatly worried. Despite the fact that
one OF his daughters is queen OF Italy
and two others the wives OF Russian
Grand Dukes, His Majesty n. T.. Niegoch
fears that ultimately he will lose his
crown. lie said so. bathed IN tears, when
on a recent visit TO his children IN 81.
Petersburg.
Montenegro is a queer country, and the
Montenegran mOuntaineers quaint.
queer people, free as the dweIIers OF the
sheer una sssailable Businesses are wont to
be. but satisfied 10 be ruled in a patri-
archal way by their princes, Tor CEN
turtles men as primitive S they are
themselves. Had the present ruler. who,
by the way. is getting on in years-he
was born in lS40-been content to remain
in the semi-obscurity of his black hills"
(czerna gord). hermight have gone on in
definitely ruling and using his crutch
stick on his children" in the most ap-
proved antiquated way. But ever since
his daughter, Helena. became a queen
he had no rest until he had placed n
royal. crown upon his old brow and was
crowned in his capital OF Cettinje by
the metropolitan of the Orthodox Church.
And now his majesty. n. P. Niegoch,
is sorry, very sorry. He went so far
even as TO beseech his daughters at the
Muscovite court TO find a home for him
unless the naughty Gar openly stepped
in and defended his little kingdom. 1t
is said at st. Petersburg, with some de-
gree of truthfulness. that the peculiar
situation OF the King of Montenegro is
one of the causes why the Russian
premier. Sazanoff. is forever urging in
terventinn by the great powers in the
Turco-Italian war.
Mohammedan Turkey and its little
neignDor, Montenegro, a Christian out
post. are continually at loggerheads. Feuds
reign supreme, and although at present
the Montenegran frontier is denuded of
troops. an unceasing vendetta among
the Albanian frontiersmen of Turkey Is
invading the territory of the King. who
has neither she men nor the money to
mend his fences" He is therefor kept
on the throne. 1t is believed, and right
ly. too, that his close relationship to the
houses of Romanoff and Savoy is and
remains a first-rate assurance against
foreign intervention and trouble In the
diminutive buffer state.
Once more Sir Dudley Churchill Mar
joribanks, third baron OF Tweedmouth.
who has earned an exceptionally fine
military record IN South Africa as secre-
tary TO the Earl of Shelbourne, the high
has managed to get him
self into the lImelight. The noble lord
Is fond of sensation. and he certainly
knows how to procure plenty Of II. In
cldentally one of his ancestors, a plain
Mr.. Marioribanks, married into the
Coutts family. and the family became
with that historic old banking
house.
Lord Tweedmouth, who is inordinately
taken with California life and people.
spends his time in that State,
where he usually acquires a stock of
polo ponies for shipment to England. The
other day. while discussing polo and
ponies : the lobby OF the hotel in San
Francisco, kept by William Dupee. q
wealthy owner of a fine, large estate
near San Diego. where he makes a
speciality of raising q fine breed of
ponies, Lord iTweedmouth made Mr..
Dupee an offer for It, The rich breeder
declined TO sell II, but he said: 81 will
make you wager. II you will walk on
your hands from this hotel balcony to the
middle of the street. the pony is yours"
With scarcely an instant's hesitation
Lord Tweedmouth dropped to his hands
and raised his heels over his head, and
walked the distance Indicated on his
hands without once touching his feet 10
the ground. 1t was thirty steps, and he
II amidst the cheers of a
large crowd Of onlookers In the hotel and
in the street.
What makes the Incident more interest