The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-07
LUDWIG III, BAVARIA'S NEW MONARCH, |SIXTY-NINE TODAY.

Bavarians will celebrate to-day the sixty-ninth birthday of their new monarch, King Ludwig or Louis III. As he is the first sane King Bavaria has had in more than a quarter of century, the people of the second of the non-Prussian states of :. the Ger man empire are naturally jubilant. Ludwig IT., who committed suicide during fit of insanity, and Otto. who has been nominal king since 1888, al-s though confined in one of his cha teaux. were both mental ineompetents ed as regent until his death last year. He was succeeded in the regency by his son Ludwig, who was recently el- evated to the throne in the place of Otto. At first Ludwig declined the proffered crown, but later changed his mind, owing it is alleged, to the ambition of his wife, who was the Austrian Archduchess Marie Theresa.
 King Ludwig is immensely popular with Bavarians, and has never mani fested any indications of the insanity that has been a heritage of the Baya- rian royal family since it was found ed in the twelfth century by the Counts of Wittelsbach. Ludwig is nimrod, and spends much of his time in hunting through the Bavarian for ests. He was born Jan. '. 1S45, and in 1868 he married the Austrian arch duchess who is now Queen Maria The resa. They have had ten children, four sons and six daughters, the eld-s est of the sons being Prince Rupert, who was born in 1869 and married his cousin, Duchess Marie Gabrielle of Bavaria. The Crown Prince has three sons and a daughter.
 It is expected that the new mon arch will be far less pro-Rnssian than his father, the late regent. He was the Bavarian delegate to the corona ton of the Czar of Russia, and on. that occasion he delivered a public address at which he said that the vassaIs, of Prussia, and the equals of Prussia in every. respect.
 While King Ludwig has been dub- bed .sthe bourgeois monarch" be- cause of his democracy and afability. his Queen is naughty and ambitious and a stickler for royal etiquette. She is a ha1f-sister of Marie Christine, who was Queen Regent of Spain during the minority of Alfonso. Some of the German papers have gone so far as to picture Ludwig as "the henpecked king and have declared that his consort is the real ruler of Bavaria. Her word is said to be law, not only to her royal husband, but to her eight ID11
 The deposition of Otto. the 1unatic king, and the accession of Ludwig, are popularly attributed to the political wirepul1ing of the Queen. Old Prince Regent IuftpoId often advised his son to rule only as regent, and not to ac- cept kingship, and a year ago Lud-. wig was apparently firm in his pur-l pose to follow this advice. But the Bavarians were anxious to have sane king, and the statesmen reflected the popular desire, and Maria Theresa was ambitious, so Ludwig can hardly be blamed for yielding to the influence brought to bear upon him.
 The King was seriously wounded at the battle of He1mstadt, and since ther, he has manifested little interest in military matters. He seldom dons uniform, and in a quiet way he does what he can to advance the peace propaganda. Next to hunting. his greatest passion is agriculture. and he is not only practical farmer. but has accomplished much toward improving agricultural methods throughout Ba- varia.
 The Bank Line steamer Polerie ar-