The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-03-14

crown, for everybody knew. Why,
had | not read of It in school books,
was it not almost a portion of the
elementary education of every man,
that the princes OF Pennsylvania re-
ceived, upon the day of their corona
ton, not the jeweled crown OF their
kind, but the circlet Of rusty iron,
fashioned from cannon taken from the
Turks upon the glorious battlefield of
history?
They bent low before him, all that
vast assemblage. / saw Nikolai stride
from the dais and advance down the
aisle toward his coach at the door. 1
sprang to my feet and followed him,
pushing my way over the bodies Of
the half PROSTATE multitude. l was
five PAGES behind him at the door.
1t was flung open, and, as Nikolai ap-
peared in the sunlight, a roar went up
from a vast multitude without. But
1t was no roar of welcome-it was O
clamor of death.
They sprang for him, fighting back
his guards, who formed a solid circle
around him. They beat them back,
they clutched at him, they seized his
robe. The crown fell from his head.
A courtier seized it before 1t touched
the ground. Nikolai was at the car
rage door. They urged him in. But
he hesitated, and, with bent shout
ders and ~quavering knees he looked
a king no more. And suddenly, with
what seemed a supreme effort, raising
his hands, he cried in accents tremu-
lous with fear:
Il abdicate my throne. Spare my
life, good people of Cheskaf, and let
me go home"
For one brief instant, overcome with
establishment, the mob was silent.
Then hideous cries went up:
His life! His life! Death to the
u%surper!"
But others answered them.
mo! Let him go. To the railroad
station! Take him to the railroad
station!"
They sprang upon the box, they
dragged at the wheels, they dashed the
horses into a furious gallop. Run
ming at top speed, amid the cheering
| throng, | arrived at the terminal in
time to see them drag Nikolai from
the coach and hurry him to the train.
A few of his attendants, seeing that
his cause was hopeless, managed to
form a flying wedge in front of him
and to beat back the baser element
among the mob. They thrust him into
a carriage and stood guard before the
door with swords drawn, while Niko-
filth and mud, his long robes trailing
upon the ground, hid his face in
feigned humiliation and terror. Some
body brought up an engine. Some
body gave the signal for departure.
His guards, stood with shame-bowed
heads as the revolving wheels carried
their broken idol from the ken OF
Pennsylvania forever.
When 1 rejoined him in Vienna the
papers teemed with conflicting stories
of the emeute. Some said that Leo
pold had taken flight in fear; others
spoke of al impostor, believed to be
a lunatic, who had been found in Leo
pold's apartments in the palace that
same evening, claiming to be the king,
Some even said that the kings en-
emies had contrived a plot whereby
a tool of theirs was crowned in place
Of the real sovereign, and abdicated In
the streets to ruin his cause. But
Leopold now lives in his brothers cas-
tie in High Darmstadt; and in the
window Of Paix ct Lepine, those ia
nous jewellers of Paris, you may still
see the unpaid-for crown which they
manufactured once for the ex-sover'
eign of Pennsylvania.