The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-05-11
LOST BY POKER PLAYING.
Kings Passion for Game Led Him
Into Austrian Tolls.


A Rome dispatch to the New York
Sun says: King Nicholas, of Monte
negro's favorite game is poker
which he plays very. badly and yet
always wins. 1t is an open secret
that during the last ten years the
old king regularly spent many hours
every day playing poker with the
diplomatic representatives Of the
great powers accredited at his court,
whose chief and best qualification
consisted in allowing him to win
thus a great portion of their office al
lowance was transferred into the
kings pockets.
The more a diplomatist lost in
poker at the royal palace at Cettinje
the greater was the influence he &C.
quired with the king, who judged
ministers and the countries they rep
resented according to the amounts
they could afford to lose at poker.
"In the kings pocket" diploma
tist who spent many years in Monte
negro recently said, lone will find
Russian rubles, English sovereigns,
Austrian crowns and French Napo-
Icons all mixed together, and strange
ly enough, in some mysterious way
enemy coins still kept Milling the
kings pockets even during the war
despite the fact that the representa-
tives of the central powers, both no.
toriously bad poker players, left Get
TIME early in August, 1914
The discovery made by this diplo-
matist and expressed in diplomatic
language, figurative but quite plain,
was far from mystery to
many people who tried to ex-
plain it by openly limiting that the
German wife of the crown prince of
Montenegro, Duchess Jutta (Militza)
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, probably
continued to receive her allowance
from Germany during the war. Her
husband, Prince Danilo, spent most
of his time abroad, even when war
broke out, preferably in Switzerland
or Southern France, and his absence
from Montenegro was regarded with
suspicion, especially by the French,
but then nobody suspected his father
of conspiring with the enemy.
Continued to Play Poker.
The old king. continued to play
poker with the representative of the
allies at Cettinje and during the
early part of the war Montenegro
fought side by side with the Serbians
against the Austrians. Nobody then
doubted that King Nicholos was not
heart and soul with the allies.
The French and English helped
Montenegro and French naval guns
with French artillerymen were sent
to Montenegro and bombarded Cat
taro from the Lovcheu. The Rus
slams sent munitions and money to
Montenegro and the Italians pro-
visions and supplies, but nothing
came out of the Anglo-French naval
operations in the Adriatic and Cat
taro remained Austrian.
When Italy entered the war the
king of Montenegro was most en-
thusiastic, and despite the fact that
there was no love lost between him
and his son-in-law, Victor Emman-
uel, cordial telegrams were exchang-
ed. It was then expected that the
Montenegrins and the Serbians would
resume the offensive against the Aus
trians in order to prevent them from
sending troops to the western from
tier against Italy. Instead nothing
was done.
The Serbian army was being reor-
yanized after driving out the Austrian
invaders and the nation, after defeat
ing another dangerous foe in the
shape of typhus fever, was resting on
it's military laurels. The Montene-
grins did not even attempt to ex-
plain their passive attitude toward
Austria, but only complained because
Italian help was lacking.
Meanwhile the Austrians, who
could have easily attacked Montene-
gro, were likewise passive. Hardly
any troops were left along the
Montenegrin frontier, and the heavy
artillery defending Sarajevo in the
early days of the war threatened by
the Montenegrins was sent to the
Italian front
Occasionally an Austrian aeroplane
flew over Montenegro and dropped
bombs over Cettinje and Podgoritza,
but even these air raids stopped, and
from Mav to Octoher 1918 hardly a