The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-06
HIGH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ONCE
 STABLE WORKERS
Careers of Prime Ministers Who Formerly Yielded
 Curry Combs.

reigned for time as King of Naples, is on record as having in his younger days earned a precarious livelihood as hostler at village inn, ana Jean Lannes who was created field mar shall and Duke of Montebello by the first Napoleon, and who had also nelo office as his ambassador to Portusal and to Spain had been originally groom, the instances of men. gradu- ating from the stable to the rank or Prime Minister are sufficiently rare to be worthy of note.
 Thus the Hon. John Watson, against whom Prime Minister William H. Hughes of Australia has issued writ in connection with charges arising from the recent electoral contest in the Antipodes and who preceded him in the Premiership of the common wealth, was born at Valparaiso, got his schooling in New Zealand and was employed for several years after his arrival in Australia as stable boy and stable man in the stables of the pres ent Marquis of Lincolnshire, who then as Lord Darlington, was Governor of the colony of Victoria.
 Watson, who is still the leader of 1 ment at Melbourne, managed to com plete his education while in the ser vice of Lord Lincolnshire, and after his service as a stable hand became a typesetter and embarked in journal ism, acquiring a position in the front ranks of the labor element.
 The position of Prime Minister Hughes has been so seriously shaken
 I,x, |, oIN Int he
 has found it impossible to leave the Antipodes to take a prominent part in the imperial conference of colonial Prime Ministers in London, now ir progress. At any moment he may be compelled to resign and make way fol
 the return to the Premiership of his ereign Duke of Lucca and became to
 Minister Watson.
 The only other instance that I car recall at the present moment of 8
 stable hand becoming a Prime Minis ter is that of a Yorkshire stable boy
 of the name of James Ward, who en- tered the service of the Bourbon sov- ereign Dukef Lucca and became tc such an extent his confidant and his favorite that he was gradually raised
 from one position to another at court
 until he was finally made barOr and Prime Minister of the duchy. A:
 such he was called upon to conduct the foreign relations of the duchy with English Ambassadors and Cabin. ct Ministers, and the memoirs of some
 of those Englishmen who held office as such in the '30s and the '40s of the
 last century contain frequent and amusing references to this ex-stable- man who had become a Premier. Al
 though lacking in education and ir many of the nioeties of life, he was extremely shrewd, served his employ CT with the utmst devotion and loyalty and received his reward in being made i by the Duke very ricn man. He had an elder sister who had
 been circus rider, and through his influence she was appointed, first o1 all governess and afterward duenns ,, to the three royal princesses of Maple. and the Two Sicilies, the three becom ing respectively Duchess of Berry ueen Christina. of Spain and Empres. of Brazil. Perhaps it was due to thi- education that these three princesses at the time of their marriage rode perfectly, but were scarce able tc
 write their own names correctly.
 Baron James Ward, the ex-stable- man, married a lovely blond Jewess al Vienna. by whom he had a son (whe succeeded him as Baro Ward and who was a we'll known Ngure at Vienna and in Paris), and a daughter, who still survives in Paris under the name of Mime. de Waru. Her first husband was the Marquis Hervey de St. Denis
 He was a learned professor and many years his wife's senior But he DOS. sessed what his wife lacked, an an. cient lineage, and place in the coun.
 cils of the royalist party. The Mar.
 quise quickly became one of the lead. Ing figures of Parisian fashion des lspite her poverty.-Marquise de Fon tenoy in New York Sun.