The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-03
Country Is Divided.

The Grand Duchess tried to keep a sembIance of government. She ap- ! pointed a successor to her fine old Prime Minister, who had died; and the new man uarrelled with her, mixed things up, and left an inextri- cable situation for the girl 20 years old.
 She formed new Cabinets. She ] tried, successiely, the Liberals, the Conserva tives and a Liberal-Socialist coalition. The Chamber rose against this or that, and she dissolved it. The new elections gave a Liberal-Socialist majority of two in the Chamber, by a popular majority of 500 in all Lux emburg!
 She kept her own prime minis ter in power. A deputy threw the chairs out of the windows. There were manifestations, petitions, depu- tations to the palace.
 Until today, half the Luxemburgers are against the Grand Duchess. These are the Socialists and many Liberals. The remaining half of the population is for the Grand Duchess. These are the Conservatives and some Liberals.
 And the Grand Duchess is no lon ger the Grand Duchess.
 It is her sister. Just as beautiful, refined honest, and ardently deter mined to make the people happy.
 \ Procession of Suitors.
 Before the war the girl rulers were a guarantee of the independence of Luxemburg.
 Imperial Germany, it was argued, would never grab the inheritance of ths&e lovely and pathetic orphans of such high lineage. They have no brothers, their father is dead. And the Constitutional law of 1907 rules the eventual succession of the line in the six sisters. But as soon as the Germans came in the whispering be- gan.
 Germany would not grab their in heritance-but obtain it by marriage. German princeIings came on visit; and the Luxenburgs could not stop 1t. Ernest of Schaumbu-%-Lppe refused | to court a girl by force. Let it be said to his honor.
 Ernest of Saxe- -Meiningen went like a sheep to the slaughter; and the girls, they say, locked him in his apartments for a joke. The Bug of Anhalt (Prince Aribert) | arrived next. All six sisters locked ! themselves up in their rooms in pan ic.
 The two boys of Reuss. each reign ing Prince, came, handsome, we'll bred, poor. ambitious, attractive, dan gerous-obeyfng Berlin orders. The girls worried.
 What Else Could They Do? Then came the great RUpprecht of Bavaria, war lord with big boots and dandruff, heavy, somber, old enough to be their father, high enough to be their King, and not a sort for silly dilly- -daIlying. The girls huddled to- 1 gether.
 Was Rupprecht really accepted by Charlotte? Or, too high a match for ] little Luxemburg, did he come mere ly on his war week-ends, to amuse l himself and frighten She sisters 10 ac- cept a lesser, more agreeable prince ling?
 By the Constitutions slw or 1907.
 should Grand Duchess Marie Adel- aide attempt escape by aporcaJion, Charlotte, 21 years old, becomes the Grand Duchess. Charlotte likewise
 says: T won't be forced into a mar riage.' But behind her are Hilda, 2Oi .Antoinette, IS; Elizabeth, IT; and So- phie, 16. And each is apt to marry, also.
 All the Luxemburgers saw were strings of German princelings coming to the palace. All six girls were flat tered, terrified, indignant, doubtful. cajoled, mystified, knowing not whom to believe-yet keeping up a brave front in their palace. All their ladies of honor were Ger mans. All their officers of the palace were Germans, with a single excepton. All that Luxemburgers knew was gos- sip. Our demoiselles laugh with the Germans!" High jinks at the pal ace!' What else could they do at the palace?
 Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide fled to a convent.
 Then she abdicated in favor of her sister, Charlotte.
 What else could they do at the pal ace, from Aug. 2, 1914, to the bless ed arrival of Gen. John Pershing.
 Stepped by Paris Conference.
 Before the war, when the girl rul-' CTS were supposed to be a guarantee of independence for the little coun- try, the Luxem burgers loved and yep erated their Grand Duchess. irSt Two Columns)