Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-12-10
A GERMAN court. A king state
~ ly Of bearing and of good re-
- - port. A queen sweet and


In port. A queen sweet and
beautiful, but %abhorring those who in
the least digress from the straight and
narrow path, and intent above all else
In preserving her own immaculate
purity.
The lady of the bedchamber, Coun-
tess Irma Won Wildenurt, daughter Of
a noble sire, who spent his life in i'm
proving his domains and serving his
neighbors, but who lived alone and
self-centered, leaving his children to
grow up with little Of his advice and
not too much expression of his affec-
ton. DIR. Gunther, physician to t ,
queen, a man straightforward and
truthful, whose wife and daughters
never appeared at court.
These, with Countess Brinkinstein,
the high-priestess of etiquette and
decorum; Bruno, Countess Irma's
brother, and others who appear less
prominently, were the characters, the
intermingling Of whose lives furnishes
a story Of the expiating of sin, full OF
warning to those who are on the brink
Of wrongdoing and replete with sug-
gestion to the self-sanctified.
The story opens with the birth Of a
prince in the royal household. A
nurse from the Highlands is found in
Walpurga. wife of Hansai, an humble
peasant, whom the queen kissed upon
her arrival, and this being so contrary
to the etiquette of the court, is taken
up by the scandal-mongers and record
ed In the newspapers, offending the
king and awakening his thought that
the queen Is weak and sentimental.
Countess Irma, because of her Off
cial position. has access at all times
to the young princes apartments and
1t is soon apparent that she is fast at
tanning royal favor. One day the
king lays his hand upon hers and
looks at her In such a manner that
Walpurga tells her 1t is improper, but
is advised to attend to her own af-
fairs. and the countess writing to a
friend. boasts that the king prefers
her above all others and that he has
given her a feather from an eagle that
he shot.
Later, when they are alone together,
the king asks the countess, il when
they are by themselves, he may call
her his 'true comrade" and makes re-
marks implying that the queen and he
are not In closest harmony.
The devotion of his wife, however,
Is ~abundantly attested by a mighty
struggle through which she passes.
She was a Protestant and the king a
Catholic and out of love to him she
resolves to give up her religion, but
instead of pleasing his majesty, this
only makes him angry because he
taxes 1t to be another token of her
weakness, and he gets DR.. Gunther to
dissuade her from such a course. He
also sends flowers every day to Coun-
TESS Irma, who is flattered, but away
oown in her heart she is offended,
and she writes her friend that Hshe
reels herself altogether alone in the
world.
soon after this the king goes on a
hunting trip and he asks the queen
10 nave the countess write to him
aoout the baby prince. The queen be-
gins to be suspicious of her husband
ana the scandal concerning the rela-
IONS OF the king and Irma increases.
In m midst Of the turmoil, the
countess Is called home to her father,
out ne and she did not understand
each other, and when-after a while
u letter signed by the king and the