Evening star., 1924-02-24
BY STERLING HELLO.

lcdSls 10 the COUlIlOn Sd lIl6p diu
along with it they say that
- thrones have lost their value.
But there is king who lost his
throne and kept his cash in sound
Dutch investments. This very day he
Is thinking that it may be good to
take back his old job at a bargain.
He Is Ferdinand Of Bulgaria, and any
day now he may re-enter his capital
to the mild protests of the allies. He
knows a thrones value.
There is another king who lost his
throne and kept his cash. Like the
ex-kaiser. crown prince and Rup-
moment.
Today" says his ex-wife, ''he in
habits an immense chateau in Silesia,
with sixty servants
. The ex-wife inhabits two rooms
here in Brussels. She does her own
housework and peddles needlework
from door to door. Yet when she
married she had $Is.oo0 a year from
her family, which her husband rein
vested for her in marks. Unfortu-
natcly, when he soaked his own good
cash away in Scandinavian securities,
around 1917, he neglected to do the
same for hers. You see, she had left
him. long before that.
So, look. She is still called Louise
of Saxony, because she was the wife
of the crown prince of that country
up to 1903, when the scandal of her
flight and subsequent divorce was
great. But she was also daughter of
81 a n,,1r
was half a Bourbon Of Naples. Her
mother was a Bourbon Of Parma. In
fact, Louise of Saxony is three-quar-
ters French and Italian and only one
fourth Austrian Hapsburg.
OF course, it was wrong of her to
run away from her husband. who be-
came King of Saxony a year later.
But she supposed. at least, that her
own family money was all right
They had reinvested it for her in
marks when she married. They had
turned 1t over to her at the divorce.
She had always drawn the excellent
revenues. But, as the war closed.
banks outside of Germany gave her
less for her coupons.
1.-The mark is falling" they said.
Each time she got less and less.
until, on January 3, 1924, when she
cashed her three months revenues at
Brussels, they handed her out 1 franc
s5 in Belgian currency. That is 8
cents!
.'The terrible thing is this" she
says I-took it. needed the money.
All, those German. kings and princes
who fell in 1918. they took good care
to transform their fortunes into
something solid! 1t is not with paper
marks that they live in ease and lux
ury. as do the kaiser and my former
husband, who, 1 hear, maintains
court and courtiers. besides his sixty
servants"
The mark-the paper mark-has
done these things.
TT is the greatest financial scandal
that Europe has ever known. Scep-
ter and. crown must tumble down. and
in the dust be made equal with the
poor crooked scythe and spade.
But wait a minute. The tumble of
the mark has got imminent justice
itself whipsawed.
1t is by the fall of the mark that,
while Frederick August of Saxony
maintains sixty servants in his Sile-
sian castle, his ex-wife has to do her
own housework in two rooms. Yet
she brought Frederick August $4,000
a year in gilt-edeed British and Ital-
ian funds when she married.
1t is equally by the fall of the mark
that another princess, Louise Of Bel
gium. stands to clear her gilt-edged
trust estate of millions by the simple
payment of 1895 real money to her
German and Austrian creditors.
The contrast of the two situations
is as interesting as it Is astonishing.
Princess Louise of Belgium has one
great distinction which none can take
away from her-in every capital of
Europe she is known as "the queen
of the shoppers"
Daughter of old King Leopold. that
fabulously rich old business man, she
has spent some 100000 francs in
gaining that reputation, some few
millions of which she still owes. Even
after his death her astute old parent,
knowing her weakness, seems to have
indulged her. Lump sums continued
falling to her every few years which
we're not parts Of his legal estate.
This latter was long and complicated
in settlement. With lump sums in
hand, Louise was able to pursue her
system.
In 1918 she was sold out by the
sheriff in Paris, but Louise was not
there when her fifty hanging ward
robes were knocked down at auc-
ton. Already she was In Vienna,
wearing her magnificent Jewels.
In those days the shopkeepers
played a guessing speculation. Did
Louise have on her real jewels. or
were they concealed on the person Of
her maid, the celebrated Margot?
Half the time both wore or carried
limitations, the real Jewels being hid
den in a box of backing on the
kitchen mantel. The shopkeepers
knew this, too. g.
. So when Louise wore her sure-to-
goodness sparklers the shopkeepers
lost their heads. They argued she
had touched" a slice Of the many
millions which must finally come to
.the queen Of the shoppers" from old
King Leopold's estate. As a fact, she
paid millions on. account And Louise
could always make $1,000 buy $4,000