Evening star., 1938-01-30
BY c. PATRICK THOMPSON.

IN THE Paris cafes and at the Paris
corners. as the papers headline the
nations governmental dilemmas, as
i plots and hidden armament caches
are uncovered, men shrug, grin and say:
This will make the ghosts dance!"
Every time there are new difficulties in
their beloved France those royal ghosts
start dancing" in the halls of the Belgian
chateau which they have inhabited since
1925. Usually Frenchmen laugh; but the
ghosts dance" over the Stavisky CORPSE in
1884 caused blood to flow in the Place de
Ia Concord; and this time the bones have
ratified 50 loudly that some Frenchmen
have begun to eye one another and won.
der whether, after all, they have UNDER
estimated the capacity of these ghosts
to weave living flesh around their dry
Aekeletons, inject real blood into their
empty veins, change the strut of a by
gone time for the vigorous walk of
new age and return to bring peace and
strength again to the nation their fore
bears ruled for a thousand years and
which strange blight has latterly re-
duced to condition Of the 'jitters."
Ghost King John III.
The ghosts" are King John III of
France" and his 29-year-old son, the
'Dauphin" (you will find them in the
"Almanach de Gotha," the European So
cial register. which does not recognize
'pretenders, as Duke Of Guise and Count
OF Paris). The Duke of Guise is head
Of the House Of Orleans, younger branch
Of the French royal family. The older
branch, the Bourbons, is extinct; the last
representative of the senior line, descend
ed from Louis XIV, died in England The
Orleans branch has provided the head
OF the royal house since 1888.
7 There would be King in France today
II the Bourbon pride had been little less
stiff Nearly 20 years ago the Prussians
under Bismarck and Moltke smashed the
army Of Napoleon III and proclaimed the
German Empire in the mirrored nall of
Versailles Palace. Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm's
grandfather assumed the imperial crown.
The enraged and Inundated French
people kicked out Napoleon III, and their
postwar Parliament leaders invited the
Count de Chambord. head of the French
Bourbon house, to become their King as
Henry v Of France Henry was agreeable
If he could rule under the golden heur-
de-lis nag Of the old French Kings. But
the democratic French had had enough of
royal dags.
Wanted Limited Monarchy.
They wanted a limited monarchy-the
King serving the people and the peoples
nag. They insisted on a national nag
embodying the tricolor, red, white and
blue
But the Bourbons-of whom it it said
they forget nothing and learn nothing
rejected the compromise So royalism was
'out," and, with it. the King France took
to repubiicanism and Presidents; and the
BouTbons presently were exiled, lest they
take advantage of internal disSensions to
raise their banner again and provoke civil
war in order to regain their lost throne.
For the last II years the ghost palace
OF the ghost King Of France has been the
Manor d'Anjou, powered amid woods lust
outside Brussels One secretary used To
sumce, but since the "cagoulard" plot in
France reavakened active hopes, two sec
retaries have been needed to deal with
the mail
In the great reception room a tall.
elderly gentleman gives the visitor kinply
handclasp.
II the Dauphin is present, the visitor
Will turn from the older to the younger
generation. If he does not, he will be
turned-for the Dauphin these days does
the talking, and 1t Is on this young man
that the hopes OF the royalists really
center; as. in Eazi Germany the royalists
PIN ultimate hopes Of q restoration not
On Kaiser or . KaLers son, but on a
kahers young arandSon The people do
not Ike comeback OF old Kings. Youth,
break With an 'old-sang" past, is what
they want. And there Is q charming
wife and children. 20 much the better.
Marriage Of Ghosts"
The Dauphin qualities "A marriage OF
the shosts," they called it when the Young
Count Of Paris married the slim. pretty,
sophisticated Princess habelle dOrleans-
BrsRanza tner father was pretender to the
throne OF BraziD with the me,iculous
ceremony governing royal marriages and
adorned by the presence Of personaees
whose names recall scintillatins memories
OF the most brilliant social order In q
bygone Europe.
But that was when Germany was weak
and split among warning political factions
and France was strong and united-it was
long before alarmed French police started
raiding fortified concrete subterranean
cellars in Paris, selling lorry loads Of
machine guns. ammunition. bombs and
gas masks. securing the country for 200
secret radio stations and uncovering a
nationwide plot to kill the republic by
armed force. All this has taken place In
recent months.
These troubles which have come upon
France. her weakness in face Of Germany's
, rising strength, the political unhappiness
Of her people, the struggle between Left
and Right, which threatens to rend the ma
ton: the absence of . powerful team In
the British manner, OF . popular leader In