New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 26, 1929, Page 13

— w ! . / G =t ave His Astonishin iy, g ot fo the Land that Uisowned How the Exiled “King” Combed the Earth for Animal Treasures and Then - Presented Them to France Whose Monarch He Might Have Been. L Here Is One Section of the Duke's “Stuffed Zoo™ Whicl Represents His Activities “in Rigorous Northern Latitudes. The Animals Have Been Mounted in Seltings as Nearly Natural as Possible. PARIS. By NIGEL TRASK. OR years the Duke d'Orleans roamed the earth, an exile from the country of his nativity and to whose throne he was a pretender. For years he tried to show his patriot- ism and his love for France, only to do the mng.thin: in each crisis. But now, from beyond the grave, he has succeeded in making a generous and even noble gesture which has caused more than a ripple in the pool of Euro. run nobility, which attests the sincer- ty of the purpose which he never eould express in life, and writes a gal- lant and eful “finis” to his para- doxical tale, This newest gesture is as simple as 1t is profound. In an honored place in useum of Natural History in the Jardin des Plantes there stands an im- osing eollection of stuffed animals the Duke's “‘Stuffed Zoo” some call it). The collection has just been com- pleted and thrown open to the publie, and it was presented to France by the Duke d'Orleans. The Duchess of Orleans, Unluppsy Wife of the “Blundering Duke. he Was Laft Out of His Will. But there {s mere than that to the strange story. For, in the first place, the collection is one of the most complete and important in existence, and in the sec- ond place it was gathered by the Duke himself at frequent risk of life and limb, durin, the years before his deat! that “he spent roaming the earth because France wouldn't have him! The story of this Bourbon Prince is striking from any angle. He was im- mensely wealthy, so wealthy that no consideration of money could have interested him for a moment. In a world of rntricians his place was the most regal. Bluer blood never flowed in any man’s veins than coursed through the vital arteries of the Duke. His ancestors were “the forty kings who, during a thousand years, made France.” He was a legitimate preten- der to the throne und without doubt, if France had abandoned the Republic during his life, he would have been crowned king. Yet with all of these advantages his entire life wasa series of misfortunes. To begin with, he was exiled from the country «wwhich he loved passionately. That was a matter of French law, which bars from the country any di- rect pretender to the throne. He sought to have this law set aside, but was unsuccessful. Living exiled in England he gave offense to the British royal family. An Exciting Reminder of the Tiger Hunt. This Part of the Collection Shows 8 Tiger Attacking the Men Who Ordinarily Would Be Atop the Elephant's Back, J There is no reason to believe that he consciously insulted British royalty. It was just some little slight, which he, perhaps, didn’t take seriously at the time. But it won him disfavor in this first country of his adoption. He went to Russia and the night he reached St. Petersburg he attended the opera. Instead he should have first paid his respects to the Czar. The Czar saw the Duke at the opera and the monarch never forgave him this “insult.” % The Duke married the Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria. It was a brilliant affair, but disaster followed. The Duke and his wife were not hap- py. They had no children and in the end they were parted. Then the poor Duke fell in love with Ia Tropical Latitndes the Duke Stalked These Two Excsllent Specimens. Note the White Bird at the Right. The N Great Care Which Was Taken in Mounting the Duke's Collection Accounts for the Delay In Its e e il @ . Presentation to the Public. @ stage star. He was infatuated and attended all of her performances. And at one of these there came a shock which horrified European nobility down to its rock-bottom foundations. For the star danced out upon the stage wearing the Bourbon jewels, lent to her by the Duke! That was too much for everybody, and the Emperor Franz Joseph himself interfered to settle the matter. The war came, and the Duke wanted to fight for France. He entered the country and offered himself for enlist- ment as a plain private in accordance with French custam and law. Instead of being allowed tp enlist he was arrested and sentenced to two years in jail. After four months’ im- prisonment he was escorted to the frontier and released. Then he tried to i Army, but the had to refuse the American, Army, but here too h® met with refu. sal. So he quitely joined an ambulance unit and served throughout the re- maining days of the war on the firing lihe, being frequently mentioned in official dispatches, Meanwhile, the Royalists of France were wondering what to do about the « Posed Naturally as They Might Have Been Surprised by the Hunter in the Jungle This Picture of One Group in the Collection Offers an Duke. They wanted him on the throne, but every time they made any progress within the country, winning the support of this or that powerful individual and gaining a little advan- tage imthe serious ame of politics, the Bukc turned up some- where and got inte trouble. In most cases he managed, innocently enough, to undo all of their good work, and he was at once their hope and desfilir‘ inally, the Duke d'Orleans dropp-ed from public attention. He went to Africa, where he hunted for big game. He went North, engaged in ex- ploration, and shot and trapped the unusual animals of those lati- tudes. In fact, the rest of his life was spent combing the out-of-the- way places of the earth for rare specimens. This was hard and dangerous work. On one occasion he under- took an elaborate ex- Esxcellent Study for the Naturalist. Newspipwr Festure Servies, 1930, ffed 7o 4 " (Phote @ B R, Hopps) The Late Duke of Orleans, Preiender to the French Throne, Whose Life Was Characterized by Innocent Blum But Who Made His One Gracious Gesture from the Grave! pedition into the heart of Africa to find the place where the elephants are supposed to go when they die. It is be{’ie\'cd that there must be a vast and mysteriously hidden “burial ground” where the elephants go to die and that it must contain the greatest deposit of ivorv in the world. The Duke’s experiences on this ex- pedition were so harrowing that he re- turned to his home an invalid and for a whole year he was confined to his bed. But when he again was up and about he started off on another expe- dition, always collecting rare speci- mens of bird and beast. And then, with his death, there was disclosed the purp whic! guided his strenuous life in the wilder- nesses of the earth, and the idealism which had foreed him into and through experiences which might have struck terror to the stoutest heart. For his great collection, owe :of the finest imaginable, was left.to to the country of which he might have The Duke's Lonely Tent, an Almost Sarflonic Addition to the Collection Which He Presented to France. been king, and which had disowned him and sentenced him to a life of wandering and hardship! In addition to leaving the collection the Duke left a fund to maintain it. And with the collection, almost as a gentle but ironic reminder of his years of exile, he left his own tent which had accompanied him to the waste places of the earth, and before which he had sat in the tropical moonlight, dreaming of the Paris which he could not see, and of his_ancestors who had ruled the land which he could not visit! The assembling of the Duke’s col- lection has just been completed and the full import of how he applied the iGnlden !biule of nt:mm for tvl'il 5 just beginning to re e people of the French ublie.