The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 18, 1904, Page 17

| Pages17t026 | | ey, L LPa_gc_s 7t02 | SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1904. CORONATION OF THE KING OF SERVIA WOULD BE FUNNY IF HUMOR OF SITUATION WERE NOT SO '‘GRIM AS Peter Is Unable to Borrow Enough Money to Buy Himself a Crown. To Hostility of the Powers Is Added Terror of Assassination. invariable custom for the reigning onarch to be ceremoniously crowned r 21 n his own capital before he has worn the erown for one year, and King Peter the first exception to this rule. It his own desire that he should be crowned as soon as possible after the astly murder of King Alexander and Draga enabled him to ascend | | <+ TING /- TxE A ILEL PFTER.. L ZORGIEVITCX z./i'/a"é( oS FRUIA )—,‘,)//v}’/& —— e s TS, o 22, It Is Proper { LONDON, Sept. 17.—The growing fashion among women of the smart set of carrying to church prayer books in bindings to match their dregses has shocked Aréhdeacon Diggle of Bir- mingham, who 'has been denouncing from the pulpit women for their friv- ! olity and irreligion. The archdeaconal | dismay isn’t shared in Paternoster row, which is the home of the prayer book. On inquiry there as to the custom it | was ascertained that no less a person ! than an Anglican Bishop had ordered TO BE ALMOST TERRIFYING English Archdeacon Scores . Women for Prayer- Book Fad. in London to Have Binding Match Dress in Color. for his daughter a cream-bound prayer book with silver clasps and monogram in silver. It was a white prayer book which first was introduced primarily for the use of brides and bridesmaids. The cust t may be said, borrowed not long ago from America, rapidly de- veloped into the ¢ prayer book. d 4 maker consulted on tHe subject said cu m had found great favor among the smart set and had come to ay and archdeacon notw Archbishops - — less harshly than the other monarchs. | The English Government gave Mr. Simitch clearly to understand that it was quite out of the question for any 1 Prince of the royal blood to represent | England at the coronation. He was further informed that King Edward | and the English Government regarded King Peter's subservience to King Alexander’s assassins with such con- tempt and suspicion that England i would refuse to have any diplomatic intercourse whatever with Servia un- | til the criminals were utterly banisned | from court and from positions of in- fluence. | Another appeal addressed to the aged | and benevolent Emperor of Austria elicited the emphatic reply that the honor of the house of Hapsburg could not be soiled by the presence of one of its members at the coronation of a King whose hands are stained with blood. Rebuffed and rebuked on all sides, King Peter cannot contemplate his coronation in a happy frame of mind. { FEAR OF ASSASSINATION. | It is not only the contemptuous hos- tiity of the great powers of Europe that makes King Peter unhappy on the Servian throne. Ever since his arrival % in Belgrade a few days after the mur- KON AT BT BEZGRALLE, ScENVE OF THEZE | CF | TN G SLELLNIGE ¢ QLY IR . ITEUT LUNIEVITZA. wrEo WARS 107 FAAVE SUCCEECED THE THRLCONE -~ 70 A ime was so beastly 1d be the Servian throne, but the troubled e of his country during the first hs of his reign made this impos- AN UNPLE NT DISCOVERY. The coronation was then fixed for a ate in November, 1902, and had to be postponed because it was discovered b that King Peter's enemies in Servia " proposed to take advantage of the leave of absence granted to troops roughout the country on coronation day to dethrome him by a bloody rev- clution similar to the one which placed him on the throne. The coronation was then fixed for a later date and was again postponed because serious differ- ences arose between the King and the officers who took a leading part in the assassination of Alexander and Draga, regarding the degreé of prominence which they should enjoy at the corona- two parts. wointment of monastery of the pious asty tion ceremony. Th*_ ., King Peter, respondigg to pressure this date a cession of post- brought to bear upon him by the ponements, wh encourage great powers of Europe, proposed to King Peter 10 regard the coming event relegate the assassins to a back seat, with cheerful m. So long. as Servia has possessed her own independ- ent kings and princes it has been the optin whereupon they informed him that if they did not receive the honor and re- spect due to them they would teg, ~* FIGURES IN THE APPROACHING ODD CORONATION. ! —p the crown from his head and plerce to Belgrade with empty hands and a Servian' throne as the result of his pre- decessor’s assassination, it has been his constant endeavor to persuade all the monarchs of Europe to recognize him as the rightful King of Servia and as a roval sovereign possessing absolute equality of rank and dignity with them. 1t is hi& especial desire that the formal recognition of his claim should be in- dicated through the presence at his coronation of a member of every royal family in'Europe. This would not only proclaim him to all the world as.a King recognized to be the worthy peer of the Kaiser, the Czar and the other proud monarchs of Europe, but it would vastly increase his prestige among his own subjects and strengthen his tremb- ling hold on the reins of government. Hitherto the monarchs of Europe have not shown any inclination to rec- ognize King Peter as a worthy mem- der of his predecessor he himself has lived in mortal terror of assassination. Hitherto every single Prince and King who has occupied the Servian throne has either been assassinated or driven into exile after a compulsory abdica- tion, and King Peter has every reason to fear that he will be no exception to this rule. He is well aware that the officers who killed King Alexander and summoned him to the throne would not hesitate to murder him in precisely the same way if he ceased to be their tool. He is merely the caricature of a King sitting on the blood-stained throne simply to carry out the will of this group of murderous military dic- tatorsy whose unbearable tyranny has alienated the masses of the people to such an extent that one or the other malcontent, burning with his own and others’ wrongs, is likely to terminate him with their swords, even if it were in the sanctuary while the Archibshop of Belgrade was anointing him King of Servia by divine right. The unfor- tunate King Peter, who like the whole of Servia suffers from the unbearable tyranny of the military clique which murdered his predecessor, feared to disobey them and at the same time was reluctant to offend the great pow- ers of Europe, and to extricate him- self from the difficulty he postponed the coronation. LOOKING FOR A LOAN. Subsequently, when he had con- trived to find means of satisfying both the powerful assassins and the great powers of Europe, King Peter made the unpleasant and belated discovery that he had no crown wherewith to be crowned and no money to cover the expenses of the coronation ceremony. He had been under the impression that he would be crowned with the crown which “King Alexander wore, but it transpired that this symbol of regal authority had been smashed to bits by the rebel officers on the fatal night of June 11, 1903. King Peter had also been under the impression that the Servian Legislature would vote the necessary sum to cover the cost of the coronatfon, but he was given to under- stand in terms more forcible than they were loyal and polite that the elected representatives of the people had no intention whatever of squan- dering national money on the purchase of such a bauble as a crown or on the arrangement of costly fetes in honor of his Majesty’s coronatian. A more ludicrous situation never existed in all history. On the one side a King pining to be crowned; on the other side the Legislature which summoned him to ascend the throne refusing to buy him a crown or pay the expenses of his coronation. In this extraordinary predicament King Peter dispatched a personal emissary to variods European capitals to raise a personal loan which would enable him to buy a golden crown decorated with diamonds and to pay the ex- penses of the coronation festivities. This emissary journeyed in succession to St. Petersburg, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris and Rome, but in all these cities the financiers turned a deaf ear to the royal appeal for money on the ground that they saw little chance of securing its repayment, and the King’s special messenger returned budget of insulting replies in his pocket. An attempt to persuade lead- ing firms of jewelers in Vienna and Paris to supply a golden crown on credit likewise failed. SECRET OF IRON CROWN. King Peter found an amusing way +out of some of these difficulties. He suddenly appointed his confidential sec- retary, who had spent many long years of exile with him in Switzerland, to search for and publish the ancient rec- ords of the founders of the Kara- georgievitch family. The accommo- dating secretary contrived to unearth an ancient - manuscript, hitherto un- known to students of Servian history, in which it was recorded that the first Karageorgievitch who occupied the Servian throre wore a crown, not of gold, but of iron, in token of the fact that he had defeated the Turks and liberated the Servian people with weapons of this material. No one but the King's ccnfidential secretary had ever seen this manusecript and there is no other record that the first Kara- georgievitch wore an iron crown, nevertheless King Peter issued a sol- emn proclamation to his people that he would not be crcwned with a golden crown but with an iron crown in ac- cordance with the noble tradition o his glorious family. 3 In this ingenious way King Peter sur- mounted the difficulty of having no money wherewith to purchase a golden crown, and while he will be crowned September 21 with a simple ring of iron because he has no money toc buy a golden crown,,the great mass of his subjects believe that this metal is chosen for a great historical reason which appeals to their national senti- ment. There remains, however, the difficulty of covering the expenses of the coronation festivities and this is still unscived. The Legislature still re- fuses to grant the necessary amount, although King Peter has made requests that this comparatively small faver should be granted to him. If the Legis- lature persists in its refusal poor King Peter will be obliged to scrape the money together himself, although he will be compelled to plunge heavily into debt to do so. . BELIEVE HIM-GUILTY. King Peter is faced by other formid- able difficulties in connection with the ber of their exalted order. Although it has not been conclusively preved that King Peter directly participated in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of King Alexander and Queen Draga, there are good grounds for believing that he was well aware of what was going to happen. The fact that the identical officers who took the most prominent part in the actual murder of Alexander and Draga ‘have been the most powerful men in Servia since King Peter’s accession strengthens the grave suspicions. Even with the support and encouragement offered to him by the great powers of Europe, King Peter has been unable to banish the assassins from his court or to dismiss them from their influen- tial positions. The Kaiser and the Czar and other royal personages in Europe would thus be exposing the whole monarchical prineiple to ridi- cule if they acknowledged as their equal a King who ascended to his throne after participating in the assassination of his predecessor. It 1s consequently certain that no great royal personage will be present at King Peter's coronation, which will be unique in this respect. DECLINED WITH THANKS. Aware of the disgrace which this circumstance brings upon him in the eyes of the world and of the loss of prestige which he will suffer in Ser- via, King Peter has strenuously at- temptéd to soften the hearts of the monarchs of Europe. He sent his daughter, Princess Helene, who was educated under the supervision of her mother’s sister, Grand Duchess Militza, in St. Petersburg, to beg the Czar to send some member of the Russian imperial family, even if it were the youngest and most insignifi- * cant Prince, to represent him at the coronation. The Czar refused and .Russia will be represented at the cor- ouation simply by the Russian diplo- matic representative at Belgrade, who is quite a subordinate member of the Russian diplomatic service. King Peter dispatched another special emis- sary to beg the Kaiser to send a Ger- man- Prince as his representative to the coronation, but William II re- fused even to receive the emissary. the national misery by putting a bullet through King Peter’'s royal body. King Peter has wisely intrusted his personal safety not to Servians, but to foreigners. Immediately after his ac- cession to the throne he formed a body- guard composed of men who have served in the Swiss army, and he sur- rounds himself with his Swiss protect- ors day and night. When he makes a journey through his dominions the Swiss bodyguard accompanies him to keep his loving subjects at a safe dis- tance. When he drives out in the streets of Belgrade the Swiss body- guard surrounds his carriage. During the daytime the Swiss bodyguard sup- plies the sentries standing around the royal palace, and at night they hold the palace and approaches thereto in force, so as to prevent the repetition of such a treacherous attack as ended Alexander’s reign. HAUNTED BY GHOSTS. Even with this precaution King Peter has no peace of mind or feeling of security. His palace is situated a stone’s throw from the old konak In which Alexander and Draga were murdered, and the vicinity is disa- greeable to King Peter. When he gets up in the morning the konak catches his eye, reminding him of the fate which may overtake him. When distinguished visitors come to his pal- ace he finds their glances wandering furtively in the direction of the ko- nak with horror and aversion. He cannot leave his palace without driv- ing past the konak and cannot walk in his own garden exceot in the konak’s shadow. During the Ilong, weary hours of the night the konak appears to him in nightmares as an appalling burden slowly crushing him to death. The konak troubles him so much that he has ordered it to be pulled down and ‘the work of demolition is now proceeding. In his dreams the King sees the ghosts of Alexander and Draga and Draga’s brother, Lieuten- ant Lunjevitza, and the PremierMark- ovitch, who lost their lives in the fatal night at the konak. hovering around him with undying hatred and horrible menace imprinted on their ethereal features. Peter made & sorry bargain when he exchanged his peace- ful exile in free Switzerland for the ‘wobbling throne of Servia. The crown Smitich, a former Prime Minister of which he strove to wrest from the “Servia, was sent to London to appeal Obrenovitches for so many long years ‘to King Edward to treat King Peter \)n brought him neither happiness nor satisfaction, nevergheless he clings to his semblance of regal power with the grip of desperation. et sast e s AN PARIS HAS NOW A DIPLOMATIOC MUSEUM Contains Busts of Famous Men and Fine Collection of Medals Com~ memorating Great Events. PARIS, Sept. 17.—Thanks to the in< itlative®’of M. Delcasse of Paris has now one m: attraction possessed by no other ¢ —a diplomatic Although opened to the public only a very short time ago this museum, hich {llustrates the history of diplom- acy in the past and present, is already very interesting and well worth add- ing to the list of places which Ameri- can tourist It con it busts of Mar- quis de Toicy and Marquis de Choiseul, Richelieu, Mazarin, Bonaparte as First Thiers, Lamartine, Mirabeau, Gambetta, MacMahon, Grevy, Carnot and Felix Faure. In a glass case is the pen with whi Prince Bismarck signed the prelimi aries of peace after the Franco-Prus- sian war. Not far from it is another penholder with which Gambetta signed his resig- nation from the office of “Grand Min- ister.” Th there is a wooden model of the Holy Sepulcher to commemorate a dip- lomatic action Emperor Napoleon oL The dome of the Holy Sepulcher was on the point of tumbling down and after many Cabinets it was resolved that France and Russia should rebuild the dome, each country paying half of the costs. ‘Wken the work was about to begin a letter was received from the Suitan, who said that as of e to the reby of a building In which so many of his subjects were Interested and, to make the matter still r e complicated, the Pope, through Cardinal Antonelll, de- clared that he considered it his privi- lege to rebuild the dome entirely at his own expense. The two Governments, however, po- litely informed the Holy Father that his assistance was neither needed nor wanted, as both a Roman Catholic and a Greek Catholic Government had al- ready pledged themselves to carry out the work. The museum also contains a fine col- lection of medals struck to commemo- rate important diplomatic events from the sixteenth century up to date and another collection of 200 wax seals. An original drawing by Kaiser Wil- helm II occupies a prominent place. A library of 80,000 volumes is also con- nected with the institution. ————— LORD STRATHCONA BUYS TWO ISLANDS Noble Scot Purchases Colonsay and Ornsay, in the Inner Heb- rides Group. LONDON, Sept. 17.—Lord Strathcona has just purchased the islands of Col- onsay and Ornsay from the executors of the late Sir John MecNeill, V. C. For the last two hundred years these is- lands have been in the possession of the McNeill family. They belong to the inner Hebrides group and are together about twelve miles in length. The historic old bullding, Chartley Castle, where Queen Elizabeth as a guest and Mary Queen of Scots as a prisoner stopped in the sixteenth cen- tury, has recently come under the ham- mer. Baroness Burdett Coutts has taken up her residence at Holly Lodge, High- gate. Burdett Coutts is shooting in Scotland. The Baron is in excellent health. Lord Rothschild has returned to Lon- don from Trouville, where he has beeg passing a few days with Baron and Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild. —_—————— Have White Mule With Them. NAPLES, Sept. 17.—The Prince of Waldenburg, a wealthy member of the Austrian aristocracy, and his newly wedded bride have reached this city on their wedding trip. which they under- take in a very unique manner. Accompanied by a white mule, which carries a small traveling outfit, they are making a walking tour through Italy. A large staff of servants with a considerable number of trunks travels ahead of the bridal palr to arrange for their reception at the best hotela, _