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Show r- iBiiieuzEi PRINCE FERDINAND ORDERED CRbWN MADE TEN YEARS AGO. Design Mdde But Plans Made to Make Him Monarch Fell Through New Ruler of Bulgaria as He Is Fond of Music London. It Is exactly Jtcn years ago that Ferdinand of llulgarla had his first Inclination to become a king. He waa not content with tho' common' or garden title yf prlnco, slnco In ills hnnds lay tho reins of government of n not luconsldornblo state. In 1898 he openly announced that he wished to become king, but at that tlmo ilul garla would have nnno of It. Ferdinand Ferdi-nand has nover dropped this,' hlsi pet ambition. Moreover," his mother, Princess Clementina, was ns anxious ns ha was that her eon should relgu as king, and so sho ordered from e Munich Jeweler a crown of surprising grandeur, In which sho promised to set some of the brightest Jowels from the family collection of the Saxe-Coburg Gothas. Sho oven went a step fur ther, und commissioned ono of tho grcatost artists In Uavorla to prepare a special design at a handsome feo for the crown. Tho design was delivered nnd approved, but tho artist failed to rccolvo a check, and when he gontly Insinuated that one would bo acceptable accepta-ble he was Informed Hint as soon ns the crown was made ho Rhould receive it Subsequently Ferdinand gave up tho Idea of being crowned a king till tho othor day. It Is an open secret that for some time Ferdinand has been doing his Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. best to work his way Into tho hearts of his people tho very people whom, but a few years ago, he always addressed ad-dressed and tre'atod as dogs. Ho refused re-fused at ono tlmo to go among them, for ho publfcly said that .they ware tho most unwashed race In Europe. He probably was right, but the truth did not sound well, falling as It did from his Hps. Most of his time Is devoted to sports, for ho docs little or no work. Ho Is always hunting or shooting; fishing fish-ing la another favorite pastime of his. ,Ho Is Russian In appearance, with tho fUisBtun beard, and tho cold, gray eyes.-The eyes.-The only one of tho arts to which Ferdinand Is Inclined is music, nnd ho plays atrociously on tho violin. Ditt at heart ho loves good music, and will go out of his way to hear It. Ho Is a man who would not recognize tho gravity of his situation, and If his country wero setting out to war to-morrow, fio would sleep soundly In his bed o' nights. Ho is tactless, and oven lazy Is litis now European czar, but the probability probabil-ity is that he Is doing more work now than ho has over done In his life. Hut that this burst of energy will lost well, that Is another question, The other Fordlnand, namely Archduke Arch-duke Ferdinand of Austria, tho heir-presumptive heir-presumptive to tho Austrian throno, Is announced to be tho wire-puller In tho present Instance, though most people prefer to look further north. Tho archduke, It may bo said, Is a whole-somo whole-somo Jiat'or of Ilrltaln, and his antagonism antagon-ism to this country has only been quashed, when about to be openly displayed, dis-played, by tho emperor himself. Tho archduko'lias approached .tho throno by a dovlous route. Tho real holr. Archduko Rudolf, tho son and fnvoritb of tho aged monarch, committed suicide sui-cide In some gardens In'n fit of de-montla de-montla in 1889, owing to an entanglement entangle-ment he had been thrown Into with a ludy. emperor's younger broth-or, broth-or, Karl, Has the noxt heir, but ho had th6 drftwback- of tho Hapsburgs, namely name-ly weakness of character, and when he difcd tho present archduke, a man of 42 or thereabouts, came uox( to tho emperor. The urchduke Is unlike a Hapsburg oxcept In appearance Ho Is orratio and callous, a schemer, shrewd, wilful, yet withal a man of courage. Ho distinguished dis-tinguished himself n short tlmo ago by plunging Into a roaring torrent at the base of a niounfnln to save thu llfo of a shopherd hoy, who had fallen In and was drowning, nnd, being a strong swimmer, he succeeded In dragging drag-ging tho half-dead youth to land. |
