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Show KING FERDINAND AS SUPPLIANT I King Ferdinand spent the month of November in Vienna, a humble suppliant sup-pliant for his own throne, it la said. Because of this visit, the report -went forth from Sofia that this talented scion ot the house of Coburg, who but a short time ago was to revive in all of its ancient glories and breadth and width the old Bulgarian empire, is to be forced to abdicate in favor of his own son, Crown Prince Boris. The role of suppliant sits so ill on no one as it does on this proud, ambitious ambi-tious man. He has all the pride of rank ' , and family and the yearning for suc cess where others have railed and where he came so near achieving. He comes of two great families, a son of Prince Auguste of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Clementine, daughter of Ixmis Philippe, king of France, and is . thus a cousin to most of the crowned heads of Europe. It was but five years ago that he ; paid another visit to Vienna and so well and diplomatically performed his mission that he returns to Sofia to realize one of his dreams. The day that Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia- I Herzegovina Prince Ferdinand proclaimed the independence of Bulgaria, the I absorption of eastern Rumelia and the assumption by himself of royalty at i the old cathedral in the ancient Bulgarian capital of Tirnovo. But the disasters of war and blunders of diplomacy followed one on top, of the other in a year packed with more epoch making events than ever before In the history of Bulgaria, and the restless, ambitious Ferdinand saw his vast schemes and his grand dreams of empire dissipated. So it is that the king to whom the Bulgarians could not have paid sufficient suffi-cient honor a few months ago was away from his capital. One morning he found a big "To Let" card on the gate of the palace. It was an invitation that letters threatening death and marks of disrespect whenever he appeared on. the streets made all the more emphatic. |