Mad King Otto's Pranks.

Hastings Standard, Issue 128, 23 September 1896, Page 4

Mad King Otto's Pranks.

KILLED THREE OF HIS ATTENDANTS. King Otto of Bavaria has been insane since his accession to the throne ten years ago. His mania is sometimes homicidal. A giant in stature and physical strength, King Otto has already killed three of his attendants at the Castle of Furstenried, where he is confined, and injured for life several ; others by hurling heavy articles of furniture at their heads in his moments of frenzy. The only time when the mad King is not dangerous is when' Mathesis possesses him and leads him to believe that he is a hog or else a stork. When thus possessed he roams about the palace 011 all fours, grunting like a hog and "rooting" with his head under the furniture. Imagining himself a stork, he devotes days to the collection of twigs, sticks, and straw, which he arranges like a stork's nest, in the centre of which solemnly stands, first on one leg and then on the other, flapping the tails of his long black frock coat (which he invariably wears). King Otto, too, has a craze for matches. When he is sane enough to smoke he consumes an inordinate quantity of cigarettes. For each cigarette he uses an entire box of matches, taking an imbecile pleasure in seeing the box flare up. The floors of the palace when he smokes flittered with thousands of burnt matches. The greatest care is observed to prevent him setting fire to the palace, precautions rendered difficult by his habit of flinging the first thing he lays his hands on at any person who annoys him. Candelabras, lamps, heavy ink-stands, statuettes, busts, and heavy chairs and arm-chairs serve the mad giant as missiles. The mirrors with which the palace is adorned are constantly being renewed, as Otto takes mischievous delight in smashing them. For weeks sometimes he eats nothing, and food is forced down his throat. At other times he gorges voraciously and uncouthly, especially when he fancies himself a porker. When Otto fancies himself a stork he struts stork-like about the palace gardens looking for frogs, scraping the gravel with his foot like the the bird he imagines himself to be. He frequently wades, fully clothed, into the park lake in search of frogs, and the gardeners are under strict orders to keep all frogs out of the way. But every now and then the poor King-stork catches it and devours it with great relish. The neighborhood of the palace of Furstenried is surrounded with lofty walls, a precaution due not only to the fear that the King may injure or kill any passing stranger, but to the apprehension that any attempt might be made to rescue His Majesty. The loyal peasantry of Bavaria believe that their King is not mad, but is .kept locked up in deference to the _ wishes of the abhorred Prussians —a victim of the malignant designs of Emperor William. Only once has King Otto left? Furstenried since his brother's tragic death ten years ago. He scaled the wall one day and escaped unobserved, making his way, unrecognised, to Munich, about an hour distant. There he entered the Cathedral during divine service (it was on a Sunday), strode straight up to the high altar, before which he threw himself prostrate. Then, raising himself on his knees, he lifted up his hand and pathetically besought the Almighty to pity poor, demented King Otto and in his mercy restore to him his reason. It was an indescribably pathetic scene; women and men wept aloud. The rector, a venerable ecclesiastic, with snow-white hair, approached the King, knelt down beside him and prayed with him, then soothed him with comforting words, and finally led him quietly into the vestry, whence he was removed in a court carriage by his medical attendants, who had been sent for in all haste. King Otto's elder brother and predecessor, King Louis 11., killed a couple of men during his reign, one in a fit of fury, the other by accident, while he drowned a third, his medical attendant, himself succumbing at the same time. The King had been placed under restraint as a lunatic, but in lucid intervals realised Ms condition. He attributed his irksome restraint to his physician, and at th'e first opportunity he deliberately drowned the unfortunate man, himself dying in a fit while in the water. The late King John of Saxony became insane three days prior to the date o&siaUy declared to be

that of his death. His madness first assumed a violent form at a grand court ball, where he so grossly insulted the daughter of the Austrian Envoy that he had to* be removed to his private apartments, while the unfortunate girl and her parents left the city before daybreak. Twenty-four hours .later he shot or killed with his sword one of his military aides. As Saxony is full of Socialists it was considered impolitic to establish a regency, so King John was declared dead. The old monarch survived this mock burial by nearly four years. He was confined to a remote monastary in Saxon Switzerland. The Crown Prince of Austria shot and killed the Baroness Marie Vetzera before he took his own life one sombre January morning at Meyerling. It was this murderous act and not his suicide which induced many of the Austrian clergy to decline to take part in the memorial services. The late Emperor Alexander 111. of Russia shot and killed Count Eeutern, one of the officers of his household, under the impression that the Count was a Nihilist and a would-be assassin. The Count approached the Czar in the dark at Gatchina, and as he neared the Emperor made a movement that led His Majesty to believe that the stranger was getting some weapon ready for murder. Without an instant's hesitation Alexander drew a revolver and shot the man dead, realising too late his terrible mistake. Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of the German Emperor, when out shooting, carelessly shot two men, one a Greek gentleman of fortune, who had courteously undertaken to pilot the Prince and his shooting party after game in Corru; the other a gamej keeper of the Duke of Baden. The latter was so badly wounded by an incautious shot of the Prince that he had to be invalided, and is to-day m receipt of a handsome pension from the Prince and from the Grand Duke of Baden. The father-in-law of the Infanta Eulalie of Spain, the late Duke of Montpensier, father of the Countess de Paris, was responsible for the death of his cousin, Prince Henry of Bourbon, whom he shot in a duel at Madrid.