His Majesty The Gardener.

Hastings Standard, Volume V, Issue 1425, 16 January 1901, Page 3

His Majesty The Gardener.

A democrat on the throne is King Leopold ; a man who (says The King), if he bad not been born with a crown on bis bead, would have been everybody's favorite. As it is, he is King of the Belgians, and he compensates himself for that misfortune by interesting himself in everything and everybody, and being as simple and homely as a man can be with a Court tied to bis coat tails. No King, perhaps, of our time makes such desperate efforos to rid himself of the restrictions which hedge a King. He will turn up everywhere, at the most unexpected times, in the most unexpected places. Only tbe other day a Paris policeman stepped him for furiously driving a motor car. And always, wherever he goe3 he leaves his book of dignity at home. At the races at Auteuil, a week or two ago, he waited his turn at the turnstile with the crowd, refusing offers of precedence made by some Parisians who recognised him ; and one can well believe that familiar story which tells how, one day, the King of the Belgians was near the gate of his castle, when two American girls took him for his own head gardener. " Would he show them round ?" " With all the pleasure in the world." And so tho three round the gardens. "I am taking the liberty of showing t!v.- kdies round," ;aiu Ltopoii to his chamberlain, whom h- met on the way, and the chamberlain smile;.! aud passed on. The American girls, their hearts bubbling over with gratituie to their guide, rewarded him with a lOfr piece, which they found on the King's watchchain when, a fewdays after, they wore introduced to his Majesty at a garden party '. Tbe King is generosity itself. There is at least one soldier in his army who would die for him. This officer, bysome mischance, lost a large sum of money he had drawn for his regiment from tbe bank, and, being too poor to replace it, dreaded tbe suspicion which was bound to fall upon him. Satisfying himself that the man's character was above reproach, King Leopold—then Crown Prince—paid the sum out of bis own purse, and promoted the captain to the rank of major, lie has given overall his palaces to the people for ever. It is probably true, as stated at the time, that tbe King wrote an autograph letter to Queen Victoria concerning the Sipido verdict, for King Leopold is among the most regular of her Majesty's correspondents, and be has a great love for England.