MONARCH'S "LONG STOCKINGS."

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4204, 10 July 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

MONARCH'S "LONG STOCKINGS."

HOW KINGS AND QUEENS MAKE PROVISION IN CASE THEY LOSE THEIR CROWNS. Whatever dignity there may bo in wearing a crown and wielding a sceptre, it is pretty evident that the kingly position is hardly more certain, say. than that of the average man who lias to earn his living Revolutions como and monorohs go; they get less than the usual month's notice, and in many ca-res are glad if they take their lives with thrm. In such disastrous circumstances these exiled rulers are glad to fall back on the long stockings which they have boon careful to fill up in the days of their prosperity. Like ordinary mortal?, they have prepared against the rainy oay which comes in the life of kings as it- does in that of coal-heavere. CASTRO'S MILLION. At the present moment Abdul Hamid has ,inst left the throne of Turkey, and President Castro is wondering whether he will ever again defy Europe from the Cabinet of Venezuela. But in this lapse from power each ruler is comforted by the fact that "money is no object." Castro did not spend all lie earned—or obtained—during his long reign. The story of large sums of gold buried m the ground at Caracas may bo a myth, but it is well known that he laid up for himself Treasure,? in the banks of Europe Avliicli will keep the wolf from his dcor so long as his life is prolonged. A round sum of a million is at the command of the excattle drover whenever he calls for it.

Abdul is equally fortunate. Out of his official income of £BOO,OOO a year, he managed to send a large sum to the Bank of France and the Bank of England, where it lies "to his private credit. Immediately before the rocent crisis a confidential agent of his paid a hurried visit to London, and collected a number of valuable securities lying m various banking houses, which he transferred to a safe deposit in the city against the time when his exMajestv might b> free to use them. And if the Sultan ever gets his. liberty, ft will probably be found that lie did not go empty-handed when ho left the Yildiz Kiosk. He was always prepared for emergencies of that kind. When the agitation against the Armenian massacres was on, and a private "tip" had come from the Turkish Embassy in London that flight would be advisable," Abdul crammed his pockets with loose jewels, and stuffed his belt with bonds for a considerable amotint. I£ he had to leave he did not mean to loavo empty-handed. The Czar does his saving in a more systematic manner. He watches tlis Money Market as a cat watches a mouse, and invests in anything good that he fancies. Sometimes he is bitten, as when he plunged on come worthless mining shares; but it is not often, as ift this case, that he goes beyond the £2o,OOTT which he has set as the limit of his annual loss. More often than not he makes a big profit. He has not lets than £1,500,000 locked up in American i• il ..t\. ri>d sugar stock, -.rhi<i'('iVl < ,n extremely handy if lie vacate the thror "> THE CZATf'S l.rTrjh NEST EGG, Moreover, ther« is a tr'fle of £3,000.000 odd ii- v d gold Ivng to hi« credit in r ! < a 'dts ( f 'he B:mb of England, and if U-issia becomes "red'' , again it is not above possibility that His Majesty will find a goad friend in the Old Ladv of Threadneedle Street. And ono might add that the million pounds settled on the eldest daughter of the Czar at her birth was invested in British, and American securitiesNo one anticipates a. revolution in Germar-y, but Kaiser Wilhelm is, too shrewd to put all his eggs into the German, basket. He hns a trifle of three-quarters of a million sunk in American rail?, and another niill'on in Now York real estate, although in the latter case his name never appeal's as the owner of the land. Another handy sum is the £IOO,OOO bequeathed to him by the Baroness Oppenheim-Cohn. The Spanish royal family, also, Tiavo alwavs favoured American securities, despite that little bit of fighting eleven years ago. The Qtren Regent, King Alfonso's moth or. draws a good yearly income from th" half-miU ; on odd Unrip Sam holds on her account. When Queen Isabella liad to leave Spain she carried off her crown and a large parcel of royal jewels. Prince del Drago, her grand-nephew, took the crown for Bale "to America, and actually eold it to Jay Gould's daughter for £25,000. When Isabella was wearing it at the of l.err, Jay Gould was t-r.vi';.g to mukt a living as a book c ""thi: 'wealth of toe pope. The r»H«- i=> not above laying nn for himself ti-'ue of the treasures of this earth. A certain proportion of the papal revenues is regularly invested in foreign securities, and the a&gregat* savings bring him an income oi about £250,000 a year. In his case, also, Threadneedle Street is favoured, and twice a year a trusted delegate leaves the Vatican to confer with certain financial magnates in London. On their advico the money held by His Holiness is laid out, chiefly in English and American bonds. What a nice little nest-egg it would be if an upheaval, 6uch as has happened in Turkey, compelled the Pops to pass beyond the prison-walls of the Vatican! It L i.s hardlv too much to say that he would have enough to establish his kingdom elsewhere in much of its ancient dignity and splendour.