Prince Who Died Pauper

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 18

Prince Who Died Pauper

DISSIPATIONS FOLLOW MORGANATIC MARRIAGE AND WURTEMBERG PRINCE ENDS LIFE WASHING DISHES IN A CAFE

■ Ot'BTLESS it is right and best to marry for love alone. Conviction that love is everything made Mark Antony give up the empire of (he Caesars; all through history he has had his emulators. Men still stake their earthly happiness on this colour of life’s roulette wheel without a qualm. Outside the door of his father's quarters in the magnificent old palace of the Hohenlohe-Oeringens, in the ancient kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, Alexander, scion of the race in that day, must have pondered some such conclusions as these. One imagines that at last he halted abruptly and “protestiugly before the door, tugging at his high military collar, perhaps cursing softly but emphatically. Prince Felix, his father, one of the richest and most powerful aristocrats of the time, had sent for him. Why, then, tvas he cooling his heels in the anteroom? After all, Alexander must have known what liis father intended saying to him, since the situation in which they were was as old as the hills. “You must give up this girl, this daughter of a commoner,” Felix quite probably would command, as high-born fathers have done since time immemorial. The great doors opened—and closed. When Alexander went into that room lie was the hope of a line that had given Germany military chiefs, Chancellors, political and social leaders. When he came out he had forsworn it all—riches, rank and future —that he might marry the girl of his choice. That the spirited young man went straight to this girl, whose name was simple Marie Lehmann, no true lover will doubt. Marie's father was a rich merchant with varied interests, and Marie was sure, of course, that he would take his son-in-law into the firm. The record shows that they were married quickly, Alexander and Marie, as if they feared the powerful Prince Felix might do something to prevent their union. But if he made no attempt to frustrate them, Prince Felix a few days later disowned his son. He made with regard to Alexander only one last gesture toward dynastic establishment. He prevailed upon the 'Kaiser to give the boy the modest title of Baron von Gablestein. Marie the Baroness! The one-time prince must have been amused by tbe comparatively insignificant designation; and his wife, among the commoners of Wurtemberg, must have enjoyed her new honours immensely. There began a curious struggle—ihe struggle of a fish out of water. Ilerr Lehmann provided for the support of his daughter and her husband, and did his best to interest the former prince in business. But the baron knew nothing about business, and on closer acquaintance found that he hated it heartily. The baron gambled, he drank, he gave parties, he tipped like a prince. When the bills came in Herr Lehmann probably read the riot act again and again; but it was uo‘ till the banker was on the verge of bankruptcy, the records show, that he called a halt Come what might, Herr Lehmann declared finally with German firmness he would not give his son-in-law another mark. Emissaries of old

Prince Felix made a final settpm»„, upon the baron. It. was. they say Ul good-sized lump sum. But the baron soon ran through (hat, too. About this time Ihe baroness tired as she averred, of his endless drink' ing. and gambling, divorced him Penniless, and a his wit’s end.he met Frau Elizabeth Stein, a wia o “ who was passably good-looking and possessor of a small fortune her the barou seemed like an opnor tunity she had long sought. sh e wanted to get into societv, and she entertained the hope that some dav the baron might be al I with such assistance as she could give him ir re-establish himself as a prince’s,, she married him. But curiously a change had come over the unfortunate baron. Whether he was crushed by his mistakes ami their outcome, or whether he was embittered by his old frieuds’ refusal to help him, he spumed nobility ant society. The second baroness could not arouse the slightest aml.iti ou in him—and a few days before Urn World War she in her turn divorced him. The former prince was one of those persons to whom the World War was a godsend. The wartime army asked no questions as to a man’s social past; he was taken in as a first lieu tenant because of his early trainins and experience. He was a' good sol dier, served with honours, won the rank of captain—and was mustered out at the end, as penniless as when he started. Somehow, the baron got back to Vienna. There he came to the end of the play—this man who had given up everything for love. .He was seen selling newspapers; he was a washerwoman’s helper. He was arrested in Dresden for begging, and in Frankfort for vag raney. Put down as an habitual drunkard, he was ousted from town to town, until at last he came to Berlin, which like all great cities is a quicksand for the dregs of humanity. He got employment finally as a floor scrubber and odd-job man at a beer saloon. For some time he was comparatively comfortable, having food, some brandy, his memories, ami probably a philosophy of his own. He used to say sometimes that he was a prince, but no one seemed to care. And ihe other day when Herr Piefke sold the saloon and told the baron that his job was ended, tbe old man—he was 57, but he looked 80—collapsed. They took him to a pauper's ward in the hospital, where he died.

So, doubtless, it is right to marry for love alone. One swallow does not make a summer, nor one instance a philosophy.