COSTLY LOVE.

Thames Star, Issue 14663, 17 April 1915, Page 7

COSTLY LOVE.

ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY

It is not essential to delve beyond ' the mere thin outer crust of events I to demonstrate to the least receptive that love is, past all argument, the costliest thing m which man and his mate engage. Beginning in" Russia, th:rc is the case of the Granot Duke I'aui, who dared love an c'*~"es. M th;: oitfret 'it is well to rafloct ill t itussian grand duchies and the equipment of the theatrical dressing-rooms present a contrast vivid to painfulncss. But . this the Grand Duke could not see, ' nor could he be restrained by the consideration of his family or the thought that he was already burdened with a wife. Station, wealth, and country made no difference to him, nor did the threat of the Czar hold him back. He lives in Pariß with his actress, an exile from his country, a poor man, and a man without a name. < Austria is famous for Vienna and its great crop of cases in point with this argument. There must come immediately to every recollection the 6trange case of the Crown Prince Rudolph, whose affair was not permitted to go to a decision—death^ the supreme referee, intervening. Rudolph loved a woman far below his station, and refused again and still again to desert her in response to' the parential wish and the responsibility of an imperial crown. Finally, in the little hunting lodge of Myerling, came the decision. Ons morning they found the heir to the throne of the Hapsburgs, tha son of a hundred kings, dead by the sids of his countess. The thing has remained a mystery for all the years that have fled since this tragedy, ani no accepted solution has bejn offered .even now. Yet, no matter what the truth may have been, the case remains one of the striking examples of a man'a sacrifice to his love. This is but one of Austria'? cases. The world-famous mystery of the Archduke Johann Salvatore--general-ly referred to as John Orth—hinged on a s«t of circumstances ver3>- similar to the foregoing. Salvatore was one of the brilliant officers of the Austrian Army, a man whose succession to the throne was by no means impossible., and one of the wealthiest archdukes of the Austrian Empirs. He tell in love with an actress, was repremanded, wrote a bitter attack on the army»; and then renounced <all titles and Austrian property to elopa with the woman he loved. | They set sail for South America in J a small steamer which was wrecked j off thi Brazilian coast, probably i sending the exiled duke and his act- \ ress to their deaths. On the othei | hand, it was always hinted that they had escaped, and that he was in hiding in Argentina. At various timee for thirty years he has been discovered In this plac« and that—discovered in the fancy of some dreamer. His great estates await his return to Austria, for even yet he has not been declared legally dead. Much more recent in Austrian his- , tory is the case of Archduke Leopold, who, like Salvatore, gave up rank, title, and fortuna to marry Fmulein Adamoviks, a not too fascinating Viennese actress. They left Austria in disgrace, the Duke calling himself Herr Woelfing, and, after some years of butterfly living, joined an aesthetic colony, where the Duke began to ■■ practice upon himself and wife various eccentric cult ideas. She flnally was forced to leave him, whereupon he also deserted the cult and married Maria Bitter, a girl who had ' once been a servant in his family. With a mere mention of the fact that Ferdinand, the present heir-ap-parent of the Austrian imperial throne, married the poor Countess j Chotek, and risked all his birth af- 1 j forded in the marriage, the testimony j from that end of the world may be • dismissed. j Prince Oscar of Sweden did no less than the Austrians when he became i enamoured of Ebba Munck, a beautt- | ful but lowly lady-in-waiting on his j royal mother. By the intercession of that mother he was finally per- j mitted to marry the girl, after ex- j pressly renouncing all rights to the j throne. Some years l&ter his father \ so far relented as to create him j Count of Wisborg. Thus was the ' Prince of Sweden abased to the ' trifling nobility by his love. j These are a few of the striking eases that stand out in the affairs of ! a generation. Grand Duke Michael j of Russia and') the Countess Torbo ' nay likewise, ;be mentioned in the I o'ame connection. And it is impos- I sible to overlook the incorrigible j Louise^ Crown Princess of Saxony. ] who deserted her royal husband and ! her family of children to elope with the tutor Giron, who tired of her as j readily as he had wearied of instruct- j ing her stupid diaiem-wearing girls • and boys. | Next in line, she divorced and , quickly married an Italian violinist ' of: considerable local repute. The sensation created by his marriage to the woman who might have been queen of a worthy kingdom made her violinist husband in demand among the European music-halls. Thus did her love lor a pedagogue bring this royal woman down to the level ol | living on the I harvest of gold <men | paid to gloat mm* her misdeeds.-* i 'Chicago Tribune." j

First New Woman: "Come, Julie, let's go and have a friendship luncl together." , j Second Ditto : "Friendship lunch J i What's that ?" I First: "Why, you pay for mini | ad I'll pay for yours." j