TAVERN-KEEPER AND KING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue I, 4 July 1896, Page 26

TAVERN-KEEPER AND KING.

Queen Victoria is about to confer the Order of the Garter upon a hotelkeeper. Trne, the hotelkeeper is a king, but be is none the less a boniface. It is his majesty William of Wurtemberg, and the hotels wbich he owns are the * Marquardt,' situated right opposite the Royal Palace at Stuttgart, and the ‘ Riesig ’ located under and over the Arcade of the Konigsban. In running these hotels as a source of profit to his private exchequer, the King of Wurtern berg is merely continuing the traditions of his predecessors on the throne. There is a story as old as the time of Peter the Great in connection with this peculiar source of royal income. It seems that the Czar, who was determined on retaining his incognito in travelling through Europe, absolutely declined to take up his quarters at the Royal Palace at Stuttgart, but insisted on going to an inn. Having learned of this prior to his arrival, the Wnrtemberg sovereign aansed all the hotel and inn-keepers to remove their signs. Over the principal doorway of his palace he had a huge sign hung ont, stating that within there was cheer for man and beast at cheap prices, and that the name of the hotel was the Konigsban. On the Czar’s carriage and retinue entering the city, the postilions, previously instructed by the Wurtemberg officials, drove straight to the palace, and there, standing at the main entrance, was the sovereign, fat and burly, arrayed in the traditional costume of a boniface, with white apron and cap, while the various princesses, princes, nobles, and dignitaries of his court were costumed as waiters and waitresses, hostlers, and other servants. Peter the Great, greatly amused by this witty and kindly manner of humouring his wishes, entered thoroughly into the joke, which was kept up until the following day, when be proceeded on his journey. Noticing that the postilion mounted on the wheeler of his travelling carriage was a man of singularly unkempt appearance, his clothes ragged and covered with mud, he made the remark to one of his attendants that there was at least no mistake as to the social condition of that man and that there could be no danger of his being a nobleman of the first stage. When the postilion came to the carriage door to receive his gratuity and raised his cap from his head, the Czar, to his astonishment, recognized in him the heir of Wurtemberg’s throne, who had assumed the disguise for the purpose of speeding his father’s Imperial guest.