"RUPERT THE RAMBLER."

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1918, Page 8

"RUPERT THE RAMBLER."

UN UNFLATTERING PEN PORTRAIT. According to a cable message tf'is week Le Journal (Pans) says: i«e only 'man whom sober ob«m» in Germany marks as a successor to tM K«u*tr is Prince Rupprecht ot Havana. Ihe following sketch of this Bavarian prmce written for tU Manchester sunday Chronicle by a "Neutral Traveller will be road with interest: Tliu amiomieemest that Prince Rupnrecht of Bavaria is engaged to be married to Princess Antoinette of Luxemburg will not come as a surprise to anybody who knows the Prince and the way in \vhieh Germany acquires kingdoms and grand duchies by marriage. Tue Kaiser did all he could to bully Grand Duchess (sister of the prospective victim) into a marriage with a German prince. Since that was point-blank refused, Antoinette, si mere girl of 19, is to he sacrificed to this rogue of 43, and will, doubtless, be afterwards declared Grand Duchess in place of her violently anti-German sister. In that case Luxemburg will become to all .intents and purposes part of the Bavarian Palatinate -Tt. is a. sop to Bavaria, and extends the German "Empire at the same time.

A LIFE OF DEF.AUCHF/RY. Rupprecht is one of the most depraved princes in Europe—even in Germany. X l.ncw him well when I lived in Munich, meeting him at Court functions, at carnival redoubts, and in the casual life of the capital. The Wittelsbach dynasty as a whole is well liked in Bavaria, stark mad as some of their rulers have been. Cut ltupprecht was universally hated. This was partially on account oi his insolent, overbearing, and brutal manners, hut more becauso of his foul tieatiucnt of his beautiful young wife. Not only did he systematically neglect her and engage in the most shameful intrigues, but he was deliberately cruel and downright violent whenever he condescended to be at home. He had two fine boys, but that made 110 difference to him. The sweet martyr face of his wife thinner and thinner and paler and paler, showed the mark of Rupnrecht's cruel baud ' Meanwhile Rupprooht was here, there and everywhere in the city ".vith antr/w from the opera, from the Reside Theater, from the Schauspielbaus, the T.ustspieshnns, from the commonest csharel?. TTe debauched the daughters of honest tradesmen, and he ran amok with the Tiiermadheij from the. great liner halls and Keller Such a reputation had he at one time for climbing up balconies in the pursuit of his "amours" Hint, he was nicknamed Rupert. the Humbler. Tn I lie double-beer season, at the Knockerberg, for example, where the Silvator beer is on tap, von could see him at his Slainmtiscvh with a bunch of choice companions, male and female, lifting the roof off with their choruses, and ,- 'snnfling" until they dropped under the table.

FLATNTTCD ITTS VTCES Some of the carnival balls at Mtinica arc incredibly immoral, and Rupprecht went to them all. You could see liim at tlie Deutehes Theater Redoubt—a ball as immoral as it was elegant—dancing with shameless women, who had discarded half their clothing; and with one or ether of them he would afterwards disappear in the early morning. You mar wonder, if such practices were so common at carnival time, that Rupprecht should he so heartily hated. Hut the thing was that, whereas you were supposed to stop short on Ash Wednesday. Rupprecht went on all the year round. Besides, Munich people said, if he does run after women, he might be at least tender to his wife. Tnstead of which, he was a brute to her. A RRAZTCN pivmJGATT: And he Haunted his vices, lie walked with his mistresses on the Fcldhuhnhalle when the band was playing the Sunday morning parade and all the ''best people'' were promenading. He took his mistresses toboganning at Partenkirschen. He dined with them at the Leopold Cafe. One night, he was seen getting over a balcony of a villa in Schwbing where lived a lady kept by an army officer The result of this was a duel in which the officer was seriously wounded, and Rupprecht had to retire from Munich for a time. He went to Isclil, the famous Austrian mountain summer resort, and so played tire devil there that the authorities complained, aj;d he was sent home againA crash came when lie fell a victim to the charms of a piquant, litlte actress whose name for certain reasons I must not mention—wo will call her Vritzic. He spent a, fortune on her (as fortunes are calculated in Ravaria), and her extravagance in dress, jewellery, et[uippage, and housing became notorious. Worse still, a number of the other princes fell in love with the lady, and the bitter rivalry threatened to result in wholesale duelling. Tl,icn the I'rmee-Rerrent (father of King Ludwig) stepped in and pricked the lady off to Vienna, with an intimation (hat, if she returned she would be put in gaol. The Munich people did not milch like the idea of such, a. man as this becoming King but. they consoled (hemselves with the thought of what a charm inw Queen 1 I '' aVP ' aiKl i" «> C ir hearts that l.upproeht would drink and otherwise debauch himself to death I,e--ore lus fater T „,lwig died, when one of ■ l, °y s become king, with the bej.™i Kupprrtt „ W

wirrsfm OF "3roßm?R." Aim )!'on U;f> Princess diod, and tlip in , U " > Mf ea. "1 tlio liror luilk (I'ml don V' 1 V r- Sh ® 1,1(1 I)ccn ,1 " ,r " tw Fi-pnnl '' p , a - S S " rc,y as anv of U'c Tioncli and Ueinrin,, I)casanh (1 *° death by KupprecLt's men. She died

of a broken heart, for, strange to sav, she had once loved her brutal husband. The immediate cause of her death is not generally known. Rnpprecht fell in I ova with the daughter of a professor. Now, professors are extremely important, per. sons m Germany, and a Prince may not debauch the daughter of a professor unless the intends to make her his morganatic wife. But there were no bars to Rupprecht-. The intrigue was completed. The .father discovered all and went to complain to Ludwig. Ludwig had a stormy ryerviow with his son, who threatened mat he would resign his rank and leave Bavaria with the girl. The end of it was that he agreed to give her up entirely, and the girl died of grief. Rupprecht was genuinely affected by this tragedy. But while he was mourning his dead sweetheart his wife died, too. Somehow, the sHit of his tender feeling- for another woman preyed on her mind more than all hie other infidelities. From that momeni Rupprecht was a marked man. Usly words were called after him in the ■street. Brother officers cut the ijteirapparent, and he did not challenge them to a duel. If he had been anybody but the heir-apparent that would have meant his resignation from the army and his complete exile from social life. As it was, 'he became practically an exile hi Munich, meeting respectable people, only at compulsory functions, and consorting with the lowest of the low in point of morals. In point of birth he was very particular, where men were concerned. To. obliterate the sense of his degradation Rupprecht plunged himself desperately into military activity, and he lent 'his voice to persuade King Ludwig to back up the Kaiser in Uhe fateful days of August, MR Such is the man who is to marry the blooming young P'rinccss Antoinette of Luxemburg! Poor girl! It is her death warrant.