Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — THE KING AMUSES HIMSELF. [ARTICLE]

THE KING AMUSES HIMSELF.

Be Is Happiest When He Thinks He Has Killed a Peasant with His Gan. The one insane monarch who now occupies a European throne, King Otho of Bavaria, shows no symptoms of recovering from his mental malady. lam told that he has lucid intervals, which are very brief, and occur but rarely, and it is as well, for these fleeting gleams of reason only serve to make the poor man miserably unhappy, for while they last he realizes his own wretched condition to the full. Everything is done to amuse and interest him in his ordinary state, which is that of hopeless as well as dangerous insanity. He spends his days in unceasing occupation of an insignificant and mechanical nature. Atone time he worked from morning till night in rolling cigarettes. Then he took to peeling potatoes, and bushels upon bushels of them were provided for his amusement Of late' his favorite pastime is by no means of such an inoffensive nature; He has taken to shooting peasants, and will sit all day long with his gun at the window, waiting for this new kind of game on which to exercise his skill. Even this freak his guardians have contrived to satisfy, without injury to any one of his subjects. His gun is loaded in his presence, as he always insists upon seeing the powder and shot duly put in, but for the latter his attendant substitutes dry peas. Orders have been given that no person shall be allowed to pass along the road in front of his dwelling, lest King Otho should tire upon him or her and be driven quite wild by seeing his intended victim walk off unhurt But at stated intervals a man in a peasant’s garb makes his appearance on the road. The King takes aim and Arcs, and the man drops down, to all appearance, dead. The supposed body is removed by two of the guards, and some hours later the performance is repeated, to the immense satisfaction of his Majesty. The make-believe peasant is a figurant from one of the minor theaters of Munich. Generally he simply drops on hearing the shot, and remains motionless, but occasionally he varies the performance by dying very hard," turning round two or three times before he falls, and then expiring in terrific convulsions, a catastrophe that*always greatly interests the royal maniac. Philadelphia Telegraph.