Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1901 — ROMANCE OF A GRAND DUCHESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROMANCE OF A GRAND DUCHESS

Grand' Duchess Helen of Russia is the center of a royal romance that has wonderful possibilities for the making of history. She is a lively, attractive,

warnirblooded girl, who knows how to flirt, and who has already broken many hearts. She is now being courted on one hand by the man who would be emperor of France if Napoleon’s line had not been overthrown, and on the other hand*by a grandson of Queen

Victoria. Reports of her engagement to each have been printed, The grand duchess herself is a mighty important figure in Russia, quite

aside from any matrimonial possibilities, for her father is the powerful Grand Duke Vladimir, who stands a good chance of succeeding to the Russian throne. Helen is an uncommonly clever girl, and her rank, good health and good

looks make her one of the most desirable unmarried princesses In Europe. Perhaps her only rival would be Princess Victoria, the only unmarried daughter of the Prince of Wales.

The more notable of the lighthearted Helen’s suitors is Prince Victor Napoleon, head of the Bonaparte family of today. After the great Napoleon’s death, the succession went to his youngest brother, King Jerome of Westphalia; thence to Jerome’s son, Prince Napoleon, who was known to fame as Plon-Plon. Prince Napoleon had two sons, Prince Victor and Prince Louis. »

Victor is the elder and lives quietly in Brussels, studying the history of the first Napoleon and planning what he shall do when the turn of the wheel in French politics brings him on top again. He looks like George Gould, and is rapidly growing fat. No one seems able to determine whether he Is a great man biding his time or a commonplace man making a bluff. The other claimant for the hand of Grand Duchess Helen is Prince Albert John Christian Frederick George, only surviving son of the fourth of Queen Victoria’s six children now living. His mother, Princess Helena, married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, and his elder brother, Prince Christian, lately lost his life in the Bodr war. Before that bereavement Prince Albert John was rather a gay boy, in spite of the fact that he is poor, but it Is said that he has now settled down Into steady ways. It was his sister, Princess Aribert, who cut a figure in the United States a while ago, and who has just been divorced by her husband. There would be no particular effect on affairs of state if Grand Duchess Helen were to wed the Anglo-German prince, but if she were allied to Prince Victor Napoleon it is believed that the match would greatly strengthen the French Imperialist cause, f

GRAND DUCHESS HELEN OF RUSSIA.