Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1899 — DUKE LIVES IN A DESERT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DUKE LIVES IN A DESERT.

Karl Theodora of Bavaria Finds aw Ideal Sanitarium la Sahara. Physicians have “made” many queer health resorts, but the queerest of them all is now being called Into existence by Dr. Karl Theodore Wittersbach, also known as bis royal highness the Duk* of Bavaria. He has lived in an osri* on the northern border of the Sahara, and he Is so Impressed with its healthgiving qualities that he feels moved tor call there all his royal sisters and brethren who are flitting about th* world seeking relief from Illness, hereditary or otherwise. Despite his great title and his relationship to the leading merchants of the world, the Duke is a poor man, and

the fact that he has five children, three princesses and two princes, to bring up in such style as to insure suitable marrlages for them does not contribute to; his peculiarity. In recent years his ex- i penses have been increased by his wife’s Illness. Like the Crown of Sweden, his duchess, Marie JosephAl Beatrice, who comes from the house ot Bragance, is suffering from consumption, and the German winters were al-; ways very hard on her. Consequently the ducal family went itself to Egypt| every November to remain until spring. But the Egyptians are rapacious landlord. They used to tax his royal highness in a way that made his blood boil, until finally becoming desperate be r*g solved to punish the pest and at the J same time benefit his pocket If possf-;1 ble. With this idea in mind he set out on a tour of discovery that took hlm| into the heart of Algeria. There he had j occasion to observe the fine bodily and ] mental health enjoyed by the two and! four footed ships of, the desert Thtotf interested the physician in him; tbb| ducal part of Karl Theodore was sur-1 prised pleasantly when he that in a near-by oasis living was atl most as cheap as sand in the desert Hej found the climate, water and other co®-| ditions satisfactory. So he rented at J once for a term of years the hlgheflW ground to be had in the Biskra oasto£| and there he is squatting now, like *| native sheik or sultan, in a little tent] city.

AN IDEAL SANITARIUM.