The Kanabec County Times

HEIR TO ITALY'S THRONE.
The Newly-Born Son of the Duke of
Aosta Is a Likely Successor
in the Line.

Another prince has just been added to the already large male element in the house of Savoy, which for half a century-that is to say, from the birth of Queen Margherita--has had no daughters, with the exception of the child of the duke of Genoa, also called Margherita, born in 1896. The prince is an important addition to the family, as he will, if the present order of things continue, one day sit on the throne of Italy. He is the first child of Prince Emanuel, duke of Aosta, who, three years ago, married at Kingston Princess Helene of Orleans. As the duke and duchess of Aosta had been married a relatively long time without children, and as it is asserted that the crown prince, married two years ago, may never have issue, the enemies of the house of Savoy, especially the clericals, had diligently spread the idea that the want of a direct heir after the prince of Naples was the curse of God for the "usurpation" of the papal state. It is known that certain anxiety was really felt in the royal family itself, and his relatives were busy choosing a wife for the count of Turin, the next brother to the duke of Aosta. The little prince who has just entered this world, has, however, put his rosy little foot down on the prospects, which thus lose their pressing importance. Another lease of bachelorhood, too, is given to the count of Turin, which he is popularly supposed to prize highly. The duke of Aosta, to whose branch of the family the Italian throne will pass should the prince of Naples die without an heir, is the son of Prince Amadeo, that brother of King Humbert who died when only 45, and about whom the king in the depth of his grief exclaimed: "I have lost my best friend!" His mother was a princess of the noble house of Della Cisterna, and not, therefore, of royal birth, but such was her cleverness and superiority that she took her place with great dignity and grace as daughter-in-law and sister-in-law of kings, and as queen herself when for five years her husband sat on the throne of Spain. In Madrid she contracted the disease which killed her, one year later, at the age of 29. Englishmen will certainly not forget the sensation caused by the second marriage of Prince Amadeo with his niece, the beautiful Princess Letitia Bonaparte, daughter of his sister Princess Clotilde and the celebrated "Plon-Plon." -Pall Mall Gazette.