The Copper Country Evening News

ONE WOMAN'S SCORN,

PRINCESS FREDERICK LEOPOLD
ARRAIGNS HER HUSBAND.

The Worthless Prince's Cruelty Toward
His Spouse
Has Turned the Emperor Against Him—A
Princess' Tale of Marital Woe.

LATE CABLE DISPATCH from Berlin,
Germany, says there is no truth in
the story that Princess Frederick
Leopold of Prussia has of late persistently
refused to see her sister, the empress.
It is equally untrue that she has
sworn never again to speak to the
kaiser, after the disgraceful scenes reported
in the newspapers about three
weeks ago, which ended in the Emperor
William ordering the arrest and a fortnight's
confinement of her despicable
husband in the royal castle. On the
contrary, the poor princess now, more
than ever, maintains her affectionate relations
with the imperial couple, who,
besides her children, are her only comfort,
since the prince has left Berlin and
has gone abroad, on what everybody
knows will be an extended globe trot,
incognito. In fact, it is whispered in
court circles that the couple will manage
never to meet again. The presence
of the princess in the white hall of the
Schloss on the occasion of the imperial
proclamation of the quarter-centennial
anniversary of the birth of the German
empire flatly contradicts all these yarns
about the strained relations which are
said to have resulted from the scandals.
The princess entered the white hall supported
by the Empress Frederick and
her imperial sister. Her face was ashy
pale, and her whole bearing gave evidence
of a long period of unspeakable
suffering. Those deep furrows on the
forehead of a comparatively young woman
were not simply the effects of a
brief illness subsequent to an accident
while skating. It did not require a
specialist to unravel these symptoms.
That face and the stooped figure betrayed
years of silent martyrdom, an
affectionate love scorned.
At all the courts of Europe there is
not a lady of kinder disposition and
sweeter temper than Princess Frederick
Leopold. It is also known that her marriage
with the prince was an "affaire du
coeur," and to this day she fosters a
whole souled affection for her erratic
spouse. It was always supposed that
the latter reciprocated his wife's love
and devotion. The more charitable
ascribe the whole trouble to a disease
from which the prince suffers terribly
at times, so that his most intimate
friends claim that he is on some occasions
not responsible for his acts. His
physician states that the black sheep
of Germany's reigning family was made
a moral and physical wreck by the beatings
which he daily, and often without
the least provocation, received from his
father. The result is that he is an
epileptic, and on the least excitement
or thwarting of his will, is thrown in
a violent temper, which he frequently
vents on his demure little wife. The
princess as a rule, bore this cruel treatment
with silent resignation, and, as
she is an earnest Christian woman, her
revenge was the offering up of devout
prayers for her husband's conversion
of heart and soul. Her chambermaids
and her most intimate companions have
marvelled at her patience. Though
everybody knew of the bitter quarrels,
which were of almost daily occurrence
in the household, she managed to keep
the story of the corporal maltreatment
from the kaiser and her sister during
all these years until the day of the skating
accident, when, provoked by the
lashes from her husband's whip, she
made a clean breast of it all, and, amid
a flood of tears, recited the long story
of her secret sufferings. How, from the
day her first child was born—a little
girl—her husband began to abuse her
and displayed a sudden hatred toward
her, how he often attacked her with
his fists, bragging of his great wealth
and ridiculing her poverty; how he
even maltreated all of her children,
with the exception of her only son—little
Frederick.
The prince had finally forbidden the
exercise of her freedom. She was not
allowed to leave Glienecke castle without
his special permission, and, driven
to desperation, she had listened to the
counsel of two ladies of her court and
had actually dared to disobey and indulge
in her favorite sport of skating.
Princess Frederick Leopold is only 30
years old, and, in 1889, as Princess
Schleswig-Holstein, before her marriage,
was Louise Sophie of
a dashing young lady, ever full of girlish glee.
She was always a great favorite with
the then Prince Wilhelm, the present
emperor of Germany. It is no wonder,
therefore that the kaiser so quickly
espoused her cause when he was suddenly
summoned to Glienecke castle,
last month, and felt like administering
a sound thrashing to her brutal husband.
It is said that when Prince Frederick
attempted to deny the terrible
charges the kaiser flew into a rage and
told him that he would treat him as did
the emperor of Austria the infamous
Archduke Otto if he added another
word to the injuries he had done the
lady. There is no doubt that the kaiser
will henceforth watch over the interests
of his sister-in-law. At any rate,
Prince Leopold has already been compelled
to give up his command of the
imperial body guards, and his absence
from the Fatherland is not altogether
a voluntary one. It is possible that the
denouement will be an absolute divorce,
the princess retaining possession of her