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Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved. HiJ Royal H [£ h ne/ir - The Wop fdir Meanest Hurband Pretty Chorus Girl Wife of Duke Ludwig of Bavaria Cruelly Surprised 'When He Treated Her as a Horse, a Dog. and a Goat and Cheated Her Out of Her Pin Money Munich, July 19. A N astonishing drama of royal domestic life is occupying the law courts. The Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, who is eighty-two years old, is suing his morganatic •wife, a former ballet dancer, for divorce. The Duke is the brother of the late Em press Elizabeth of Austria. He belongs to a branch of the Bavarian royal family, which, though separate from that now occupying the throne, enjoys rights of equality with reigning houses in every respect. In youth the Duke was considered the handsomest prince in Europe, just as his sister, the Austrian Empress, was the pearl of princesses In early life he married a very beautiful Bavarian actress named Henrietta Mendel, who was created Baroness Waller- see. She died in 1891. They had one child, later the Countess Marie Larisch. who has recently written an astonishing book reveal ing the flirtations of her aunt, the Empress; the mad eccentricities of the Bavarian royal family and the intrigues that led up to the tragic death of the Empress’s only son, the Crown Prince Rudolph, of Austria. In 1892, within a year of the death of his first wife, the Duke Ludwig hastened to con tract a second morganatic marriage. This time it was with a pretty ballet dancer named Antonie Barth. She was ennobled and received the name of “Baroness von Bartolf" on her marriage. She was more than forty years younger than the Duke. She had less artistic standing than the first actress wife, but was decidedly allurihg. To day she is under forty and still quite hand some. Two years ago the morganatic wife left her loyal husband. This episode was repre sented as a scandalous piece of misconduct on the part of the former ballet girl. The facts now presented in her defense suggest, however, that it was more or less excusable The case is being heard behind closed doors, but the friends of the Baroness von Bartolf have told the astonishing story of her married life. Many women envied the bal let girl when she married a royal duke, but now they know It is better to be the wife of an amiable and prosperous gro cer. The Duke appears to have been the mean est husband yet discovered. He treated his unfe as a horse, a dog and a goat, and constantly beat, spanked and pinched her On top of all this he constantly docked her apparently handsome allowance for infringement of his impossible orders. The aged Duke pushed eccentricity to the verge of madness. His peculiarities became especially marked when dealing with any body of the opposite sex. His conduct is per haps not surprising in a member of the royal house of Wittelsbach, which has supplied two mad kings to Bavaria. The Duke required his ballet girl wife to entertain him in extraordinary ways. As he grew older his exigencies increased. At the beginning of their married life she was some what puzzled when he made her play horse and drove her round the room in rather scanty costume. The performance pleased him so much that he repeated it, but made up a four-in-hand team by harnessing three young servant maids with his wife. As he drove them round and round the room he lashed them freely with a long whip. The wife states that these performances were kept up till the last days she spent with him. It is interesting to recall that the Dukes grandfather, the Duke Maximilian, kept a famous private circus at Munich. It seems that the grandson wished to have a private circus, too. The Baroness owned a pretty little Maltese terrier, of which she was very fond. One day the Duke caught a nondescript mongrel down in the stables and tied the two dogs together by the tails. Then he placed pieces of meat where they would entice the two dogs in. opposite directions and started them OP a tug-of-war. Antonie Barth, After wards Created Baron ess von Bartolf, the Pretty Chorus Girl Whom the Duke Mar ried in 1892, a Year After His First Wife’s Death, and Whom He Is Now Suing for Di vorce. Kbc “He hid a nest of wasps in her bath room and they stung her when she was quite unpro tected.” The Duke at the Time of His Mar riage with Hen rietta Mendel, When He Was Considered the Handsomest Prince in Europe. He made her walk with bare feet on sticky fly paper upon a hot Summer day.” He trained a flock of geese to come in the bedroom and wake her up with their cackling.” At this moment the Baroness entered. “I bet your month's allowance that my dog beats yours,'' said the Duke. His wife did not accept the bet, but she had to go without any money for a month when the Duke's dog won. One very hot Summer day a fiendish method of tormenting his wife occurred to the Duke. He told her to take off her shoes and stockings in her ooudoir and walk into his bedroom, which was two rooms away She did as she was told and found the whole floor carpeted with sticky fly-paper. She tried to tear the paper from her feet, but only got herself more completely covered with the sticky stuff. The Duke, comfortably protected by shoes, laughed heartily at her discomfort. As a re sult of this prank she went into hysterics and became seriously ill. "When she objected to one of his caprices he chased her round the hall with an ancient hal berd.” Whenever she protested against any of his mad caprices, the Duke became frightfully angry and forced her to obey him. She states that he beat, spanked, kicked and bit her and physically ill-treated her in many ways. One morning, as she was about to take a bath, she reached out her hand for the sponge, and immediately started a buzzing of angry insects. In a few moments she was severely stung by wasps. Some one had de liberately hung a nest full of wasps beside the sponge. The grinning face of the Duke, which soon appeared in the doorway, left no doubt who had played this cruel trick. The Duke expended much time and tre mendous industry in devising new ways of tormenting her. Once he asked her to oc cupy a new bedroom which he said he had ordered specially furnished for her. At dawn she was awakened by a hideous and deafen ing cackling. Looking around, she saw about twenty geese cackling and squawking at the top of their voices. The Duke had with infinite pa tience trained the birds to awaken the occu pant of this bed early every morning. This performance was kept up regularly for three months, when it began to lose its charm through the accidental death of five of the geese. By that time the Duke was busy with new schemes, for keeping his wife amused or tormented. In his youth he had served several years as a cavalrv officer and was considered the Henrietta Mendel, Baroness Waller- see, the Beautiful Actress Who Was the First Morgan atic Wife of the Duke and Who Died in 1891. From “My Past,” by Countess Marie Larisch, Daughter of the Baroness Wallersee and the Duke. Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. “On his seventy-fifth birthday the Duke had a baby’s high chair made for himself, compelled his wife to act as nurse and bring him champagne.” them. They were not a bad fit for her, ex cept that the legs were too long. He then had military trousers made for her and ordered her to appear before his friends wearing these with his old army coats. The Austrian Emperor has always kept up friendly relations with his brother-in-law and paid him occasional visits in spite of his mot ganatic marriages. The poor Baroness looked forward with considerable interest to her meeting with her august relative by marriage. When the Emperor last visited the Duke at Munich, she says that the latter compelled her to appear before His Majesty in her uni form and perform military exercises for his amusement. Then he made her wait on the table. The Duke compelled his wife to wait on him like a slave, and whenever her services did not quite satisfy his insanely capricious needs, he punished her severely. When he reached his seventy-fifth birth day he had a high chair constructed large enough to hold himself instead of a baby. In this he would sit wearing infantile gar ments, while he compelled his wife, dressed as a nurse-maid, to wait upon bint. Instead of bringing him pap and milk, however, the nurse-maid had to serve him with champagne and other strong delicacies. Soon after this his capriciousness took a turn that seriously threatened her life. He forced her to jump into Lake Starnberg, the lake in which his kinsman, the mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, drowned himself. She could not help feeling that her husband was anxious to see another drowning in the same place. The Duke has a country house and large estate upon the shores of the lake. The Duke then played a trick that finally derided her to abandon the dignity and lux ury of being connected with a royal family. He said to her one day: "My dear, you are growing entirely too stout. You are losing your beautiful figure. I have thought out a way that will restore you to the most exquisite proportions. Now, don’t ask what it is. Just come out with me try and it." we will ‘He used his pretty wife as a wheelbarrow and trundled her around the garden.” finest figure in the saddle that royal circles could show. An internal Injury compelled him to give up this avocation. He had still a fine collection of old uniforms. It pleased his fancy to have his handsome wife put these masculine garments on and parade about his apartments in The Duke put a belt with a hook to it around his wife’s waist. He then took her down to the park, where one of h i s high-p ow e r e d a u t o m o b i les was waiting for them. Before she realized what was going to happen she found herself attached by a rope to the back of the car, while the Duke was in the ma chine driving it at a good pace through the grounds. When she was on the point of dropping he slowed down a little, and when she recovered breath a little he started up again. Had he gone a trifle faster, she would have been killed. This was his method of reducing her flesh. There is no doubt that it was an effective one. She declares that she then made up her mind to save her life before it was too late. Before dawn of the following day she got up and crept away through the country roads, which she knew well. She has since refused all his orders to re turn to him, and so he is bridging a divorce suit. What Is a Suffragette, Anyhow? R ECENTLY a street car adver tising agency, in order to stimulate interest in their cards displayed in the cars, offered cash prizes for the best epigram matic definitions of a suffragette. Here are some of the results: A suffragette is a woman who thinks she has been de-voted long enough. Not satisfied with the last word she also wants the first. She is the corset needed to re duce the Government waste. She is a woman who needs the “poll” for her vaulting ambition. A suffragette is a sting of beauty and a jawer forever. A woman who would rather break windows than clean them. A woman whose troubles are cer tainly not “little ones.” One who spends more time air ing her views than viewing her heirs. A woman who will spare no panes to get her rights. A woman who would rather rock the country than the cradle. A female creature, queer and quaint Who longs to be just what she ain’t. The hen that would cackle and never set Is the woman known as a suffra gette. We can’t efface, we can’t forget her. We love her still—the stiller the tetter! NO MORE GRAY HAIR I was gray at 27. Aftftr enduring my shame foi years I stumbled on the only perfect way I eve: heard of to restore it gradually and naturally tr original color. Send 2 cent r^tamp for re ply and I will tell my secret XT TJ Ip 17* free to anyone. Mrs. MARY KL, lv. CHAPMAN. Suite 207C. Grosvenoi Bldg.. Providence, R. I. V