A HOOLIGAN PRINCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2479, 19 April 1909, Page 2

A HOOLIGAN PRINCE.

THE EX-CROWN PRINCE OF SERVIA. The ex-Crown Prince of Servia, who recently renounced his right of succession, has earned for himself the title of “his Highness the Hooligan.” His father, King Peter, who succeeded to the throne in 1903, after tiro assassination of King Alexander and. Queen Draga, is nc'fc a man of strong intellect, but amiablo and well-meaning. His mother, the eldest daughter of the Prince of Montenegro, comes of a semibarbarian and fighting race. The son naturally has mixed qualities. In addition, the sudden change, from a thirdrate boardinghouse life in Geneva, without future prospers, to the heirship of a throne, is apt to upset stronger heads than that of Prince George, who is not yet twenty-two. There are a large number of stories to his discredit. The truth seems to be that he lost his head upon the sudden change of position through his father’s accession to the Servian throne, and played wild pranks. By way of exhibiting his marksmanship ho is saul to have tried to shoot off the cigarette ash from cigarettes soldiers were Hold off to smoke, and in one instance he killed the man. The body was put in a coffin and sent to the father without any notice. Naturally the bereaved parent was shocked upon finding out the cause of death. Early ladfc. year Prince George is said, with companions, to have broken into a convent-near Belgrade and killed the watcli dog.. Upon finding a mouse in his apartments, Prince George is said to have rushed off with his prize tot find someone to eat it. A sentry was the handiest victim, and upon his refusal or inability to swallow the delicate morsel he was pummelled by the heir to the throne, and would have been kicked to death if the Household officers had not interfered. Prince George is also accused of what may he described as running amok among the palace officials. Such a nuisance had he become that rumors of a plot to remove him found credence. Indeed, it began to be reported It hat he was semi-demented. On the other hand, these, stories are denied in toto.* From such amusements Prince, George suddenly changed to become the leading patriot of Ids country. Upon tho annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria Prince George took the lead in protesting against this outrage to the Serb race. Such a step killed the aspirations of founding a Greater Serb nation under the leadership of Servia. In this pose. Prince George became a serious political factor, and at one moment it looked as if he would be able to force his fifther toresign, then assume the crown, and take tho active leadership of Great Serbia, which would have meant war upon Servia by Austria. The report of his kicking a groom to death, alluded to in a cable message, refers, to a period of a little previous to his political outbreak.