al cause had resulted in the production, as the Prince of
Orange--the Crown Prince--of an individual of a weak, inferior, and
depraved nature. His was such a nature as on a throne becomes a fountain
of numberless oppressions and evils, and rarely fails to goad the
unhappy subjects into rebellion, attended with the usual frightful loss
of life and property and vast sorrows. Fortunately he had destructive
vices. The appetite for these led him to Paris. A few years of riot
and {44} debauchery sapped away the dangerous life of "Lemons," as his
worthless boon-companions named him, and he died as the fool dieth. The
only harm he was able to do was the indirect damage of a bad example,
and the good people of the Netherlands were rid of a possible Louis XV.
at no greater cost than that of some years of extravagant life in the
French capital. His father's evil excesses and penchant for pretty
ballet-girls left as his only successor a young not over-strong girl,
who thus far has failed to produce an heir to the throne, to the deep
disappointment of such of her people as love royalty. Holland will,
therefore, {45} in all probability, glide into a republic without the
usual sanguinary convulsions attending such transitions.

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IT is the story of the Ages--old when the Pyramids were yet young; new to
every generation. Hannibal's victorious army found the "soft delights of
Capua" far more deadly than Roman swords. That famous "Winter in Capua"
wrecked the invaders, saved Rome, and ruined Carthage.

------

{46} IN conspicuous contrast to the royal and aristocratic families just
alluded to are the houses of Hohenzollern and Savoy.

A thrifty burgher of Nuremberg, eager to get into the landed aristocracy
on any terms, foreclosed a mortgage on a stretch of most unpromising
sand and swamp around Brandenberg. It was of so little worth as to be
frequently spoken of as "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire," The
Hohenzollerns

attacked this uninviting problem with real German thrift and tenacity.
They resolved to make their swamps and sand barrens productive like
the rich lands of their neighbors. {47} Flinching from no drudgery
themselves, they would allow none of their people to do so. Every
Hohenzollern son and daughter was brought up to unsparing hard work,
severe economy, plain food and coarse clothing, with a rigid code of
morals.

At the time when the example of Louis XIV. was deb