OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (MAPLESON MILAN.) 



499 



age, served in the Ashanti war of 1873, and 

 afterward was employed in capturing Arab dhows 

 carrying slaves from the east coast of Africa to 

 Arabia. In 1883 he entered the service of the 

 Sultan of Zanzibar, who made him his general. 

 He raised and equipped 1,000 regular and 5,000 

 irregular soldiers, and ultimately obtained con- 

 trol over the civil as well as the military admin- 

 istration. When Great Britain assumed a pro- 

 tectorate over Zanzibar in 1890 Gen. Mathews 

 was appointed British consul-general, but gave up 

 the post to another, while he became the real 

 ruler of the country with the title of Prime Min- 

 ister, and thoroughly reorganized and Anglicized 

 the administration, of which the Sultan was de- 

 prived of control. 



Mapleson, James Henry, an English operatic 

 impresario, born in London, May 4, 1830; died 

 in that city, Nov. 14, 1901. Col. Mapleson was 

 wont to say that he made his theatrical debut at 

 the age of two months, when for three weeks he 

 appeared as the infant in Henry VIII in the 

 company with Edmund Kean. He began his edu- 

 cation in music as a student in the Royal Acad- 

 emy of Music in London. He made an unsuccess- 

 ful attempt as a singer, and then for a time 

 played the viola in an orchestra. Subsequently 

 he organized concert companies, with which he 

 made extended tours throughout Great Britain. 

 In 1861 he became sole manager of the Lyceum 

 Theater, London, and opened it, June 8, with a 

 performance of II Trovatore, with Tietjens and 

 Alboni in the cast. In 1862 he began his famous 

 career as the manager of Her Majesty's Theater, 

 when, with a company of famous .singers, he pro- 

 duced Italian and French operas seven seasons, 

 after which the theater was burned. In 1871 he 

 took the Drury Lane Theater in partnership with 

 the elder Gye, with whom he remained about two 

 years, returning to the new building called Her 

 Majesty's Theater, in 1877, as sole manager. In 

 1878 he brought an opera company to America, 

 opening at the Academy of Music, New York, 

 Oct. 16, with La Traviata. After this he came 

 to America for several seasons, bringing such 

 great singers as Patti, Nilsson, Gerster, Campa- 

 nini, Del Puente, Minnie Hauck, Galassi, and 

 Mme. Scalchi, and introducing many operas new 

 to American audiences. In 1885, however, Col. 

 Mapleson found his enterprise overshadowed by 

 the new German company, presenting Wagner's 

 operas at the Metropolitan Opera House, New 

 York, and he returned to England at the close of 

 that season. He gave concerts in the British 

 provinces for a few months, and in 1888 he had 

 one season of opera at Covent Garden Theater, 

 London. In 1896 he came again to New York, 

 and closed his career as an impresario with a 

 series of performances in Italian by the New 

 Imperial Opera Company, which he had formed 

 in Italy. After a few appearances in New York 

 and Boston the company disbanded, and he re- 

 turned to England, where, during the few years 

 before his death, he organized small concert com- 

 panies from time to time, with which he toured 

 the English provinces. His military title was due 

 to the fact that at one time he commanded a 

 London volunteer regiment. 



Milan, ex-King of Servia, born in Jassy in 

 1854; died in Vienna, Feb. 11, 1901. Milano 

 Obrenovich was the nephew and adopted son and 

 heir of Prince Michael, and after the assassina- 

 tion of the latter in 1868 he was called by the 

 Skupshtina to succeed him as reigning Prince of 

 Servia. The Council of Regency which managed 

 the public business during his minority took care 

 to preserve the internal peace and to seek a pacific 



solution of the questions ponding between the 

 principality and Turkey. .Milan meanwhile pur- 

 sued his studies at the Lyceum of Loui.-, 1<: (Jrand 

 in France, where he imbibed Liberal principles. 

 He was declared of age in 187~, ami U^au hU 

 active reign by appointing a Cabinet of pro- 

 nounced Liberal tendencies, in which i>la/mivat.z 

 was president of the Council, and Ristich, ;. 

 tizan of an alliance with Russia., was .\lini-1cr 

 of Foreign Affairs. Milan, who received many 

 proofs of the sympathy of the Russian Cabinet 

 in the quarrels of Servia with the Porte, made 

 journeys to Vienna and Paris in the hope of 

 obtaining from the powers the suppression of 

 Turkish suzerainty, leaving Servia perfectly in- 

 dependent. A year after his marriage to Natalie 

 Kechko, daughter of a Russian officer, he offered 

 open defiance to Turkey, taking his directions 

 from St. Petersburg. On July 3, 1876, the Servian 

 troops passed the Turkish frontier, but they were 

 disgracefully beaten in the first encounters. Gen. 

 Tchernaieff, the commander-in-chief, defeated at 

 Bjelina, retreated upon Alexinatz. Milan hastily 

 reorganized his army, but the second stage of the 

 war was still more disastrous. After the lost 

 battle of Alexinatz, Prince Milan had to listen 

 to the pacific counsel of the powers and conclude 

 a truce with Turkey. The Servians took advan- 

 tage of the armistice to reorganize, and soon re- 

 newed hostilities. A succession of fresh defeats 

 compelled Milan to negotiate directly with Tur- 

 key. Peace was concluded at Constantinople in 

 March, 1877. The Russians intervened on behalf 

 of the Bulgarians, obtaining the necessary aid of 

 the Roumanians, whose territory they had to pass 

 through, and the cooperation of the Montenegrins 

 also. After defeating the Turkish army and con- 

 cluding the peace of San Stefano, Russia was con- 

 strained to bow to the will of Europe and consent 

 to the Berlin Congress, which drew up new terms 

 of peace. Milan assumed the title of Sovereign 

 Prince on March 3, 1878, and the independence of 

 Servia, stipulated in the treaty of San Stefano, 

 was confirmed by the treaty of Berlin. The Prince 

 who was always defeated was proclaimed King 

 of Servia by act of the Skupshtina on March 6, 

 1882. In 1885 he intervened in the Roumelian 

 revolution, and the Servian army, under his per- 

 sonal command, was beaten by the Bulgarians at 

 Tsaribrod and Dragoman. The interference of 

 Austria-Hungary, which threatened armed inter- 

 vention if the Bulgarians refused to grant an 

 armistice, saved Milan this time from the conse- 

 quences of his military disasters. In 1886, when 

 the European concert called upon Servia, Greece, 

 and Bulgaria to disarm and henceforth cease ta 

 endanger the peace of the world by the incessant 

 agitation of the Balkan States, King Milan at 

 first refused to comply with the wishes of the 

 powers, as he had the entire Radical party of 

 Servia at his back. A second collective note 

 caused him to reflect, and in March he issued 

 orders for demobilization. This was the epoch 

 when the conflict between Russian and Austrian 

 influence at Belgrade became acute, and Ristich 

 and Garashanin, the respective advocates of the 

 rival policies, took turns in the premiership. The 

 financial and economic situation of the country 

 suffered greatly from these sudden changes until 

 King Milan, who in the beginning of his reign 

 was a popular ruler, incurred the strong dislike 

 of the majority of his subjects. Contempt and 

 shame were felt, too, by many Servians when a 

 vulgar domestic quarrel broke out between the 

 King and Queen Natalie, which culminated in a 

 divorce. The political sympathy of the Queen for 

 Russia during the time when the King veered 



