LUDWIG II, KING, OF BAVARIA. 



511 



patients who received out-door medical treat- 

 ment. In 1884 there were 10,604 patients 

 thus treated, showing that the out-door clinic 

 is gaining in importance and usefulness. 



The Insane Asylum, This institution has been 

 greatly improved in the management and treat- 

 ment of the unfortunate inmates, in the erec- 

 tion of new buildings or additions, and in the 

 adornment of the grounds. There are now 

 600 patients in the asylum, and, at the present 

 rate of increase, it is estimated that in the next 

 two years the number will reach 800. 



Railroads. The Governor says : " There have 

 been completed within the past few years 

 1,000 miles of railroad. These roads have 

 added very much to the wealth of the State. 

 There has been, through legislation and pri- 

 vate co-operation, a very generous support to 

 these roads. There is no disposition on the 

 part of the people or their representatives to 

 antagonize these interests or to oppress them 

 with unnecessary laws; but railway compa- 

 nies, like all other corporations and private 

 proprietors, become selfish, look to their own 

 interests and ignore the rights of others. From 

 nearly every section there are complaints 

 against the discrimination these roads make in 

 passenger and freight traffic." 



LUDWIG II, Ring, of Bavaria, born Aug. 25, 

 1845; died by drowning in Starnberg Lake, 

 June 13, 1886. He was the eldest son of King 

 Maximilian II. His childhood and early youth 

 were spent mostly in the castle of Hohen- 

 schwangau, in the Tyrol, where he imbibed a 

 romantic love of Nature and a taste for soli- 

 tude and meditation. He developed a strong 

 artistic bent, inherited from his father and 

 grandfather, and a thirst for all kinds of 

 knowledge. Unlike his younger brother Otto, 

 who became a soldier and took part in the 

 Franco-Prussian War, but soon afterward be- 

 came insane, he showed a repugnance to mili- 

 tary affairs, and was timid and effeminate in 

 his disposition. He early showed extravagant 

 tastes and ignorance of the value of money, 

 but was kept under very strict restraint, until 

 by the death of his father he found himself 

 the master of the exceedingly large Bavarian 

 civil list, and able to gratify his most ex- 

 pensive whims. The Bavarians, who pre- 

 serve in a remarkable degree the monarchic 

 feeling, and are strongly attached to their an- 

 cient dynasty, hailed with delight the young 

 King Ludwig on March 10, 1864, as the suc- 

 cessor of the reactionary Maximilian II. Lud- 

 wig was eighteen years old when he ascended 

 the throne, having been born on Aug. 25, 1845. 

 He possessed remarkable intellectual gifts and 

 accomplishments, was a model of physical vigor 

 and beauty, and was much more liberal in his 

 opinions than his father. After the War of 

 1866, when Bavaria took the side of Austria, 

 and suffered a severe defeat from the Prussian 

 troops, the King accepted the advice of the 

 Liberal party, and when, in 1870, the fate of 

 Germany depended on the action of Bavaria, 



he gave way to the impulse of the strongest 

 section of his subjects, and joined his lot with 

 Prussia. The Bavarian troops did the bravest 

 fighting of the war, and at its close Ludwig 

 acted as the spokesman of the German princes 

 in offering the crown of the empire to the King 

 of Prussia. For his course during this critical 

 epoch he was praised as a hero by the whole 

 German nation. Long before this he had shown 

 marked eccentricities of character. Those who 

 came into occasional contact with him, wheth- 

 er diplomatists, statesmen, scholars, or artists, 

 were delighted with his charming manners, and 

 the unusual knowledge, sense, and interest he 

 displayed regarding their special branches. 

 But those who knew him better were aware that 

 this show of interest was entirely feigned, and 

 that he regarded it as a proof of his great su- 

 periority to other men that he could thus de- 

 ceive them. After a while he put aside all 

 pretense of interest in the affairs of state. He 

 began to absent himself from his capital, and 

 would hold no consultations with his ministers, 

 but assented to their proposals without listen- 

 ing to explanations.- Public men knew that, 

 instead of welcoming German unity, he was 

 deeply chagrined at the sacrifice of Bavarian 

 independence, and often expressed hatred for 

 the house of Prussia and a bitter jealousy of 

 the Crown Prince. They supposed that his 

 neglect of the affairs of his kingdom was due 

 to these feelings ; but the popular image of 

 Ludwig, as the most patriotic and German in 

 sentiment of the princes of the empire were 

 not disturbed by publishing facts that would 

 destroy the fame of a national hero and raise 

 doubts as to the stability of the empire. He 

 spent large sums in mounting Wagner's operas 

 on the stage in Munich, and thus rescued a 

 great genius from oblivion and made his capital 

 more truly a center of art than the first Lud- 

 wig had by filling the city with imitations of 

 Greek and Plorentine architecture. The build- 

 ing of the theatre at Baireuth was an appro- 

 priate though costly memorial of this artistic 

 triumph. He formed a strong attachment for 

 the composer, and with him planned the con- 

 struction of a monumental theatre at Munich, 

 but the people of the court, who feared that 

 he would imbibe the democratic opinions of 

 Wagner, defeated this project, and succeeded 

 in putting a stop to the intimacy and driving 

 the master away from Munich. Ludwig felt 

 grief at the loss of his favorite companion, and 

 became morose and more fond of solitude than 

 ever. Through indignation on account of this 

 interference with his inclinations, he remained 

 away from the court and the capital as much 

 as he could. In a short time insanity, the 

 seeds of which he inherited from his moth- 

 er's family, began to develop itself. The 

 Bavarians saw their King grow more and 

 more misanthropic. They knew that he en- 

 tertained an exaggerated opinion of himself 

 and of his dignity as a King. He began to 

 show toward the guests of the palace by sin- 



