The Great Turk and His Lost Provinces 59 



tending for the control of the Balkan 

 Peninsula. A 



The present king, a repulsive degen- 

 erate, and his queen, Draga, are boy- 

 cotted by all the courts of Europe 

 because of their immorality. The Ka- 

 rageorgeovitch family are in exile, Peter, 

 the head of the house, being engaged 

 in scientific pursuits in Switzerland. 

 King Alexander looks as if he had es- 

 caped from an asylum for the depraved, 

 but has a vigorous constitution, and 

 on occasions has shown great nerve and 



King Alexander of Servia 



power of command. Unfortunately he 

 has inherited all the vices of his father, 

 the late King Milan, who was the worst 

 ruler Europe has seen for a generation. 

 While getting his education in Paris 

 he acquired habits which unfitted him 

 for the responsibility of governing a 

 primitive and restless people like the 

 Servians. He squandered the public 

 money and lost his private fortune at 

 cards, and his wife, Natalie Keskho, 

 daughter of a colonel in the Russian 



army, was compelled to leave him and 

 finally obtained a divorce. She now 

 resides at Biarritz, very much respected 

 and beloved, although she made herself 

 unhappy and excited the hostility of 

 the Servian politicians by her uncon- 

 cealed Russian sympathies. The scan- 

 dals of the Servian court furnished 

 gossip for all Europe, until finally, en- 

 ervated by dissipation and despised by 

 all his subjects, Milan abdicated in 

 favor of his young son, Alexander, and 

 went to Vienna to die. 



Alexander was a precocious prince, 

 and when only fifteen years old fell 

 under the fascination of Madam Draga 

 Maschin, who had been a lady in wait- 

 ing to his mother and is about ten years 

 older than he. She is an ambitious, 

 brilliant woman, gifted with consider- 

 able beauty and a charming manner. 

 Madam Draga had more influence with 

 the King than his parents, the ministry, 

 and the court, and when he was seven- 

 teen persuaded him to marry her and as- 

 sume the reins of government. From 

 that time until now the Servian court 

 has been the scene of a series of sensa- 

 tions which are likely to continue in- 

 definitely. 



The palace, in the center of the 

 city, is a pretentious structure, which 

 rises next to the public street without 

 grounds, and was built by Milan, the 

 gambler king, with an eye to entertain- 

 ment and display. Within is a series of 

 magnificent apartments equal to those in 

 the palaces at Berlin and Vienna, de- 

 signed by a French architect, and fur- 

 nished with an extravagance that threw 

 the country almost into bankruptcy. 

 The great drawing-room, in which the 

 king received the officials, the diplo- 

 matic corps, and the public every Sun- 

 day morning, is one of the finest in the 

 world. 



You reach Servia by railroad through 

 Hungary across a country that looks 

 very much like Kansas and Nebraska. 

 Servia is called a poor man's paradise, 



