Chimney Sweep

Alexander I, youthful sovereign of the five-year-old kingdom of Jugoslavia,* motored gaily last week through the ominously famed city of Sarajevo. There he saw a chimney sweep--in the Balkans an omen of good luck. Smiling, His Majesty stopped the royal motor, offered the chimney sweep 100 dinars ($1.76) for two straws from his grimy brush. Astonished and suspicious, the chimney sweep refused to sell even one straw. Outraged, the royal chauffeur revealed his master's identity: "Louse of a chimney sweep! Do you defy your King? . . ."

Soon Alexander was possessed of two sooty straws. One he held betwixt thumb and forefinger as his automobile proceeded down the street in which the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated--thus starting the World War.

Carefully His Majesty enfolded the second straw in his purse. When he returned to the royal castle at Belgrade, he gave it to a lad of three, towheaded, bonny, already a personage. He was Peter Alexander's eldest son, heir to the throne of the Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata, Slovenaea (the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes: Jugoslavia).

*The union of the several national minorities comprising Jugoslavia was proclaimed in December, 1918, but the monarchial constitution did not come into effect until June, 1921.