Serpent-Man

By the Grace of God and by the recently expressed will of 78% of her 250,000 subjects, the Grand Duchess Charlotte, 32, reigns and rules over Luxembourg. Her richly wooded and softly meadowed realm dozes complacently between Belgium and Germany. Her capital, the City of Luxembourg, rises aloof and serene upon a small plateau. Her mild and irreproachable consort is Prince Felix de Bourbon-Parma. Last week a dire project was under way to introduce into this quiet Eden a prodigious roisterer, a mighty brawler, a veritable Serpent-Man.

This creature is one Alexander Dvorjanin Zubkov, 27, a Russian adventurer of no profession who sensationally wooed and married, last fall (TIME, Nov. 28), the Princess Victoria zu Schaumburg-Lippe, 61, rich and eccentric sister of one-time Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Once married and supplied with funds, Adventurer Zubkov neglected his Princess and began in Berlin a boozily epic career. He playfully but painfully tweaked the noses of tardy waiters. He smashed and exploded bottles of champagne just for the fun of dousing perfect strangers with effervescent golden rain. . . . And very often Alexander Dvorjanin Zubkov roistered with from six to ten ladies of the evening until high noon.

When it was seen that the Princess zu Schaumburg-Lippe continued to supply Debauchee Zubkov with funds and seemed to dote upon his antics, the German Government proceeded recently to expel him from the Fatherland on the ground that he has no valid passport. Since then he has been in Brussels, Belgium, still wineing and womening without stint, but under threat of momentary expulsion. Thus a problem has been set before doting Princess Victoria--where shall her Zubkov now roister, tweak, and make champagne-rain?

Last week despatches told that Her Grand Ducal Highness, Princess Charlotte of Luxembourg, had been besought to give Zubkov sanctuary. She had received, it was said, a personal and impassioned plea from the doting wife who is, after all, the sister of a onetime German Emperor. Would Grand Duchess Charlotte, 32, sympathize with Princess Victoria, 61?

Despatches finally asserted that the young Grand Duchess had signified her willingness to permit Serpent-Man Zubkov to enter and reside in her Eden, but solely on condition that he prove himself capable of respecting the public peace.

"Alexander is improving," said Princess zu Schaumburg-Lippe, last week. "All we want to do is to go somewhere where we can live in peace. . . ."