Relic

Out of Halifax went the Cunarder Scythia last week for Liverpool and the Continent. In its hold was a heavy Excelsior limousine whose radiator cap bore the letter A circled by a crown. It was bound for Brussels to take its place in a museum beside other personal relics of the late great Albert of the Belgians.

That car is much more than a relic of Albert the Good. Ever since he first visited the U. S. in 1898 and learned to drive a locomotive under Railroader James J. Hill, mechanics was a burning hobby with King Albert. Up to the day of his death he drove his own car whenever possible. In the cellar of the Castle Laeken was a complete machine shop where he loved to putter. In that shop he worked with his own hands on a special bullet-proof body for an Excelsior chassis. Palace attaches delicately hinted that a bullet-proof car was not quite the thing for the pacific, democratic King of the Belgians. It was given to Belgian Banker Alfred Loewenstein, who six years ago mysteriously dropped from the washroom of his airplane while flying over the English Channel.

Next King Albert's bullet-proof Excelsior turned up in New York as the property of Larry Fay. loose milk and taxi racketeer who was later murdered. After riding in it for a time. Racketeer Fay presented King Alfred's Excelsior to his old friend Mary Louise ("Texas") Guinan. who swanked about in it until her death five months ago. To the auction block went the armored Excelsior together with a diamond-studded vanity case, a number of floor lamps and a half-dozen polo mallets. The car brought $80 from a dealer who had an idea that sooner or later he could find a use for it.

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