The marriage has proved a most happy one.  Prince Oscar has found perfect content, and has been able to follow his career as a philanthropist.  The wedding took place at Bournemouth, in the presence of the queen of Sweden, on March 15, 1888, and for some time after it the prince and his wife were known as Prince and Princess Bernadotte; but later the uncle of Prince Oscar, the Grand Duke of Luxemburg, gave him the title of the Count of Wisborg for himself and his descendants.  When their children were born, Prince Oscar and his wife proclaimed them as the children of Oscar and Ebba Bernadotte, and, during their entire married life, they have lived as quietly and simply as possible, and have found their greatest interest in working for the poor and suffering.  They have a son and a daughter, the former, Count Carl Oscar, having been born on May 27, 1890, and the latter, the Countess Marie, on February 28, 1889; and three other children.

And so, as the years went by, a third generation grew up in the palace at Stockholm,—­a brood of long-limbed and broad-shouldered sons with wholesome tastes and bright minds and kindly temperaments.  And at last, when the king was seventy-eight years old, a great-grandchild was laid in his arms,—­the first son of Prince Gustavus Adolphus (now the Crown Prince) and the Princess Margaret of Connaught.

Up to the last King Oscar remained active and interested in all public affairs.  Though he had experienced several brief but rather severe illnesses of late years, the end came without warning, after a few days of indisposition, on Dec. 8, 1907.  A kindly “thanks” for a small favor rendered him by a member of his family was the last word heard from his lips.  Previously he had expressed his wish to the members of his cabinet that no interruption in public or private business be made on account of his death.

King Gustavus V, who took the oath of office within a few hours of his father’s death, has suffered something resembling his father’s fate as Crown Prince.  Overshadowed by the more brilliant gifts and more attractive personality of the parent, he was for years spoken of in rather a disparaging manner in Sweden, while in Norway he harvested outright hatred in return for his determined upholding of the union.  On frequent occasions during the last decade of his father’s reign, he acted as vice-regent while his father was sick or traveling, and in this way he found chances to display qualities that gradually changed the popular regard of him from one of suspicion to one of hearty respect.  His near-sightedness, his serious-mindedness, have militated against him, but it seems probable that he will prove the very best ruler Sweden could desire at the present juncture.  He is slow to make up his mind, and will not do so until he has searched every phase and detail of the problem before him, but once he has come to a conclusion, he pursues his path without looking to the right or left.