Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-13
ROYAL IMBECILES.
Disease and Death Besieging All the Thrones
in Europe.
vienna Letter in New York Tribune.


Vienna Letter IN New York Tribune.
Hidden away in the depths of a dense
forest, some five hours by rail to the
south of this city is one of the most pic
turesque and stately castles which it is
possible to conceive. The broad moat
and heavy drawbridge, the dark walls of
undressed granite, pierced with mullioned
windows and surmounted with turrets
and battlements, all unite TO carry one
back to the feudal ages, an inn
preston that is further strength
ened by the venerable aspect of the gio-
rious old trees which constitute the set
ting of this architectural gem. It stands
quite alone, far away from any other hui
man habitation and with the exception
of gamekeepers and foresters, CARRIED in
the imperial livery, who nave orders to
prevent the approach of any stranger
within two miles of the chateau, not a
soul is to be seen anywhere in the
neighboFhood Hardly sound is to be
heard, and Notwithstanding the presence
of over sixty blooded horses in the marble
Wanscoted stables, and of a whole army
of attendants and domestics IN the
chateau, a strange and uncanny silence
reigns on all sides. Every voice is
hushed, and even the very dogs appear to
have been trained to bark and yelp in a
mere whisper. Indeed, like the en-
chanted palace of the sleeping beauty in
the fairy tales, the whole castle seems to
be subject to the spell of some malignant
soTcerer.
1t is to this romantic spot that the latest
victim of that dreadful malady which
constitutes the hereditary curse of the
imperial house of Hapsburg was secretly
no
late Count Beust's cutting and cruel re-
mark about Austria s idiot archdukes has
received another notable Illustration and
few would be able to recognize IN the
mental and physical wreck, which
scarcely retains a vestige of humanity
the gallant and chivalrOus Archduke
Leopold, who inherited the vast wealth
of the house of Este. Born in 1926, he
has for the past twenty five years held
the rank of commandment chief of the
engineer and sapper corps of the i'm
perial forces, besides possessing colonel
cies in the German. and Russian armies.
Tall and elegant, with a handsome face
and an exceedingly winning manner, he
was by far the most popular member of
the emperor family. With the solitary
exception of Archduke John, he was the
most talented and clever prince of his
line, while his immense fortune enabled
him to dispense generosity ard
munificence on a magnificent scale.
Needless to add that it is epilepsy in its
most hideous form which has thus so
darkly clouded the eventide of Archduke
Leopold IS well spent life. Stretched on
a bed, no longer possessed of either the
strength or sense to feed himself, he has
reached that loathesome state of idiocy
ioI, bn do
scribe as "gatisme, and his only oc-
cupation seems to be to gaze with kind
of imbecile stare at the splendid portrait
which Amerling painted of him, in the
striking garb of a Crusader, which he
wore at the carousel at the Hofburg here
just twenty-five years ago.
With the sole exception of the emperor
himself, almost every one of the ninety
eight archdukes and archduchesses who
constitute the imperial family of Austria
is subject in greater or lesser degree to
fits of epilepsy. The good old Archduke
Albert, uncle to his majesty and general
issim0 of the forces, is a perfect martyr
thereto. The emperor's youngest and
favorite daughter, Princess Yaleri, snf-
fers from occasional fits. Arch
duke Louis Victor, the youngest
brother of the emperor, has been
rendered almost imbeeile by the malady
The late Kaiser Ferdinand was reduced
TO such state of idiocy and disgusting
bestiality by the disease that he was OBJ
liged TO abdicate in IS48 in favor of his
brother, the late Archduke Francis
Charles. The latter, however, knowing
that he too was subject to the family
curse, refused to accept the proffered
crown, and passed it on TO his son, the
present emperor. Even the poor lit
tie three-year-old kipg of Spain is
reported to have inherited the malady
from his mother, who is an Austrian
archduchess. The sad fate of another
archduchess, the mad empress of Mexico,
is too well known to need more than
passing mention here But per haps the
most serious case of all is that of the en-
peror's eldest nephew, Archduke Fran
els, who, in default of male issue on the
part Of Crown Prince Rudolph, viii sue
coed to the imperial crown of Austria,
but who is epileptic to such degree as to
have rendered it necessary on two occa-
sions already to place him under tempo
rary restraint.
1t is not, however, the Hapsburg dyn-
asty alone on which the hand of Previ-
dence weighs so heavily. Indeed, at the
present moment there is scarcely a single
royal family in Europe that is not afflicted
with some terrible kind of hereditary in
trinity, produced as q rule by too fire.
quent intermarriages between near rela-
tives for several hundred years
past, which has resulted in
the impoverishment and vitiation of
the blood. HereticaJ and reasonable
though it may appear from a European
point of view to advance such theory,
there is no doubt but the blood royal
means tainted blood and that both from
a moral and physical point OF view the
blood of the peasant classes is of far more
generous and healthy quality than that
of the aristoeracy ana OF royalty.