The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-02
Fl AUSTRIAN KAISER
He Celebrates the Forthwith
Anniversary of His Reign.
Francis Joseph's Career Began Under
Malign Influences. but Though I'm
lucky He Is Well Beloved.
New York Tribune.

feSSfon is a goodiy record. 1t Is an eN-
traordinary record. in these or any days,
for a sovereign. Yet this week will see it
completed by the head of the Hapsburg
dynasty. who. on Dec. 2, forty-ive years
ago. was proclaimed Emperor of Aus
tria- He was a school boy then. He is a
white-haired veteran now. And his realm
has equally changed from being the very
central citadel of old conservatism to being
the forward camp Of advanced liberalism
among the continental monarchies. His
reign began amid the throes of a would-be
revolution, soon sternly depressed. To-day
sees each Of the two halves Of his vast
realm on the pont of taking peacefully a
step far in advance of the widest dreams
Of the men Of 1S4S. and a step of which the
initiative has been given by none other
than the Emperor himself. 1t has been a
reign full of vicissitudes and full of strange
contradictions, with none more strang
than that this apostolic King and firm be-
lever in divine right should be the stand
ard bearer of universal suffrage. and that
this most loyal son of the Church of Rome
should raise his own hand to strike down
that church's authority and to sever the
bonds that unite it with the State.
Nc one probably ever said at the cradle
of Francis Joseph that the child would be
Emperor some day, or even dreamed that
such would be the case. His father was
Archduke Francis Charles, a rather color
less and insignificant gentleman whose high
est ambition was personal comfort. He
never meddled in politics, and, indeed, de-
tested the very word, and the only time
he ever displayed anything approximating
to energy of spirit was when he suddenly
left Ischl at the very time when Kaiser
Wilhelm of Germany came thither. because,
as he bluntly declared, "he did not like the
old man." So Archduke Francis Charles
dawdled about the court OF Ferdinand the
Kind-hearted, and sent his son to the fam
Gus Theresianum College because that was
the proper thing to do" but never looked
for any higher destiny for the lad than to
join the noble army of Hapsburg Arch
dukes. But Francis Charles's wife, the
Princess Sophie, was the better man of the
two; a woman Of great ability, shrewdness.
determination, persuasion; probably. too, OF
as little conscience in political matters as
any trickster or tyrant of her time. She
had great plans for her boys future and
for her own. She would make him Emperor
in name while she herself would be Empress
in fact.
Her opportunity. came when her son was
eighteen years old. The year Of revolu-
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to totter; that of Austria with the rest.
The Emperor Ferdinand vas as weak OF
will as he was said to be kind of heart;
got scared. and fed to Olmutz. Princess
Sophie repaired thither also, not In flight,
but on a march to victory. Never before
was she so persuasive or the Emperor so
was done. Ferdinand resigned the throne
and crown with a silent but devout Good
Theresianum student, who accepted them
with a clamorous and lamentful "Oh, my
youth! Thou art forever lost TO mel"
Presently peace was restored, and Prin-
cess Sophie took her boy back to Vienna
and showed him to the people as their new
Emperor. He was not much to sea thin,
pale, beardless youth with timid eyes and
with the heavy undernp that is the visible
and outward sign of the Hapsburg family.
There was nothing about him to inspire
MS handsome and knightly younger brother,
Macmillan, who in later years met a la
mented fate in Mexico But it did not
greatly matter. The brains of Princess
Sophie, not the looks of her son, were the
dominant factor In the problem. Having
showed Francis Joseph to the people. she
babe him go and play while she governed
the empire. She put him in the hands Of
Count Gruenne, whose instructions were
to look after his Majesty's amusements,
which he interpreted to mean that he should
make and keep the young Empero the
slave of the passions and pleasures of the
flesh. This went on for several years The
Emperor led on from revelry to reveiry I'M
thinking. while his mother, with hand of
steel and heart of stone. administered
tyranny in his name. Under her sway re-
action was the rule. revolutionists were
shot like dogs, patriots fed into exile, and
every man was made to feel that there was
a police spy at his elbow, and the public
charged it all to the account Of Francis
Joseph.
REUSED HIM TO THOUGHT.
So one day what might have been expect
ed happened. 1t was on Feb. Is, 1853. The
young Emperor was reviewing the army
on the Schmelz. Suddenly through the
throng sprang a young Hungarian, one
Joseph Libenyi; laid violent hands on the
sacred person Of his Majesty, struck at the
imperial throat a fearful blow with a sharp,
heavy butchers knife. Jugular and carotid
would have been severed in n twinkling-
perhaps the very spinal column severed;
but the point caught in he big buckle
which every Austrian officer must wear at
his throat. caught and stuck, till Count
O'Donnell and some others glappled with
the would-be slayer and dragged him off,
to have his own throat circled with hemp
next day. Perhaps this episode strength
Irish subjects, as witness his SteadfaSt
friendship for Count Taaffe. Certainly 1t
be something rotten in the State IL such
was the feeling of any one toward him.
It would not be comfortable to go on for
ever enduring the odium of misgovernment
which was in his name, but not according
TO his will. 81 he began TO reach out for
the sceptre with his own hands.
Soon after this tragic turn in his affairs
Francis Joseph performed one OF the most
own responsibility. This was mis- marriage
to Princess Elizabeth OF Bavaria 1t has
been said that the match was forced upon
him by his mother, but probably without
truth. His mother intended that he should
wed Princess Helena, the eldest daughter
of the Bavarian Duke Max, and, indeed,
fully negotiated the match.
A result was the Emperor's complete
emancipation from his mothers baneful in
fiuence, in consequence of which he pres
entity became a liberal in politics, and even
something of a hero in war. He won from
the hands of Car Nicholas the Cross of st.
George, given for great personal valor. At
NOvarra and he showed intrepid
bravery. Tegethoff won the great fight at
Emperor. Then came "A crushing reversc
at Solferino, which so affected him that he
wished to die, and actually stood notion
less for some time in the fire OF a French
battery, hoping to be struck down. But
neither Solferino nor. in later years. the
awful disaster of Sadowa impaired his
popularity at homes popularity which be-
gan when he threw on his mothe.'s leading
strings, and steadily Increased until 1t sur
passed that OF every other European sover-
eign.
There is to-day no other ruler in Europe
half so beloved by all classes OF his sub
jects as he. And this is a most signif-
popularity of the monarch that holds the
heterogeneous empire together. The
CZechs hate the Germans, the Magvars
hate the Germans, the Poles hate the Ger
mans. the Italians OF the southern Tyrol
hate the Germans OF the north, the Sla-
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