The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-21
ROYALTY AT EASE.
European Women of High Station Seen In
an Atmosphere of Democracy.

European Women of High Station Seen In
an Atmosphere of Democracy.
At the Hotel Cap Martin the emperor
of Austria lives in democratic fashion.
I was there yesterday visiting some
friends-from very democratic Chicago
and we met at frequent intervals dur
ing all the morning the once very beau.
tiful and still stately empress taking
her constitutional walks about the hotel
grounds as freely and with as little for
mality as any other guest. Her constant
companion is q young Greek student
who is teaching her his language The
reigning duke of a German duchy, to
whom the emperor gives friendly nod
as they pass each other by, explains to
us that her majesty has an Unsuitable
thirst for knowledge; that she has been
giving to dozen languages within the
past dozen years each twelyemonth in
attaining its conversational mastery.
She has already made astonishing prog
ress in modern Greek. She certainly ap-
pears to converse fiuently with her
modest young teacher.
We are further told that she is DRESS.
ed and out of doors each morning at
o'clock; that she eats no meat and lives
almost entirely upon milk; that she de-
plores above all things that her health
has compelled her to give up her hunt
er; that riding after hounds has been
the greatest pleasure of her life.
The hour for luncheon has arrived,
and we go back to the hotel. The two
princes who are the emperor's gentle
men in waiting are standing at the
main door, evidently expecting some
one. A carriage drives up, and plain
ly dressed lady, with two young girls,
equally simply dressed, steps out and
is escorted into the hotel rotunda. From
his apartments opening into it the en-
peror comes hastily out. bows to the
elder lady as he offers her his arm, is
saluted with a courtesy by the two
young girls and leads the way to the
breakfast room. The curtains part, dis
closing the empress awaiting her guests.
She has taken off her hat and cloak, and
we see her truly magnificent hair coiled
in veritable crown above her statu-
esque face, her figure, famous always
for it's perfection, still seemingly that Of
a young matron, although she is a
grandmother, and very sweet smile of
welcome to make the face beautiful.
The visitors are the queen of Naples
and her two royal daughters-so styled
in the Almanach de Gotha-although
there is no longer a kingdom of Naples
upon any map. When told by the grand
duke who the elder visitor is, we look at
her with absorbed interest, for we take
her to be that famous queen, wife of
Francois II, whom Garibaldi dethroned,
and who herself was the heroine, under
an obvious pseudonym, of Daudet's mas
ter work, Lies Rois en- Exil. :" But our
friend recalls to us that Francois II died
few months ago, and, having no chill
dren, that the royal (and barren) title
passed to his brother. This lady is there
fore that brothers. wife, and it appears
that the fiction of her queenship is still
maintained as real in the imperial court
of Austria at least.
The heroine of Lies Rois," however
the brave woman who defended Gaeta
against Garibaldi for SO many months
is herself expected at the hotel within
a few days to visit her sister, the en-
press. ION the Riviera" Ballard
Smith in New York World.