The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-09-21
Adversely and Calamity Have For
Long Been Attendant Upon the
House of WittlesbaCh.
ELIZABETH OF AUSTRIA
Scarcely More Unfortunate Than the Queen of
Naples Who Was ExiIed the Duchess
D'Aencon, Who Was Burned to Death.

New York, Sept. 2o.-Edgar Saltus, writ
ing for the Journal says:
The Empress Of Austria's death re-
sembles a climax. Yet in the history Of
her house it but closes a chapter. Be
hind it are chronicles choked with tragedy
scenes smeared with sin. the records not
merely Of the Hapsburgs, with whom she
was allied, but of the Wittelsbachs, from
whom she descends.
Told, however succinctly, these annals
contain more romance than there is in
Homer. more horror than Dante provides.
As pages turn and faces emerge always
when they do not reek with blood they
drip with tears. They are the real dramas
Of royal lives.
But the telling, however profitable, is
impracdcable here. They are too profuse.
Chronicles of crime cannot, conveniently,
at least, be condensed into a column Of
copy. Yet in the particular episode one
point detains attention. The assassina-
ton is an act so rare that there is no term
for ii. Queens and expresses have been
murdered before. But as a rule the Kill
Ing has been done privately, nicely, al
most politely. IN this case a new infamy
Ieaped into being, and with il a new word
-reginacide. Modern slistory is unac-
quainted with either. Apropos to which
it is also worth nothing that this is the
first instance in which an infamy new
or old, has entered the house of Wittels-
bach from without. Hitherto the turpi-
tudes of the family circle have sufficed-
They are an exclusive set.
L.. ut
the royal line of Bavaria, but from a
younger branch. The origin of both
houses is, of course, the same, and in
them, if not similar. at least cognate,
are the influences of heredity. The pres
ent king is as mad as a halter. SO was his
brother, the last incumbent. Over Lola
Monies, their grandfather lost the few
wits that he mad. Behind these people,
back to Ohio, theid medieval ancestor.
there is a story of calamity singularly
straight. For the purpose of this article
it would be convenient to assume that
there is curse in the family. But that
might sound slIperstitious. In any event
IL group of their immediate descendants
have not been enmeShed in that web of
circumstances which, for lack of a bet
ter term is called fate, then there is no
such thing.
To begin at the beginning there is the
late empress. She was the eldest of four
sisters. four of the pretties pau
Pc. princesses that ever lived. Of them
she was the most fair. Her face was as
beautiful as victory, her eyes wei q pools
of purple and her mouth a scarlet thread.
She just lacked being tall and her grace
was that which the old masters gave to
figures which they wished to represent as
floating off the canvas into space. 1t as
at Possenhofen. in the heart of Bavaria
forest, that her girlhood was passed. A
poet who CHANGED to encounter her there
has related that he mistook her for a
sylph-one of those enhancing appari
tons that dwelled in dim green woods
and long German ballads and whom prin-
cess used to WOO Yet in the sylph
there was the huntress, a young Diana.
who rode like mad, danced all night, who
was in love with love and in love with
life.
So were her sisters also. Years later
long after a prince had come and woed
and won her and led her from the Bava-
rian forests into the wide domains of the
Hapsburgs-into that wood, a king, her
cousin. came. II, as girl, Elizabeth OF
Austria suggested ballad. as a boy Lud-
wig Of Bavaria suggested fairyland. He
was. the Empress Eugene declared.
when, before her assembled court she
kissed him, the nandsomest lad in Europe
The suggestions of fairyland which he
brought Elizabeth lived to see him change
into realities. She lived to see him dot
the country which he ruled with palaces
Of enchantment. She lived to see him
hide himself tn them. She lived 10 see
she handsomest lad in Europe change into
an obese and maUdlin maniac.
The fault has been attributed to her