The times., 1898-09-19
The sorrows of Franz Josef.

The most cursory observer cannot
| fail to note the series of crushing blows
an affective fate has dealt TO Franz
Josef. the Emperor of Austria. The
| disastrous wars that robbed him of a
treasured part of his inherited domain
might we'll throw shadow over life
otherwise fairly happy, as a similar
misfortune has embittered the days of
! the people of France; but this was only
/ the first and the least racking of sue
cessiOn of tragic events. The loss of
beloved brother was the more keenly
felt for the manner of his taking off.
Shot by a military order as the victim
of an unhappy adventure in the New
World. Maximilian's death moved even
his eXecutioners to a profound pity.
Then followed peculiarly distracting
tragedy in the suicide of Rudolf,
cherished only son, the hope of his
heart and the heir to the throne. as
the elimination of a dsgraceful scan
dai. Now, in his jubilee year. this
sorely tried monarch stands by the bier
of his empress, his early love and for
nearly half a century his wife. who
was killed in the streets by chance
assassin. These woes are enough to
wreck the reason of a strong man in
his most robust years. without the
added foreboding that his own death
must bring crisis in the affairs Of an
empire that has been held together
against destructive forces only by his
personal influence.
Instinctively the mind turns to other
monarchs whose lives show like her
itage of sorrow. and they are not few.
1t has been found that in nearly every
other case, if not in all. an appalling
crime or extraordinary profigacy has
preceded the reign of the afflicted ruler.
Therefore historians have believed it
is retributive justice that deals the
cruel blows, which faH alike on the in
nocent and the wicked under the law
of nature that the sins of the father
shall be visited on the children. The
career Of the house of Capet, in France,
was marked by strange and unexpect-
ed deaths and many conspicuous suf-
ferings- Starting with every prospect
Of a long reign, it is brought TO early
and sudden extinction. Then we re-
member that the Knights Templar
were burned alive at Paris, and that
the Grand Master, Jacques de Molay,
summoned Philip " to meet him at
the bar of the Eternal Judge. The
house of Valois has a record of amaz-
ing misfortune from the hour Catherine
de Medici enters it. That her four
stout children should all perish in a
short time, leaving no offspring capa-
BILE of inheriting the crown, violates
all the laws of chance. Can we fail
to recall the massacre of the Hugue-
nots? Turning to England, we see the
Tudors firmly in power with every
promise of length of years through sue
cessive heirs. Surely a man six times
married, like Henry VIII, must leave
children enough to insure the persist
ence of his line for many generations.
Yet, like Philip " and Henry II, this
Henry VIII was the father of three
sovereigns, but the grandfather of
none. Can we refuse to see in this i'm
probable extinction of his house some
" lIlS SldIdCltI anu 10 tn6
reign of Bloody" Mary? So, too, we
may point to the profiigacy of Charles
! as a cause OF the decline and exter-
mination of the Stuarts. There seems
TO be significance in the repeated
blasting of the hopes Of Anne, who was
seventeen times a mother. yet who
could keep but one child to the age of
eleven, when it, too, died like the
others.
Naturally, those who see the hand
of Nemesis in these unusual sorrows
and in the destruction of royal houses,
and who consider the tragic events in
the life of Franz Josef, will search the
record Of the Hapsburgs for some
crime momentous enough to incur the
implacable enmity of fate. Perhaps
they will find in the crime that violated
the conscience of mankind, the parti-