The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1898-09-17
THE LATE EMPRESS OF AUS.
TRIA.

ern Europe had drunk more deeply Of
the joys and SORROWS of life than the
Empress Elizabeth. She went to Vienna
from the royal court of Bavaria. In
Munich her associations and memories
were that strange interlningllng of
tragedy. comedy, license and polite
restraint which ever has been charac-
terstlc of the Bavarian court She was
OF family which has had, probably.
more morgantlc marriages than any
other royal family of its age on the con-
tinent Of Europe. Not a few of her
male relatives had and haye since mar
rled actresses, chorus girls, and opera
singers. She was OF family whose
royal head subsequently, was mobbed
for the sake Of Lola Montez. She had
in her the blood which coursed through
! the wins of King Ludwig, the friend Of
Wagner, and which today keeps life in
the mental ruin known as King Otto of
Bavaria.
AT the Austrian court the Young Prin-
cess, after her marriage, found probably
the most remarkable assembly in Eu-
rope-an assembly adorned with the
beauty of the Polish and Savonic types
OF the Austrian empire, and kept at a
SETTLING heat of scandal and intrigue
by the most fippant of noblemen and
royal princes. She was beautiful and
she played the part of beautiful wo-
man in the highest society of the Aus
trian capital.
Il is not necessary here to refer to the
eccentrictIes of her youth or of her ma
ture years. 1t Is sufficient to say that
she bore with the failures of her hus-
band rs he bore with hers. To her,
however, the late years brought the
share OF sorrows which was to be ex-
pected by one reared in the history and
traditions of the Munich court
The Archduke Macmillan of Austria
was executed in Mexico. His wife Car
lotta lost her mind under the burden
of terror and anxiety imposed upon her
by the Mexican revolution.
The Archduke Rudolph, CrownPrlnce
of the empire, was killed by the brother
of the Baroness Netsera, whose reputa-
ton he had sacrificed to his pleasure
The Archduke's widow led a life full of
vagaries, If not worse. The Archduke
Johann Salvador, oppressed by the null
tplying tragedies of the House of IIaps-
burg, renowned his title and sailed for
A l,il l,n,, ~
man, but only to lose his life in a storm
at sea. The Emperor, weighed down
by the load Of all these misfortunes,
tormented by the ceaseless conflict be-
tween Austria and Bohemia, drifted
very slowly from the turmoil of politi-
| cal controversy and personal afIliction,
and became a victim of epilepsy. The
revolutions which had drained the blood
of Vienna and frightened this royal
house in the middle of the century
threatened to come again with the So
| cial democratic uprising III favor of uni
versal suffrage.
Without rest in the Hofburg, without
| com panionshlp III her family, without
| Tue itIil lllGt " men Dtl increasing ltr-
yOusness demanded in her native land,
the Empress became wanderer
through Southern Europe. 5 went
to Corfu. She visited Italy. She passed
| months on the Rivera. She travelled
about Switzerland. The eccentricItics
which amounted 10 insanity among so
many Of her relatives at The Munich
court grew upon her. Her beauty faded,
despite her painstaking care to pro-
| long it it in every detail. In short, she
led the life of an exhausted beauty who
has tasted all the SORROWS and all the
pleasures of lie before the age of 20,
and had been compelled to seek even
tual rest for shattered nerves in an I'M
| wholesome mind.
If all the history of crowned heads IN
Europe since Waterloo were TO be
searched industriousIy in their secret
pages, probably no other lie so varied
SO perturbed. so melancholy in its tran
sltIons from JOY to sorrow, SO pitiabIc
| in the ruin which was let behind its
happiest days, could be found. Such,
in brief, are the outlines of the career
of her who has been the first lady of
her empire for a longer period than
any other person on continental
throne