The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-14
EMPRESS ERRATIC LIFE.
ENGLAND's QUEEN SHOCKED By
HER DEFIANCE OF Etiquette.

Iy Hours and Lunched at "A Rail-
way station .Cafe-MOrbid Because
of Her Fading Beauty-WaVes to
Break Over Her Tomb.
A cable dispatch from London. publish
ed in the Philadelphia Record, gives the
following interesting story of the life and
manners of the late Empress Elizabeth
of Austria, who was assassiuated in Swift
erland last Saturday:
The Empress manner of travelling, go
ing about unattended, rendered her, the
one easiest, though the one least likely
TO be the victim of anarchistic brutality.
She always Travelled incognito as Count
ess Hohenejbs, relying on her own mys-
FERROUS proceedings for protection against
cranks or criminals.
When in London, about three years ago,
she was up and about the streets every
morning at o'clock, visiting the flower
market in Covent Garden at that unu-
sual hour more than once, and also the
Biningsgate fish market. She went to bed
at 9 o'clock
She lived wholly to herself, and peremp-
torily forbade the embassy officials to
OF late years she always wore a veil so
thick that it was impossible to scrudnize
her features. She was morbidly suscepti-
bic to the inevitable decay of her beauty
which at one time was of worldwide fame
For the same reason she never had been
photographed or had her portrait painted
for thirty years, aud no one has ever sue
ceeded in even sketching her during that
time.
Until her health broke down. she was
passiohately devoted 10 hunting and came
to Ireland and England for many success
sive years for the hunting season. prefer
ring Ireland, as the jumping obstacles
there were more formidable
She never got on with Queen Victoria
who disapproved of her free and easy
manner of living and of her total disre-
gard Of the ceremonial surroundings of
her rank. The visit before the last of the
Empress to the Queen at Windsor Castle
to lunch was marked by an incident that
created much comment The Empress. on
leaving the castle, went straight to a re-
freshment buffet at a railway station and
ate a hearty meal. a proceeding which
was taken to reflect on the regal hospital
ity she had just enjoyed.
The Empress was always accompanied
when hunting by Count Festelics and
Capt. Bay Middleton, a famous English
horseman, who was killed in the saddle a
few years ago. She rocke to the hounds
fearlessly, and had many falls, but never
suffered seriously.
Since the shocking tragedy of the Crown
Prince Rudolfs death she had never APP
peared in public in Vienna and had never
completely recovered from the effects Of
that blow She was consumed with an
guish at the thought that Rudoif's wild
ness was inherited through her and re-
morseful that she had not kept him more
I fvr1 u. h .-Tg-
Of encouraging him in boyish escapades
Then the death of her sister, the
Duchess Delencon, in the charity bazaar
fire at Paris, was another Keeling blow
from which the unfortunate Empress
sought relief by almost incessant travel
Before her sons death she had just com
| pleted gorgeous palace, the Achilleion
al Corpe, but she never afterward set foot
! there, and the palace is now for sale. 1t
is reported to have cost $7,5O0,OO0.
Her tragic death will put an end to the
contemplated jubilee celebration in No
vember of Emperor Francis Josephs ac-
cession, for which elaborate arrangements
had been made. and for which the En-
press had promised to break through her
rule of seclusion and participate in a
| grand state pageant.
The personal cations between her and
the Emperor had long been the subject of
| unpleasant rumors though the incidents
were as likely to arise from her growing
! eccentricities as from the courses of the
| quarrel which the Emperor's conduct is
reported to have given her.
Paris details about the assassination of
the Empress state that codicil to her
! will expresses her wish 10 be buried at
! Corfu, near the sea, where the waves,
may break perpetually on her tomb She
| was always incognito at Paris a s Countess
| Hohenejbs, and she lodged at the Aus
trian embassy. She figures in one of
| Munkacsys most famous pictures.
She was a good woman, and her heart
was broken by scandal that resulted in
the death of her only son, the Archduke
| Rudolf Francis Charles Joseph. He spoke
| ten languages, was a scientist and a great
| traveller. He was married in 1889 to the
| Princess Stephanie. Duchess of SaXony,
| daughter of Leopold II, King of the Bel
| gians. II was one of the most brilliant
! nuptial ceremonies of the century. The
royalty welded pair did not live happily
and the Princess sought in vain for a sep
| aration. 1t was said that she was In love
with an American when the policy of the
state forced her to marry Rudolf. Ru-
| dolf's death, which occurred at Meyerling
near Baden, on Jan. 80 1889, astounded
Europe.
The Archduke was deeply infatuat tee
with the charms of the Baroness Vetcera
a beautiful young girl, who returned hil
Eove. He wished 10 be united TO her by
| morganatic marriage, but his father woult
not allow it. on the evening of Jan. %, th'
Crown Prince met the Baroness in game
keepers house not far from the castle o
MeyerIing, and spent the evening witt
her. In the morning both were found dead
lying side by side upon a bed. 1t was as
serted that the Baroness had taken poison
and that the Prince had shot himself.
But of course many stories were told
One story is that a forester went TO thu
house where the Prince was staying il
order to ask the game-keeper for some in
sructions. He knocked loudly at the door
a window was opened and a man jumped
out and ran away. The forester aimed an(
fired, the fugitive fell and when the fores
ter walked up TO him he recognized to hi
horror the Crown Prince. The shot hat
entered the Princes shoulder. The fores
ter carried the Prince into the gamekeep
er's house. The Baroness, seeing the Prime
in a faint and bleeding from a wound, i'm
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