The San Francisco call., 1898-06-19

left in short skirts in Brussels becams the wife of the Austrian Crown Prince and the prospective Empress of the realm. From that moment the mael- strom of fastidious Viennese social life beheld the Princess in it's vortex.
 The potent atmosphere which sur- rounds throne now threw it's haze over her defects, and to those who hitherto had looked upon her as com- monplace she now became the candle around which the noble young moths f1uttered and worshiped.
 Viennese society is not puritanical to put it mildly-provided the conventions al mask is worn. There may be few sewing societies and the accompanying gossip, but that is all. About those of royal blood, however, there is a hedge of etiquette. Over this hedge a young nobleman clambered to pay his devoirS to the effulgent Belgian Princess. A rebuke from the princely husband sent him back ingloriously.
 This experience disgusted the Prin- cess, but it taught her lesson.
 As consequence she looked nearer home and found her moth in the per- son of Lieutenant Geza von Matta< choch, her husbands adjutanr.
 And now comes the question of in- sanity. A free rein, complaisant hus- band, for it was a full year before the fTluC0 gave VOlc6, ana that was when she melodramatically efoped with her husbands adjutant. What mad im- pulse had been implanted in her that caused her to take Geza won Matta- choch by the hand and run away?i Perhaps it was heredity. Her fathers sister, Charlotte O. Mexico, was clouded mentally and was also secluded. But poor Charlotte had cause. She had seen her empire vanish, her husband shot in Mexico. These troubles were enough to unseat her reason. Many have lost it for less.
 Victor Hugo says Woman is per-, fected devil,' and perhaps it was pure devilishness on Louises part. Perhaps it was the Satanic proclivities of her husband. It may have been little of both or neither.
 It is a psychological enigma at best. and it is sufficient to say that Geza and Louise left Vienna and threw cons ventions to the bow-wows.
 She had been gone some time before the social bomb exploded, and it was not until then that what everybody knew reached the husbands ears.
 He did not congratulate himself for his escape and thank his adjutant but promptly challenged him to a duel. Geza added injury to insult by wound-I ing him.
 In the light of this duel the Prince's-
 
 standpoint. But the duel called public attention to the elopement, which had not been generally known. The Prin- cess had taken a villa at Nice, where she was chaperoned by her daughter Dora, the betrothed of Duke Gunther, brother of the Empress of Germany.
 While at Nice Won Mattachoch called daily on the Princess, but no scandal .ensued.
 After the duel the second elopement, the elopement proper, occurred. They, left Nice together, leaving a horde of disgruntled and unpaid tradesmen be- hind them, and fled to castle in Croa- tia, owned by the lieutenant
 The scandal then became so malodor- ous that the royal family was con- pelled to take notice of it. A council of war was held and the Princess was quietly but very vigorously removed to an insane asylum.
 Such is the history of the affair. Un- savory as it is it has served to estab- fish a record, so to speak. For this duel is the first on record to occur be- tween royalty and a commoner.
 Louise is not the only Princess who has left a stain upon the royal purple, but she is the first person, royal or otherwise, to be confined to an asylum for such a cause.