Daily camera., 1898-11-04
EMPRESS IS A WRECK.
The Royal Mistress Of Austria Is a
Badly Broken Down Woman.
Even the Servants Who Meet Her Maj
esty Are Ordered to Look Away
from Her-Her Queer Mode
of Living.

After more than six months absence
Empress Elizabeth of Austria has re-
turned to Vienna and taken up her res
idence in her love villa of Lai.iz, built
in the old deer park to let her indulge
in her whimsical love for solitude.
| do not think that it will be long be-
fore the world will hear something of
her. writes a correspondent, for sh"
has come back an aged and broken
woman. Though she is 81 years old,
her hair, to which she has always de-
voted the greatest care, kept until now
its fine chestnut color, Now it is gray,
her nose is long and sharp and her COM
plexion is sallow always and some
times yellowish.
The empress is enthusiastic where
flowers and plants are concerned, but
not always quite reasonable. She
wants her Vienna gardens to be a
,uXuria tly grown as those of the
Riyiera. Her apartments display an
uneQualed wealth of flowers from the
imperial hothouses. Her bedroom and
.oilet rooms, bathing-room and bou-
dOir have hundreds and hundreds OF
BOTS, vases and glasses that she buys
iadiscriminately in her travels, and all
are filled with fresh flowers every day.
In her bedroom, just opposite her bed,
where she can see ii whenever she
va kes. is a most uncanny statue of
Niobe. veiled and weeping, made of
t111 "a
Chis statue is ensconced in rare plants
and shrubs, behind WHICH green incan=
descent lamps give fairy light,
The servants who meet her majesty
in the house, the garden or the park
are ordered to look away and let her
pass unnoticed. She must not be bowed
OF curt to, As to seeing her, thar
would be difficult, since she always
holds up an old fan that has served
herfcr years when anyone approaches.
She il followed in her walks by her
Greek master, who walks close enough
10 her heels to be able to read to her.
For his reason, and because the strain
Of holding up a gown is too great for
her she wears skirts that do not touch
The ground. She does not wear cor
set. but over delicate cambric jacket
! skirt with braces, and over this
black silk-lined jacket always the
same in shape, but of an endless va
riety in thickness and warmth. Her
hair is plated. and the plaits lie round
her head in the way Tyrolese maidens
do their hair.
Though SO delicate, the empress goes
unaccompanled into the deer park Of
Lainz, which swarms with deer, mouf-
hons and wild boar. She carries rat
lie, and when an animal approaches
she rattles to frighten It away,
Her health most likely broke down
on account of the unreasonable diet
she keeps. She will not allow her
weight to change, her waist must be
so centimeters always, even without a
corset, She therefore avoids 81 solid
food and lives almost solely upon milk,
The orange diet she prescribed ior her
self years ago, when for three months
she ate nothing but red oranges, near
ly killed her. She has acquired a fine
taste for milk. and can always tell
what COW the milk she drinks comes
from, and any change in the diet of
a COW makes her object to the milk.
She has an armchair by the side of her
bed which is really a weighing ma
chine, and here she registers her
Weight every morning and every night.
just now she has her daughter Marie
Valerie with her a t Lainz, but only two
Of her grandchildren-the small ones
we're left behind, as their presence
would be too much for the nerves of
The imperial grandmother,-Chicago
Inter Ocean.