El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-17
THE DEAD EMPRESS
A Striking Story OF Stormy Life

fret to describe himself as Franc $
Joseph, the Unlucky' and so convinced
is he that the misfortune which has re-
lentlessly pursued him ever since be
assembled the throne amidst sea OF
blood, Just fifty years ago. would con-
tinue. o'hou nd him with u abated cruel
ty, that he has repeatedly, during the
past few months, given expression TO
his conviction that some untowRrd
event would occur to mar the festivi-
ties in honor OF the jubilee of his reign
and to convert the national rejoicings
into national IN Iurnipg. Now his fears
have been real Zed ,'says the st. Louis
Globo Democrat, and the dual empire
has In the very midst of its loyal cele-
bration been suddenly shocked and
stricken with horror and grle by the
news that their empress has been
laid low by the hand of an
assassin aud that the
dearly loved kaiser. after having been
robbed OF his only son by violent
death, has now been bereft of his con-
sort In an equally appalling fashion.
sympathy for this sorely tried mon
arch will be universal, and IL Is upon
him, rather than upon his dead en-
press. that popular attention and pity
Will be conferred.
Ten years ago Empress Elizabeth
while touring on the Italian lakes was
induced bv the lovelioess OF the seem
cry to land at one of e picturesque
towns with which the shores of Lake
Maggire and Lake Como are dotted.
No sooner was she recognized than she
WAS surrounded by n hootiug, bowling
and menacing crowd of Italians, who
revtled her in the most shameful IA b.
ion, spst at her and pc ted her, as well
as the ladies and gentlemen OF her
suite, with mud and stones. Indeed,
the empress was fore TO beat "A hast
retreat, and narrowly escaped serious
injury.
The attitude of the populace of
Gravedona on that occasion was at
tributable to the fact that the name of
Hapsburg is synonymous throughout
northern Italy with despotism and the
most cruel form of tyranny and oppres-
sion. Thousands of North Italians
have since the beginning of the CEN
fury succumbed to the horrors of Aus
trian imprisonment, their sole offeuse
was that they conspired to throw
off Austrian rule in o. der to become
part aud parcel of independent Italy,
To this date population of the
Italian speaking PROVINCES of Austria
enjoy less freedom aud are treated with
q greater degree OF severity than any
other subj cts of Emperor Francis
Joseph. So great, indeed, Is the hat
red of the reigning house of Austria
Italy each year the people celebrate as
u saints day the anniversary of the
death of Oberdank, who, u member of
the sJ-called Italian Irredenta, So
ciety formed for the purpose OF freeing
Auslrian-Itallan provinces from impr-
rial rule, was hanged for attempting
TO assassinate Emperor Francis Joseph
at Trieste.
That Empress Elizabeth should have
been assassinated by n native of North
ern Italy need, therefore, excite no as
constituent, and that the murder
should have taken place in SwitZer-
land is due to the fact that, since mar
tial law was proclaimed in Northern
Italy last spring, all the Italian revo-
lutionists and socialists. anarchists, as
we'll as the most fsnatlcal members OF
the Italian Irredenta, have found it
more convenient and, above all, more
safe to take up their residence in the
Helvetian republic.
The life of the empress, like that of
her husband, has been far from happy.
Married out of the school room at the
age OF 10 by a monarch who bad Tilted
her eldest sister. Princess Helen of
Bavaria, to whom he had been atfisnced,
she received an exceedingly cold well
come at Vienna, both from the imper-
ial family aud from the proud Aus
trian sristocracy, the mem bers OF which
regarded the marriage of their kaiser
as n misalliance, and resented the idea
of having to concede the homsge due
TO an empress to .the younger daught-
err of an unroyal Duke of Bavaria.
In fact, during the first ten or twelve
years, the young empress was simply
boycotted by the Austrian nobility and
by the imperial family, first and FORE
most among the latter 10 luminosity
against the kaisertn being the emper-
or's own mother, Archduchess Sophia,
who was extremely ambitious for pow
err, and who, like the present empress
mother in China, may be said TO have
encouraged her cons frailties with re-
gard TO the fair sex, in the hope that II
would divert his mind from more SER
ious matters and leave the reins OF gov
ernment in her hands.
Every action of the young empress was
distorted and twisted with the object of
estrangipg her husband from her, and
on one occasion. when, coming down the
grand staircase of the Palace OF Scno-
enbrum, her long sweeping train be
came entaugled around the Cardinal
Archbishop of Vienna, who had drawn
on one SIDE to make room for his SOW
ereign, the most vile stories were cur
rent in scsndal-lovicg Vienna within
twenty-four hours, connecting the
name OF the empress with that OF the
prelate, add describing it as u new al
lance between cnurCn anu state.
The efforts of Archduchess Sophia
and of the court and aristocracy to
bring about al estrangement between
the imperial couple may be said to
have succeeded in 1859.
Eight or ten hours in the saddle
every day ended by wearing out even
the strong constitution of the Empress
and about four years before she lost
her son she was compelled by her ply
stefan to give up riding, long walks and
fencing taxing the place of horsebs
exercise. Sac thought nothing of
walking twenty or thirty and forthy
mil a day, invariable arrayed in
"A simply made black tailor buiiL dress,
without vestige of trimming or foun-
ce, and carrying 10 one hand sun
shade and in the other black fan,
which she would use not SO much for
the purposes of flaming herself as with
the object of shie.ciag her faceifrom
staring strangers. She detested being
stared At, ana one of the reasons why
she disliked Vienna SO much was that
the Vieunese, when they were able TO
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