The times., 1898-09-12
ABLOOD- -SPOFREDDESTINY
AsSasSins Knife Made Franz
Josef a Real Ruler.
THE EMPRESS YOUNG DAYS
The Marriage of the Princess to the
Emperor Caused Furorc in the
Courts of Europe-ThrouEhou Her
Life She Has Been Unconventional
and Hated the Ceremonies of State
fspecial Correspondence.l

Vienna Sept lit was the blow of an
assassin that made Emperor Franz Josef
the real ruler of Hungary. for
the attempt TO kill him changed him
from a careless, profiigate youth into
serious man. II made possible his mar
riage TO the Princess Elizabeth, true
love match that developed the emperor
so that he became one of the great pow
ers in the world.
And now the assassin knife has taken
away from him the wife of forty-four
years, whom he loved tenderly. In the
evening of a life shadowed by sorrows
he has lost her who was dearest TO him
in all the world.
When the Crown Prince Rudolph died
in black scandal, and the royal house
hold drank deep of agony, Emperor Franz
Josef said:
How much / owe in these days of Bit
terness to my beloved wife, the empress,
And what a support she has been to me
| cannot describe. How can ! be suffi-
ciently thankful that such a helpmate
has been given me? Tell this to every
one; the more you spread it the more
will ] be thankful.
There will be mourning is Austria Hun
gary; for as Emperor Franz Josef was
the most-loved monarch in Europe, SO
was she bestowed queen. Eccentric she
was to a remarkable degree, as eccentric
as she was good, for the breath of scan
dal never asailed her.
She was a woman first and a queen
afterward. Her strength of character per-
mi,ted her TO rise above the convention
alities of the most formal court in Eu-
rope.
She was not trained to sit on a throne
That distinction was designed for her
| elder sister, the Princess Helene. Her
father was Maximillian Josef, of the
junior branch of the house of Bavaria,
styled Dukes in Bavaria Her mother
was daughter of Maximillian Josef VI.
elector of Bavaria, whom Napoleon made
a king and treated like an equerry.
Duke Max was poor His eldest son
married an actress. The hopes of the
family centered upon the Princess Helene,
the eldest daughter a beautiful girl, who
had been carefully trained. Her ambi-
| tious mother had arranged with the
! Princess Sophie to have the Princess
| Helene become the wife of the emperor.
| A few years before the ambitious Prin-
| cess Sophie had succeeded in placing her
| son of eighteen on the throne, by per-
| suading the weak Ferdinand l to abdicate
| in favor of the young student, Franz
| Josef.
Having brought this about, the unscrup-
| ulous Sophie gave her son into the hands
| of a dissolute nobleman, with instruc-
tions to make him enjoy himself while
| she ran the empire He chased pleasure,
| and his mother made both of them I'M
| popular by her arrogance and oppression.
| Nothing was expected of Franz Josef.
| Had it been his brother, the brilliant
| MaXimillian. who met his death in Mex
| leo, who had been placed on the throne,
the nation would have rejoiced.
| 1t was on the 18th of February, 1853,
that the attack was made on the youth
ful emperor's life. He was reviewing
the army of Schmely, when Joseph Lii
penyi, Hungarian, broke through the
ranks, and slashed at his throat with a
heavy knife. His life was saved by the
buckle which clasped his military cloak
about his neck.
Ii was this attack upon his life that
awakened the emperor to the response
bility of his position and the unpopularity
in which he was held. He set about grasp
ing the conditions and learning the prin-
ciples of statecraft Gradually he as
had usurped, and showed himself a wise
ness of his people.
marriage which his mother had ar