The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-04-15
WRECK OF EMPRESS.
AUSTRIA'S MISTRESS A BROKEN
MISTRESS.
Her Mania for Costly Flowers and
Weird Statues, Her Rattle, Her Self
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Are Not Allowed
to Look at Her.

to Look at Her.
After more than six months alb
;sence the Empress Elizabeth of Aus
tria has returned to Vienna and has
taken up her residence in her lovely
villa of Lainz, built in the old deer
park to let her indulge in her
whimsical love for solitude.
do not think that it will be long
before the world will hear something
of her, for she has come back an aged
and broken woman. Though she is
81. years old her hair, to which she has
always devoted the greatest care, kept
until now it's fine chestnut color. Now
1t is grey, her nose is long and sharp
and her complexion is sallow always
and sometimes yellowish. Her limbs
fail her, and so far from being able
to undertake the long walking tours
she was so fond of, her first wish ex-
pressed On her return was for thirty
new garden seats in Lainz. AS soon
as they were put up she declared they
were too far apart, she must have thir-
" more Immediately. She has taken
a dislike to the beautiful Villa Achil-
leon in Corfu, which she so much
delighted in as long as she was build
ing 1t and lavishing money upon it.
But she loves some of the fine marble
statues that she bought for the gar
dens and they have been brought to
Lainz. The empress is enthusiastic
where flowers and plants are concern
ed, but not always quite reasonable.
She wants her Vienna gardens to be
luxuriantly grown as those of the Ri
viera. Her apartments display an IN
equaled wealth of flowers from the i'm
perial hothouses. Her bedroom and
toilet-rooms, bathing-room and boudoir
have hundreds and hundreds of pots,
vases and glasses that she buys indis
crlminately in her travels, and all are
hlled with fresh flowers every day. In
her bedroom, just opposite her bed,
where she can see it whenever she
wakes, is a most uncanny statue Of
Niobe, yelled and weeping, made of
bronze, covered with green patuia.
: This statue is ensconced in rare plants
and shrubs, behind which green in
cansdescent il ghts give a fairy light.
here are marble fountains smothered
/, in orchids in the very dining
More than 200 cattleyas, with a dozen
mauve and violet blooms apiece, ap-
pear against the background of the
running water. Opposite the middle
window is an enormous mirror, sur
rounded by delicate ferns and rose
trees. On Sunday morning a button is
pressed, the mirror slowly revolves on
hinges and fine altar with a beauti-
full picture of the Virgin and Child is
displayed. The dining-table is remov-
ed and the room changed into chapel
in which the court chaplain officiates
and reads mass, which everyone in the
house and on the estate, from the
court marshal to the last gardener s
assistant has the right to attend in
company with the empress, who is in
black and yelled. At all other times
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 bow
ed or curtsied to. AS to seeing her,
that would be difficult, since she al
ways holds up an old fan that has
served her for years when anyone ap-
proaches. She is followed in her walks
by her Greek master, who walks close
enough to her heels to be able to
read to her. For this 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 corset, but over
a delicate cambria jacket skirt with
braces, and over this a black silk
lined jacket, always the same in shape,
but Of an endless variety 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 gees
unaccOmpanied into the deer park of
Lainz, which swarms with deer, mouf-
flons and wild boar. She carries rat
tie, and when an animal approaches
( she rattles to frighten it away. Her
health most likely broke down on ac-
: count CT the unreasonable diet she
" keeps. She will not allow her weight
to change, her waist must be fifty
centimeters always, even without
corset. She therefore avoids all solid
food, and lives almost solely upon milk.
The orange diet she prescribed for her.
self years ago, when for three months
she ate nothing but red oranges, near
4 " killed her. She has acquired fine
taste for milk, and can always tell
what COW the milk she drinks comes
4 from, and any change in the diet Of
COW makes her object to the milk.
3 She has an armchair by the side Of
4 her bed, which is really weighing
machine, and there she registers her
4. weight every morning and every night
just rev she has her daughter, Marie
ii Valerie. with her at Lainz, but only
two Of her grandchildren-the small
j ones were left behind, as their pres
ence would be too much for the nerves
OF ...e imperial grandmc1her.