The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-04


Torn by AntitheticaI Ideals.
From the New York Post.
Strongly Bourbon though her blood
is. the runaway wife of the heir-ap-
parent of the kingdom of Saxony is
yet to be regarded as one of the I'M
happy Hapsburgs. Through father
and grandfather her descent is direct
from Ferdinand III. of Tuscany, who
was son of Emperor Leopold II. of
Austria. This makes her great-great-
granddaughter of the founder of the
present dynasty. Maria Theresa. Her
line has been untouched by the luna
cies communicated to imperial blood
by intermarriage with the Wittelbachs
of Bavaria But the mere fusion of
bourbon and Hapsburg has itself of
ten brought strange issue, with impul-
sive tendencies toward something else
than being merely a royal parsonage
with an expectation of one day rising
to the throne.
Men as we'll as women have re-
nounced their rights to place and pre-
cedence to become civil subjects-one
archduke even took himself to South
America and disappeared among the
people, and is supposed to be there
still, or, perhaps, here in the United
States, living his own life in his own
way. There have been two sorts of
Hapsburgs, those devoted to the rigid
old usages, and those who, desperate
ly in revolt threw themselves against
all that was fixed and ordained.
Francis Joseph's mother gave indica-
ton of the feeling of the first when
she upraided the Empress Elizabeth
for begging to be allowed to take care
of her own child, for the consolation
of the simple human duties of mater
nifty: why" exclaimed the Arch
duchess. you have one of the grand
est positions in the world, and jewels
richer than those of any other queen
what other consolation do you
need?"
"Another World"
Stambouloff was shockingly murder
ed, and Bulgaria was lost to Ferdi-
nand through the khsistence of his con-
sort, Marie Louise of Austria (ominods
name), upon the preservation of the
niceties of the court etiquette she had
been brought up to. That unfortunate
minister was sighted by her simply
because, like his own people, SIAM
bouloff lacked some of the convention
al graces of demeanor and deport-
ment. Powerful though he was with
the governments, the fact was neglect
ed; consequently all other powers were
alienated through her tactless exag
geration of his small slips of etiquette
in approaching her, or in approaching
Ferdinand. Like Marie Louise of
Bourbon, who had married Napoleon
at a critical moment, and then de-
serted him when he was sent to st.
Helena-not even writing to him, but
turning from the foremost soldier of
his time, if not of all time, to such in
significant persons as Count Neipperg,
and later Count de Bombelles, of the
Austrian army-Ferdinand' Austrian
wife was not a blessing. In most OF
the Austrian archduchesses the idea of
family, of aristocracy, or etiquette, of
the distinction of blood was upper1nost.
AS one of them remarked to the Brit
ish Ambassador who innocently in
quired whether his vis-a-vis knew a
certain writer and philosopher: My
dear sir, you are speaking of another
world"
1t was preferable for Napoleon's wife
to come home from the most bril-
liant court in Europe, after it's de-
molition and view the festivities of the
court of Vienna from behind curtain,
or from the attic by means of a hole
in the ceiling, than to violate one Of
the sanctifled customs. Yet on the 9TH
er hand, there were princesses and
princes of the same Hapsburg- Bour-
BON family ready to grant themselves
In marriage to the most outrageous
petty royalties of Europe, and then,
when they found the human nature
forming in their hearts, to burst away
regardless of church and state and
public reputation. Perhaps the men
have been more courageous than the
women in this as may be natural. The
revolt was sometimes due to love, the
kind of love celebrated by novelists
and by poets. Even Francis Joseph,
so the partisan courtiers represented.
made the life of his cold, nunlike Emp
ress martydrom before it was end
ed four years ago by the knife of an
anarchist.
The POstiIIiOn Romance.
Three years afterward, according to
public reports, the Austrian Emperor
married, morganatically, Frau RATHER
inc Schratt of the Vienna stage, and
had her previous marriage with Baron
Kisch annulled therefor. This was the
Frau Schratt who used to make long
journeys to carry in person to the
Empress the first violets of spring
time. What a glimpse of royalty and
of commons! Thackeray would have
been glad to show it up. Then there
was Archduke John, whom Won Moltke
regarded as a brilliant strategist, who
abhorred flatterers, and who, on his
own hook engaged himself to Donna
Elvira of Spain, only to find that the
requirements of the Austrian court
forbade the union. Being a man before
an Archduke, he brooded over this sit
uation, and presently showed that he
would not put up with the artificiali-
ties of aristocracy-would not tolerate
bores whatever their birth; and de-
clared that "the people are not made
for the princes One day he arrived
at the post-station of Brandhofen, and
needed horses and a postillion. There
We're horses, but no postillion; and the
postmaster fearful of losing his PLACE,
asked his slim young daughter if sf,e
would serve. She pulled on the jockey
breeches and the top boots, and got
astride a horse; at the end of the
Journey, noting her beauty, the Arch
duke John spoke to her, and she con-
fessed, innocently, that, indeed, she
was a girl, not a boy. Learning that,
the Archduke was smitten. When he
contracted a morganatic marriage
with her, she was made for decency's
sake, the Baroness of Brandhofen, and
afterward Countess of Meran: and her
son came to great favoritism, and the
Order of the Golden Fleece. and a
Privy Councillorship.
In the Almanach de Gotha the Arch
duke is entered now as having "disap-
peared;" for no man knows what be-
come of him after having taken, as
skipper, ship to South America.
An ArchduIxe in Jeans.
His brother Louis Salvador has the