The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-09-19
ROMANCE OF An ARcHDUKE.
Strange Story Of Johann, Of Austria,
( Who Was Missing Fifteen Years.

Strange Story OF Johann, OF Austria,
Who Was Missing Fifteen Years.
From the Manchester, Eng, Chronicle.
In the palace OF Ninaven Is a beautiful
theater. There in 1859 a brilliant company
or guests had gathered to hear pretty
Fraule;J Mizzi Steubil, the most famous
operate singer that Austria has pro-
duced.
That night the prima donna sang as
never before. And she sang her way into
the heart of the great Archduke Johann
Salvador. So fascinated was this member
ofMthe royal house of the Hapsburgs by
Mizzi's singing and her surprising beauty,
thatsh he then and there fell In love with
her. The result Of that meeting was
Hraught with disaster to them both. In
fact, SO quickly mad the Emperor detected
the impression which Fraulein Mizzi a
made upon the archduke that he CAV or
ders prohil%.ing her from appearing in.
the last act of the opera. The singer pro-
tested against this strange action of her
sovereign, which she did not then UNDER
stand. But Francs Joseph is a stern king,
and Fraulein Steubil had p~erforce to sub
init. .
Shortly afterward Vienna had a new
sensation.
The Archduke Johann Salvador had dis
appeared In the night! He had ~renounced
his claim to the throne. He had fed from
Austria by sea. That was all the Viennese
knew. The story as II leaked out later
twas a strange revelation. .E
When he left the emperor's presence he
went straight to the home Of Fraulein
steubil, where everything was ready for
Hight. The pair then journeyed to Fiume,
where he had a yacht called the Mar
guerita. He now had this fitted out as a
merchant ship, and taking the name OF
.'.John Ortiz" sailed away with his wife.
/ $500 ~ hN- N
the close of 1890, when It was reported
that the ship had been wrecked on the
coast of South America, and that all on
board had bern lost. Some months later,
however, 1t was reported that he had es-
capped, and since then from time to time
there have been tales, first that he was
fighting with the Gillian insurgents, next
that he was leading the Japanese armies
under the name of Marshal Yamazata and
then, again, hat he was living the simple
life in the wilds of Paraguay.
None Of these stories have been credited
in Austria, and to the world at large the
archduke has been reckoned almost as one
dead.
: Now, however, a wealthy South Amer1a
can gentleman, M. Eugenio Gazon, who
Is we'll known in Paris, and who has
shown the attention with which he has
always followed the missing archduke's
romantic career by publishing a book en-
killed John Ortiz" in which he has re-
lated at length the archduke's life and ad-
ventures, has produced circumstantial evil
dence to prove that the archduke under
the name OF Johann Orth, was alive so
late as 1900, when he was working on the
estate of Signor Villa Rey, at Chaco,
Paraguay.
1t is also stated that on June 6 last DR..
Emanuel Quintana, son of the late presi-
dent OF the Argentine republic, arrived in
Paris from Buenos Ayres, M informed
NJ. Gazon that on board the steamship
Araguaya, by which he had reached Lis
bon, there was no less u person than the
famous Johann Orth, who came from Rio
de Ia Plata.
DR.. Quintana had become on friendly
terms with the ex-archduke, and in the
course of conversation had alluded to the
book published by Eugenio Gazon. The
lrchduke said that he had read notices of
the book in the South American papers
md had been greatly interested in some
Of the private details of his life. On DR..
Quintana stating to the archduke that he
was a friend of M. Gazon, the archduke
gave. him a card on which he wrote a few
words to NJ. Gazon.
A few days ago, upon the arrival Of the
Cherbourg's boat train at st. Lazaire
station, conveying the passengers from
the Araguaya, which had called at Cher
bourg, DR.. Quintana introduced the arch
duke to M. Gazon, who was standing on
the platform. The archduke thanked M.
GaZon for the sympathetic manner in
which he had dealt with his life in the
book, and promised to call and see him on
his return from London.