The Holbrook news., 1911-05-19

A confidential valet helps him into hat and overcoat. By a bijou eleva- tor whose door initiates bookcase he descends to the ground floor. Between the emperor's study and the waiting limousine is trip of short minute saving a detour of half a mile by suites of rooms, stairways and corri- dors. He walks 20 steps across the little courtyard to the door, where limousine awaits him. There Is no special secrecy; 1t is to avoid cere- mony merely. He gives no directions; the chauffeur knows where to go.
 Quitting the frigid. solemn Hofburg, out into the bright lit, bustling early evening of Vienna, past crowds has tening to theater and music hall, into fair streets of residence, the auto stops at a comfortable villa. The old sovereign enters the gate alone. The front door opens as he mounts the three marble steps. When the door shuts he is no longer the dread, lone ly emperor and apostolic king, but Herr Schratt. regularly called "the Colonel" careless, easy, phlegmatic anu bAO0CAyg OA46ANp wal OO1yp oAh8 among good old friends.
 Since the tragic death of the En- press Elizabeth, Francis Joseph is widower, S1 years old, and If all Vienna smiles at Monsieur Schratt' 1t is with respectful sympathy and under standing. Years ago when the Burg theater was wing of the Hofburg, the great actress Katharine Schratt-the Sarah Bernhardt and Rejane of Vienna was presented to Francis Joseph by Empres Elizabeth herself. For long she. too, has lived retired, and the mourning emperor found her so intelli- gent, so fine and also good, that, great love and sorrow having burnt out, an affectionate friendship grew up to give him kind of peaceful solace
 The court calls her ''the Bour. geoise." With Katharine Schratt, for the first time in 65 years, he learned what blesesd relief from frigid eti. quette and numbing ceremony might be- The woman of heart, the artistic genius, who played the roles of great queens on the boards of the Court the ater, before archduchesses and prin- CGooCDI through the crust of the divinity that hedged and hampered the poor man throughout his life.
 Leaving crown and soepter on the hat-rack, he enters the bright little card room that adtoins two bijou par lors, and takes the best easy chair. while Mime. Katharina hastens with the foot warmer. He lights a cigar.
 The bell rings and the partners of interminable games of TarokAa sort of Austrian bridge-arrive; two an- cient friends of the great actress be- come friends of Herr Schratt. aI- ways the same; Herr Palmer, director of the Bank des Pays Austrichiens and an international private banker so ex- tremely illustrious that his name is as well known as Francis Joseph's,
 The banker and Mons. Schratt are fast old cronies, to the sorrow and scandal of the Counters Cho- tek. morganatic but directing wife of Francis-F Ferdinand, heir to the dual crown. Often the emperor loses all the money In his purse-a dozen flor ins-at the nightly game of Tarok He plays badly. None wants him for partner; so they cut to see who takes him. He laughs boisterously.
 At ten o'clock the limousine is an nouneed and Mime. Katharina helps the "Coloner' into hat and over coat
 The auto rolls through the streets of vienna, still bright and boisterous, to the cold, solemn Hofburg. It stops at the little door of the small court yard. The old man enters. and . d. lent valet meets him