The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-14
Emperor Franz Josef More Like C1oc1auork
Copyright, 1918, by Curtis Brown)


Y 7 JENNA, September 1S'-(specialo
NJ Much has been written about the
Emperor Franz Josef of Austria,
VINO has Just attained his SSd year. and Is
the dean of all the nonarchs of Europe,
but it is doubtful whether any but
small circle of councillors and attendants.
which shrink every year, as their total
sum of winters increases, really knows
anything of the actual personality Of the
monarch.
His enemies call him 'the most perfect
official in Europe and it is very certain
that the Emperor is a most successful
business man, a master of method and
detail and that everyone who comes into
contact with him must be absolutely
''correct in every way. Even as small
child the Emperor could not indure any
thing like disorder His toys were ar
ranged with marvellous neatness; he never
soiled his clothes like other children, and
in a word may be said to have known
nothing of the sins of childhood. This
nice exactness has increased with the
years until the Emperor today may be
said to be the most punctilious man In
Europe.
The representatives of big newspapers
. whose business it is to attend the steps
OF royalty when visiting this country,
all agree that whereas there is hardly
a monarch who is absolutely to time. the
Emperor of Austria forms striking ex-
ception.
Kaiser Wilhelm, on arriving at the
small wayside station of Penzing, near
the palace of Schonbrunn, in Vienna nat
urally hastens to reach the door of the
railway carriage to anticipate his aged
host. 1t is frequently struggle to get
there in time. On the platform stands
the Emperor. slim and upright, mill
tary figure par excellence. No one ever
casts a glance towards the red velvet
canopy TO see whether he is there or not,
for they know that he will advance like
a clockwork figure at the given signal
and that his steps are so nicely calcu-
lated that all the most precise require
ments Of etiquette are filed, the sover-
eign In the incoming train getting just
that degree of Difference due to his rank
and estate in the world. OF course the
Emperor has had long practice at the
difficult task of teigning over this large
empire and of presiding as the chief of
the most punctilious court in Europe.
There is much Spanish blood in the
Austrian imperial family, and many of
the customs of the court are taken direct
ly from Spain, which holds the palm as
the strictest of all courts, where the eti-
quiette is so exact that 1t requires gem
eraion of service even to understand 1t,
and where, as in Vienna, the service is
performed by persons who have been
born and bred to the task fof genera
tions, an intruder would make but sad
work of the many complications and cere- A..
monies. The service of the court is not
easy
At the palace of Schonbrunn, for exam
pie, where the Emperor now lives almost
exclusively, lackey is employed to open
the door which leads to the broad marble
staircase and after he has opened this
door and closed it after the monarch, it
IS his duty to make his way down the
back stairs and open the door at the bot
tom of the flight. Owing to the Emper-
waited upon him in his youth should now
serve him, the lackey has grown to be an
aged man. Unlike the monarch he has
not become more 1.-THE and active with
the passing of the years, and it is said
in the palace that he daily fears that the
Emperor will reach the bottom of the
stairs first and find the door closed. What
would happen did such a contretemps
occur no one knows. The Emperor is
vexed when he even thinks that he may
have to wait
In spite of, or perhaps because of, a
certain roughness, the Emperor is the
most popular man in the empire Wheth-
or ne goes TO Hungary or to Bohemia,