The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-23

Emperor naturally decided in favor OF
vested rights and interests
Princess zita has been most successful
in her chief obligation towards the realm
of Austria Hungry She has brought
healthy boy into the world. The succs
sion to the throne is thus assured. The
necessity for caring for the child pre-
vented her from exercising her functions
of first lady at the court to any great
extent last year The young couple, how
ever, are evidently contemplating taking
up their social duties in real earnest next
winter The archdulxe is to be installed
in villa at Heitzing, one of the pleas
ATTEST suburbs of Vienna. well within a
motor run of all the palaces. Here Arch
duchess Zita will make ready for the
court functions, at which she will preside .
Her great popularity In the capital hag
increased steadily since her marriage|
She is still very young, but has shown
great tact on occasions when she has
been called upon to act as first lady of
the court
During the long months stay in Galicia,
in the first year of their marriage. the
newly married pair followed the troops
in a motor car, which the archduke droveI
himself. the young royalty" madeI
purchases from the peasants of northern|
Hungary and Galicia. Whenever Prin-
to call her, saw chicken of interesting
breed she stopped the car and bought
1t. The peasants, who knew very well to|
whom they were selling the poultry, all
though they slammed ignorance, putt
prices up as far as their imagination oil
what an archduke could afford reached.|
Fortunately for the little archduchess,|
most of these peasants had seldom seen|
piece of silver and did not even knowI
of the existence of gold--so rare is the|
coin in the country In those out of the|
way regions.
The hampers containing the purchases|
were hastily attached to the car and veryI
often when it came to getting lunch the|
host of the country inn had to lend the|
rash couple few kronen. instead of get-
ting paid for his meal. The adjutant had|
a busy day on the morrow settling up thel
outstanding claims on the purse of the|
light-hearted bride and bridegroom.
Such are the simple hearted couple whol
will now be forced to make their way to|
power and influence at the Vienna court
They have the old Emperor as a steady
backer. He is attached to the young|
archduke, who has often been charged
with very difficult missions of late years
The Emperor knows that this training|
will insure his doing the right thing all
the psychological moment. His knowledga|
of languages-and he speaks Hungarian, Il
Czech, italian, French and English flu
ently-gives him a great advantage over
his uncle. who only speaks French and
his native German with real fluency. The
Emperor presented Princess Zita with all
the books written in Hungarian which
had belonged to the late Empress. that
she might quickly make good her defi-
cheney in "a respect that she could not
understand what her future Hungarian
subjects said. and she has studied the
language hard ever since.
Just as long as the Empeor Franz Josef
lives it is certain that the good looking
young couple will have an easy walk
over. No one sympathizes with the stern
uncle or the proud aunt. What will hap
pen, however, when Archduke Franz Fer
dinand comes to the throne no one can
tell. There would certainly be a keen
struggle If the court functions are to
have their usual significance it is clear
that the little princess must occupy her
place as first lady of the court VIII
Duchess Hohenburg be content to remain
at home while the place beside her hus-
band is occupied by her niece? VIII she
listen to the cheers or the populace as
Princess Zita the little babe, heir to the
throne of this great empire-kingdom at
her side, drives past. her own children
far away in her husbands country place
at Konospischt? VIII she willingly make
room for the child of the lucky little
princess or will she make n struggle for
the rights of her own beautiful boys? No
one can anticipate what will happen after
the death of the Emperor. who has al
ready reached the age of SO, butft is very
likely indeed that the young archduke and
his wife will have reason to be grateful
to Archduchess Josefa, who chose the
princess with her legion of powerful rela-
tives here and In Italy. to fill the dis
puted position of first lady at the Austrian
court.