The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-22
His Fathers Memory

HIS dL0cI NleWOIy
 At that time the duke was preparing 10 enter upon a military career under the Austrian flag. But as he impa- ttently approached the end of hls tute- lage his teachers sounded many alarms and apparently were extremely appre- hensive about his future. His chief tu- tor described his character as weak and his education imperfect, speaking Of his want of balance his "un- bridled passions and obstinacy,' his 'crude and distorted ideas and his wild efforts for liberty and licen- tlousness" While no evidence has sur vived to explain this latter indictment, it has inspired several legends. among them one which involves the duke with
 Fanny ElIsler, the celebrated Vien- nesse dancer. whose dancing in Amer ica seemed so divinely graceful that Emerson pronounced 1t religion.
 The chief tutor did not by any means make all the entries on the debtor side of the dukes ledger. On the contrary, he conceded his ''engaging appearance" his Fascinating and often impressive ob- servations" and ''all that stamps him as belonging to a special order.'
 The duke himself once or itw' ce dropped
 his reticence concerning his inner thouThts and left us fleeing view of the ambition that glimmered within his prisoned body.
 When he was IS he received a letter from
 count N6lppeTB urSlnS Hiin moIc IT.
 gently to study the French language,
 which he had all but lost, and the drke
 replied approvingly to the count. whom
 he bly, never suspected of being his
 stepfa ther: 'It tFrench) Is the language
 in which my father gave the word of command in all his battles, In which his
 name was covered with glory and
 fin which he has left us unparalleled
 memo rs of the art of war: while to the
 To ct No oA fho xuia hat I
 never repudiate the nation Into which
 was born" Again he vowed. "the chief
 aim of my life must be not to remain un-
 worthy of my fathers fame." On another
 occasion he said to B man in tones of
 deepest gratitude, You defended my
 fathers honor at a time when all men
 vied with one another to islander his
 name. I have read your Battle of Water
 loo.' and Tn order to impress it's every line
 on my memory I translated 1t twice-into
 French and Italian"
 At % the duke was removed from the scustcdy of his teachers. but only to be
 placed under the surveillance of group
 of army officers. Yet the Hapsburgs ap-
 peared to believe that amid all these fet-
 ters they were really rearing an eagle,
 another Napoleon who, at the head of
 the Austrian army would prove himself
 the first soldier in the world. His sour
 old preceptor-in-chief was sure that his
 pup'l could he made "the worthy heir of , his fathers fame" and "a powerful up- holder of the Austrian state" On every
 hand unbounded hopes were professed cf the soaring heights which he would achieve. But the Emperor and Metternich dared not let him go to Prague or leave Vienna for fear the little eagle might homeward fly!
 At court balls his appearance aroused i curiousity such as no Hapsburg. ex-
 cited. and his beautiful face and ready wit conQuered men and women alike. , AS he went to his barracks the vien- nese stood at their windows to see the tall. distinguished and nobly seated ' horseman gallop by. and the soldiers broke the decorum of the drill ground to greet him with ringing cheers when- | ever he presented himself before them. r His Last and Only Flight The young officer displayed so much .. zeal and generally such fiery tenn perament in his military duties that he ! neglected to rest and sighted his meals. His physician counseled prudencc and warned him that he had 8 spirit 1. of iron In body of crystal For the : youth had grown too fast and he had T the too narrow chest of the Hapsburn race. The duke himself soon felt his
 physical limitations. and exclaimed. q ! ! mine which refuses to keep pace with , my will"
 After an ailing time in bed when his physicians failed to detect his tuber- ! cular symptoms, he went driving or = the Prater, It was a raw. cold day In the spring of 1892, and his carriage , breaking down. he started to walk home : but sank fainting in the street Wher i he returned to his sick bed he quickly : fell prey to tuberculosis
 r Week after week he strove for life < with rapidly increasing feebleness. Stil = his mother presumably absorbed in hel ', rew family at Parma. did not come tt ', see him. Afterward when she did visi' : Austria, she tarried with her father a ' Trieste and long deferred the remain , ing short Journey to Vienna. But wner !. Metternich visited the duke and saw what a terrible wreck" he was, h' , wrote to the Emperor insisting Una : Marie Louise must hasten to the sid' . of her son. Only then did she awakei to her maternal duty, 90 much had sh'
 grown apart from her old life and iron I her boy.
 The last night came. when the soul O i rAiglon beat against the wasted ant , broken bars of its bodily cage. He Ia! . In the great frescoed room where. afte ; inc victory of Wagram, his father hal , dictated terms of peace to his grandfathe
 and dreamed of demanding daughter O E the Caesars to give him an heir to hi { empire and his glory. Marie Louise slept and only a valet. not even doctor { watched and heard the delirious murmur ! ings of the dying youth.
 sCall my mothsri Call my mother!" h. , hoarsely whispered as tho dawning sum