Bridgeton pioneer., 1914-09-03
FRANCIS JOSEPH
FIGURE AMONG
Aged Monarch Harried by
Grim Misfortune From
His Boyho0d.
TT has fallen to the lot of few men

TT has fallen to the lot of few men
to bear such a series of misfor-
tunes as those that came to Fran
els Joseph (Charles) l., emperor
Of Austria, whose eightyfourth birth
day occurred Aug. Is. The reign Of
the oldest monarch In the world was
one of woe and disaster. His most re-
cent and most personal grief was caus-
ed by Gavrio Pnnzip, the Servian an
archist, whose bullets ended the life Of
the heir apparent, Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, and his wife, the Duchess
of Hohenburg. But before this happen
ed he had earned the title of the Sor-
rowful Emperor.
Waving the question Of right or
wrong In declaring war on Servia, as
the direct result OF the assassination
of Francis Ferdinand, the fact stands
out that 1t was this act which plunged
all of Europe into a bloody conflict,
conflict aptly described by the British
government in its call for men to enlist
under the Union Jack as the greatest
war In the history Of the world.
From the day when as boy Of
eighteen he was ordered by the family
council to dethrone his uncle, since
otherwise all hope for the house Of
Hapsburg was lost, Francis Joseph
never knew happy day. He has re-
manned upon the throne of his country
for over sixty-six years, the saddest
mona rob 0f his 400
Curse Over Family.
I A curse, uttered with all the hatred
and vindictiveness OF a woman whose
heart was torn with grief, hangs over
the house of Hapsburg. Since this
curse upon the emperor and his fam
lily was made in 1S4S by the Countess
Karolyi, the house of Hapsburg has
known more grief than any other royal
family of Europe.
Following the execution Of her son
for his activity in the Hungarian up
rising. Countess Karolyi sought an au-
dience with the emperor. Once in his
presence she denounced him in the
most scathing terms; she prayed that
his life be stripped of happiness, that
misery and suffering come. to those
dearest to him, and that he be crushed
to the earth in despair. The woman
left his presence with the declaration
that her prayers would be answered
and the death Of her son avenged.
A political cataclysm set Francis Jo-
seph on his throne as boy and loaded
him with responsibilities and griefs
such as only the strong can bear.
Francis Joseph had hardly reached
the throne when he was forced to lead
his soldiers against his own people In
the quelling Of bloody revolution.
These events had hardly passed well
into recollection when his natural ally
made war on him, reduced him to hu-
initiating peace and took slice Of his
provinces.
Brother Executed In Mexico.
Francis Joseph was duped into per-
mitting his brother to become the tool
of Napoleon Ill. In wild scheme to
establish Franco-Austrian monarchy
In Mexico. The unhappy Empress Car
lotta went insane begging Napoleon to
aid her defeated husband, and Maxi
milan himself was shot to death with
his generals, making final Aagic plea
that they shoot low, 80 his mother
might look upon his dead face un-
marred.
Francis Ioseph's Italian provinces
revOlted and Joined the Italian king
dom. Every few years there have been
fresh outbreaks in his own country.
Time and again European wars threat
ened to engulf him and his kingdom,
and he faced the possibility that his
death would mean the dissolution OF
his remnant of the great German-Ro-
man empire, which one day ruled the
world.
But to ali these public disasters was
added list of private or personal
griefs such as few men-high or low
have ever been made to bear.
Perhaps the greatest Of these trage-
dies and the one that bore most heav-
fly on the old monarch, was the mys-
terious death Of his only son, the
Crown Prince Rudolph, at Meyerling.
Rudolph was twenty-three years old
when he married in 1881 Princess Ste
phanie, daughter Of the king Of the
Belgians. The princess was sixteen.
The crown prince married her for state
reasons, and they became known as
''the most unhappy royal couple In Eu-
rope"
The crown prince was invited to a
reception at the home OF cousin. the
Countess Larisch. That was In the fall
Of 1887. There the countess introduc-
ed him to a beautiful young woman.
the Baroness Vetsera. nineteen years
old.
The crown prince lost his head and
heart. He went to his father, the en-