The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-10
ASSASSINATION OF AUSTRIAN EMPRESS
 IS RECALLED TODAY

! Memorial services will be held to- day in the chapel at Vienna which perpetuates the name of Empress Elizabeth Amaha Eugenie, the wife of Emperor Francis Joseph of Aus tria. It was sixteen years ago to- day, Sept. 10, 1898. that the Empress was murdered in Geneva, Switzer- land, by an Italian, Luigi Lucch eni. The poor Empress was stabbed, the dagger entering her heart and caus-. ing instant death. This was perhaps the worst blow in all the long series of tragedies which have afflicted the aged ruler of the Dual Monarchy.
 This tragic end of the life of a simple, kindly woman who had known much of sorrow and little of joy shocked the whole world. For years. since the tragic death of her son, the Empress had taken no part in public affairs and spent her time wandering from one city to another, striving only to forget. Luccheni, who described himself as ga friend of. the poor and a hater of the rich" had gone to Geneva. so he safterward con fessed, to s1ay the Duke of Orleans The latter left the city shortly before Luccheni's arrival, and the mailman decided to kill the Empress, so he would not have his trip for nothing. When the Empress, all unsuspecting, went from her hotel to the pier of the lake steamers the Italian follow-s ed. and as she neared the pier he stab bed her in the back with a dagger improYiSed from a file. The Strick- en woman never recovered conscious ness, and died almost immediately
 Empress Eizabeths life was a sad one almost from the time she mar ried her cousin, Francis Joseph. in 1854. She was the daughter of MadmiH Han-Joseph, Duke of Bavaria. and throughout her life she retained a fondness for the language, customs and beer of her native land. She was passionately fond of riding which was frowned upon as un1adylike by the Vienna court, and her addiction to smoking was also the subject of
 much criticism The Emperor,s af- fairs with other women were not at all to her liking, and led to frequent -quarrels, separations and reconcilia-. lions. Soon after the birth of their royal palace and .hedt to Corfu. Fran
 cis Joseph started in pursuit, but
 soon abandoned the chase, and for, eight years the imperial couple were separated most of the time. In the latter years of her life the Empress
 maintained only the most formal re- 1ations with her husband.
 Of the children of the Empress, her
 only son, Grown Prince Rudolf, a wild impetuous youth, was found dead in ! l Baroness Vetsera. Whether he kill
 ed himself or was murdered the world has never known. Princess 4Stepha- nie, the widow of the Crown Prince,
 plunged into the widest excesses. Her J daughter, granddaughter of the Elm l press, attained notoriety by shooting her husbandAand his paramour. The | Empress cousin, King Ludwig of Bavaria, committed suicide in 1886. 1 The husband of the Empress sister | Duchess Matilda also died by his own Iuccheni, the slayer of the Elm | press, was sentenced to life inpris- 1 onment, as the Swiss laws did not
 provide for capital punishment. 1t ! was alleged that he was confined in Ia cofhn7shaped cell, in which the light of day never entered, and 1 which was so small that he could neither sit down nor turn around As a, matter of fact, he was given a very comfortable cell, and was employed
 in the book -binderY of the prison. He
 was very fond of reading, and Dick ems was his favorite author. To the last he declared that he felt no regret for his crime, and asserted that if he had the power he would externinate every royal family in the world De- spite his seeming intelligence and his
 intellectual interests, alienists dec1ar-
 ed he was insane, and this theory - was borne out in 1910 when, after a
 fit of violent insanity he hanged him.
 self in his cell.