The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-12-18
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OF all the pitable personalities
among the crowned heads of Europe,
Francis Joseph of Austria Hungary
deserves the most commiseration.
Born in 1880 his life has been one
long acquaintance with disaster to
his country, or personal sorrow. Out
of the revolutionary upheavals of 1848
his uncle was forced to abdicate the
crown of Austria and he became ruler
of that conglomerate of races called
the Austrian Empire. Just before that
| be had served under the renowned
Reortzky, who crushed out a patriot
ic uprising in north Italy with an iron
hand. The Hapsburg family had been
for long long the main stay of the
| temporal power of the Papacy and
had its hand deep in Italian affairs;
poor Italy had been divided into a doz-
en- separate principalities for centuries,
and it did not look as though Sardin-
mans, Lombards, Tuscans and Neapol-
itans could ever fuse together; and
| European diplomacy aimed to prevent
anything of the kind Austria had its
iron hand on all of Venitia and Lom-
hardy and dictated the government
Of Tuscany and the states of the
Church. Francis Joseph played such
treacherous part during the Grim
can war that he lost the respect of his
neighbors; the Lombards asked the
aid of Piedmont in an uprising and
were crushed and Victor Emanuel
barely got out of the war with his
crown. But now one of the great men
of modern times came gradually to the
fore in Count Cavour, the Premier of
Victor Emmanuel How he ever pur-
suaded Louis Napoleon III to join
Piedmont and Sardinia in attacking
Austria is one of the wonders of his
tory; for Cavour represented exactly
what Napoleon hated and had crushed
in France, constitutional government;
but he did send his army into northern
Italy in 1859, when in quick succession
came the battles of Magenta and Son
ferino. But while Napoleon was aid
ing Victor Emmanuel. the Jesuits Y, ere
working on his wife and Cover nalent
in Paris, being more in sympathy with
Austria and Austrian policy in Italy
than the liberal Cavour; the very night
after the victory, when it looked as
though a forward movement would
rout the Austrian army, Louis Napol-
con went with flag of truce to the
headquarters of Francis Joseph and
negotiated a peace, which probably
saved Napoleon's crown a few years
longer, but left Piedmont-S in
the lurch. 1t was all one of those
strange and unaccountable events
which turn the current of history; for
from that time patriotic Italians all
over Italy began to have hope for
better day. And from that day the
sun of Francis Joseph began to de-
cline, In 1860 began Garabaldi's
whirlwind sweep through Sicily and
Naples and Victor Emmanuel came
down from the north, and with one
mighty effort the trammels which had
so long bound Italy were burst asun,-
der, and Austria pushed out of Lom-
hardy and Venetia., In 1866 Prussia
at Sadowa gave Austria a crushing
defeat, and only the personality of
Francis Joseph kept Hungary and
Austria united each hated the other,
but both saw nothing better in ruler
ship than the Emperor; since then his
beautiful wife Elizabeth has been as
sassinated, his son and heir died in
circumstances which have never been
satisfactorily explained, but appar-
emily they were not honorable; and |
then last summer his nephew and heir |
with his wife were violently killed. |
The Empire is made up of dozen or |
more races and nationalities all hating |
each other, the flag ends of races of |
southeastern Europe and western |
Asia; while thes Germans are purely |
European for over two thousand |
years, the Huns or Magyars, are
Asiatic. And it is altogether probable |
that one cause of the weakness of the
Austrian army in this great war is
the half-hearted loyalty of the va
rious races who have no love for each
other and no interest in the war.
look to see the Turkish empire crum
BILE and as surely to see the Austrian
rope of sand dissolve. In 1850 the
wisest man in Europe never dreamed
of a united Italy. The widest dream
of what may be in eastern europe is
as likely as any other surmise. But
having lived to see England, France
and Russia fighting side by side in an
righteous cause | am pre-
pared for almost any change in Eu-
rope. And perhaps poor Poland,
which like old Gaul, has been "all di-
sided into three parts" may yet be
made into a "buffer-state" in the CEN
Ter of Europe, and relieved from the
heel OF the Russian, Austrian and
Prussian.
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Glory is never where virtue is not
4e Franc.
Man grows with his expanded needs.
Schiller. 6
Sin writes histories, goodness is 81 I
I
Know this, that every country can /;
reduce good men..-Lessing. :