Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-03-16
"ANoTHER MAN OF SORROWS"
Tragic Life Of Francis Joseph OF
Austria.

ItdAtS 49,
Austria.
Alone in the seething world stands
Francis Joseph Of Austria.
Fourscore years and more have at
last broken this heart weary, soul
sick old man-in verify the modern
man Of SORROWS above all others
His friends gone, his family scatter
ed, his country rocking and trembling
under a cataclysm Of blooming can
non, his ears assailed by the sound
Of screaming shells, the agonized
means of dying thousands, the wall
ing of mothers and wives bereft-
there he stands, his head bowed, his
once undomitable spirit crushed. And
on all sides rises the dense black
smoke of towns, villages, farmsteads,
aflame with sacrifice to the god OF
war.
Back in the dim past as men Of to-
day reckon time, back in the earliest
period of the gold excitement in Cal
ifornia before railroads crossed our
own great continent, before any one
dreamed that Sumter would be fired
on. Francis Joseph a light hearted
laughter loving lad Of Is, assembled the
throne. He had no desire to rule at thai
time, to incur the responsibilities and
worse which empire would bring; he
was merely a gay, affectionate boy
who in the United States would be
finishing his course in a preparatory
school before entering the freshman
class Of some college.
But he had a mother who was cold
calculating, unmoved by tender o n
siderations for her son; and she com
PEELED him t take upon his imma
ture shoulders the burden Of state
1t is related that on the day he was
crowned, nearly sixty-seven years
ago, a flight of ravens passed over
Olmutz; whereupon old wives and
seers shook their heads and grieved
for they knew what the birds Of III
omen had meant in times past, ano
here was a whole flock Of them.
THE house Of Hapsburg is cursed
they cried; and more than n OF
them remembered this when they saw
the sceptred youth logged by fate
surrounded on all sides by tragedy
worn by misfortune, disgraced by
scandal, none of which he had know
ingly brought on himself.
He had not long been emperor wher
one night he attended a great ball
trying to appear happy and gracious
although his heart was torn by hang
ings and shootings of victims Of the
Hungarian revolt. At a certain mo-
ment when the music was hushed |,
is said one of the guests, the Coun'
tess Karolyi, approached and stood
before him, her face white as death
her Eyes staring, her whole body
shaking with emotion, for her young
er son, her own beloved boy, was
one of those victims.
May heaven and hell blast YOU
happiness!" she screamed. May your
family be exterminated! May you be
smitten in the persons of those you
best love! May your children be
brought to ruin, and may your life be
wrecked, and yet may you live on in
lonely, unbroken and horrible grief to
tremble when you recall the name OF
karolyi!"
With the last words of this curse the
grief craZed woman fell unconscious
to the floor, and Mortified attendants
at u signal from the blithe young en-
peror, now pale and trembling, carried
her away. How has the omen Of ravens
the curse of Countess Karolyi, been
fulfilled?
was vanquished in disastrous wars
once when Napoleon Ill, wrested Ital-
ian provinces from him, and again
when Bismarck and Sadowa in 1856
brought him to the verge of self-de-
struction. Twelve months later saw
his brother MaXimillian defeated, then
executed by Porfirio DiaZ in Mexico
These were but the beginning of such
a volume Of tragedy as had rarely
been recorded by history. 1t would
be impossible in a single newspaper
note to include all, but the chief of
them may give some idea of the bur-
den bore through his long life by that
emperor who now is said to be nearing
his end.
Crown Prince Rudolph, the emper-
or's only son., grew to manhood, bril-
liant as an artist, author and travel
Ter. Whispers have ever been rife that
he vas more than morally erratic, but
so great were his intellectual gifts that
he Won the admiration of equally bril-
liant ~personagcs throughout Europe.
In due time he married Princess