The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-28


have organized In IN imperial trust.
and reviews the politics and personnel
of Germany's ally.
Another article will be published
next Sunday in this series Of sketches
OF the famous backgrounds Of the war
nv Mr. Morgan saw them in his recent
travels along the route Of Napoieon's
campaigns.
-HEN there is big fire it is Gus
is S PF RI ssse ma and Of mark ,hs
with cross the starting point
of the flames. If the wide
spread area OF the great CONFEDERATION
English Channel 10 the Caspian Sea.
must be mapped, the evil star will have
to be placed Ia the tumbled center OF
Old Vienna, where. in the eighty-nfth
year of his life and the si1ty-seventh
Of his reign, Francis Joseph calmly sits
at his desk in the Hofburg. II is true
the aged Emperor did not overturn tn"
lamp that red day last July; but 1t seems
reaSona BILE to assume that had he chosen
he could have kept the blaze under con-
t.ol
Austria long has been the finder box
Of Europe < IIarsburg struck the flint
nat iGnited the Thirty Years War. the
War OF the Spanish Succession, the war
Of the Austrian Succession. Inc war
against the French Revolution. the Ma
poleunic Wars. the revolutionary upris-
ings Of 1S4S and the Franco Italian War
in 1889 And il WAS from the liofhurS.
that unhappy breeding plHc" OF strife.
that the present War OF the Nations
burst forth with the fateful Serbian ulti-
Inatum on July % 1914
Now, the Russians stand in the Car
pathian passes, looking out over the
tempting plain of Hungary and the
Srrbians and the Montenegrins are
gioating in triumph on the Danubian
frontier, while the Rumanians are NOV
ing their camps to the border OF Tran
syvania, and the Italians are swarrnins
in the Tyrolcan 6efiles or lowering about
the shore of the Adriatic- Nearer still
nd at the very gates OF the HofburC
- nuttering pOpulace. sWaying between
hunger and anger, alternately cries out
f.r peace and war. while within the pa
zee the air of tho council chamber Is
liiod with the Jealous ciamor of TcutoE
and Magyar.
We; We may be sure that the Emperor
-rIint2ins his imperial calm. For sixty
81 years and more he has sat on the
Yesuvius which has been the throne OF
his ancient race through the more than
six centuries since Rudolph OF Haps-
burg split the helmet of Bohemian king
gu. on the Marchfield across the river
from Vienna Happily for him. Francis
Joseph Goes not come Of a nervous lam
iiy. and however violent the Convulsions
bout him he has generally been equa!
iD his twenty cigars a day. For he wei!
i,nOTs that no other throne has been
sLakcn so often or has stood so long.
Hnpsburg Wars.
The HapS5urgs have started more
wars and lost more wars than any other
uf the war lords in Europe. But they
lave survived them all and even proftted
ly defeat
Four times they dared to attack Ma
'oleon. and four times he thought he
lad overwhelmed them. Thrice they
fed their capital at his triumphant ad.
,.a,ice: twice he received the keys OF
Vienna and dwelt in their palace nails.
Eat when at length he was Ovcrthrown.
Though they we're the last 10 join tn"
.oalltion against him. they convoked
nc powers in the Congress or Vienna
and became the hosts Of the cunquerinS
80 ereigns. Nad when the map of Flu
~ope was made anew they found them
lives after twenty wears Of military
disaster with more territory in their pos
r<sion than they had AT the time the!
logan the war.
Now. we speak of the f:IupeI or Of Aus
ira, the Emperor Of Russia. the En-
rrr,or Of Japan. the Emperor of India.
the German Emperor, and even OF the
Emperor Of Morocco. as once we spoke
Of IN Emperor OF Brazil and an Emperor
Of Mexico. But until Tho coming of the
'orsican iconoclast men spoke only Of
TIE Emperor. and that defined the
Napsburg monarch.
Although he WAS titularly the Roman
Emperor. he was more often referred to
as the Emperor Of Germany. For be-
fore the rise of Napoleon the Austrian
Hr,hy Is now. the head of the German
!itions. AS the ci.ieftain, the overload
"f Germany when the Germans were di-
lided into 200 or go petty states. the
IrinsburE Emperor was deerred O neces-
~tiv TO the German world and to the bal !
NICE of Europe.
The Sick Man of the West.
Since Napoleon expelled the HapsburSs
rom Germany and since Prussia drove !
tom out again and forever. they have
.e"!n"d 70 nc no less a necessity as !
means Or extracting order from that
rIaOS which we call the AustriaR-Hun- /
varan empire Some one has said. in !
d"cd. thai If Austria did not exist il
irritable Turkey OF Chrstendom, where ,
lion and Jealous nations and races are
nell together under the sultanatc OF the J
TIapsburgs Although the Austrian En- .
i,"r"r long has been III" sick man of the
West. anxious ncighhOrs have nursed .
ir,~f through every crisis in order to post
lone tho evil day Of ouarrclinG among
themselves over the division OF his cs- ,
francis Joseph himself. for example. |
fought thrC" wars before cnlbarkinS
upon the unCnaTted sea of trouble over
which nc is now lacking his course. His !.
I ncla Ferdinand, who WAS driven from
ne throne ii the revolution OF lSR when
Il" sbdicated In favor Of his eighteen
and regret as he saw his successor thriv- !
ing on military defeats. 1T was not
necessary TO have dethroned me-" the !
"A-Emperor said; 81, too. could have lost
battles
But as often as the sword of Francis |
Joseph has failed him. some one has
come to his rescue. When Kossuth's .
lTungarians had beaten him into help
lcssness in 1912. he was saved from the /
loss OF Hungary by the Car, who sent :
an army TO his assistance. He prec!pi- ,
tated the war of 1853 with France and !
Italy. but when he was defeated at Sol
Ierino. he promptly received first aid !
from Napoleon III. who resuscitated him |
by permitting him to keep Venice. Vene- |
tia the Trentino and Dalmatia.
Next Prussia fell upon him like thun- /
derbolt in 1866. In what history some
times derideS as the Seven Days War; /
when Mcltfe surprised and swept Fran
els Joseph's army with new weapon,
the needle gun" which fired five shots /
a minute against one a minute from the
oid-fashioned guns of the Austrians. But !
when the victory was swiftly won even
tine Iron Chancellor relented and would |
not take n rood OF earth from the de-
Teated monarch. On the contrary Bis
marck stood him On his feet again and
gave him new shield in the form OF the
Triple Alliance.
This drefbund is almost as strange n !