Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-12-07

eStrAnSe her love. AL last tney SucS1so-
ed. In a burst Of piaue she fled to her
native Bavaria. She came back, but the
Viennese never forgave her. They charged
her with loving fox hunting. i'll Ireland
member her always as the absent wife.
The estrangement widened. The EN-,
peror was fond OF pretty women and
grew more and more to consider herself
"a dutiful sovereign lady," and less and
less a wife. The tragic death OF her only
son drew her nearer to her husband for
period OF stronger repulsion, and there
after she almost disappeared from the
holfburE.
Downfall of Gossipers.
Then appeared Katharina Schratt, for
merry OF the Imperial theater. BY her
tact and wit she succeeded in creating for
herself a place below but beside the throne
and so permanently to any woman. Spec
ulation as to her relations with the en-
peror was wide and malicious. OF course,
it found its way to the emp. ), and there
followed an incident which ~testiies to her
delicacy and courage.
Nettled by the continual humiliation of
such distasteful scandal uongering. she
took her youngest daughter by the hand,
and, to the unreasonable establishment Of
her guests. set out to pay a long call on
Ischl. where all the world knew the en-
peror spent hours daily. That ended 1t
effectually. 1t was impossible to gossip
before the empress about g condition
which she herself had socially legalized
by her presence.
Whatever the truth about Katharine
Schratt and the emperor, she had the good
sense never to attempt to influence him
politically. Those OF her predecessors
who had dared more boldly paid the 9pen-
atty of sudden and notseless removal from
sination of the empress, the court went
into mourning, Frau Schratt was seen
but little. Shortly, the old intimacy was
openly resumed, but 1t was impossible to
continue malignant about a friendship
that heightened into old age, and the sting
of criticism gradually died out. At Shon-
brunn castle Frau Schratt appeared near
ly every afternoon to keep the emperor
company for an hour or two. In turn he
delighted to call on her at her town house
ae q private gentleman, where he could
and not guests imposed on him by ell
Quet or reasons of state. Politics was
never discussed. Frau Schratt had her
own town house and her own country
mouse. together with q goodly allowance,
but 1t never was objected that the en-
peror was lavish with her and she had the
discretion not to make her ostentatlon a
national scandal.
since the last illness OF the emperor
klng-Francis Joseph was king of Hun
gary, as we'll as emperor of Austria-pe-
entire world have been turned toward
Schoenbrunn, the beautiful summer palace
on the outskirts of Vienna, in which the
battle. The venerable monarch suffered
from Inflammation of the lungs. His
spare. sinewy body put up a heroic tight
at the command of his indomitable will,
but from the beginning the chances were
against him; There was not enough
strength in the enfeebled frame TO throw
off the grip of the fatal disease.
A PrinceIy Man.
With his passing there goes from the cir
QlG- n -t11rnIlnln ign C. 1la N nGtA i11l.
perial, most kingly and the most princely
man that ever has filled a throne. When
he is laid away in h" final resting place
the people Of Austria and of Hungary will
haVe seen the last of Q. monarch who in
the truest sense of the word was the
father OF his people: a noble, unselfish aud
heights of human achievement, but whose
life bowed his head in the deepest sorrow.
tiis people have called him the silent suf-
ferer. the accomplishing martyr, the mon
arch who not only wore the crown of en-
pire, but to whose brow fate bound the
crown of thorns. And silently he suffered.
obligations made him forget and subordi-
nate his grievous personal affections.
For about 6S years Francis Joseph oc-
He followed his uncle in 1S4S, and those
were troublous days at home and abroad.
War on his frontiers and revolutions with
in his territory called for the most drastic
and wise administration from this 1S-year-
old boy. In the beginning the arms of
Austria were victorious. but the initial
successes We're followed by defeats at Sol
ferino and koenniggraecZ. Hungary still
gave the young king much trouble and. In
addition to these national anxieties. Fran
els Joseph had to face a tragic series Of
Macmillan, was shot in Mexico in 1867;
his only son., Rudolph. committed suicide
near Vienna in 1889 and, finally, in 1898, his
wife,, the Empress Elizabeth. was assas-
sinated by an Italian anarchist at Geneva.
Never once during all these years of diff
fcult administration of his realm and per-
sonal sorrow did the determined man
whose life has just come to an end give
way and declare his cross to be too heavy.
Bitter family dissensions marked the last
hicts among the various nationalities that
go to ompose the phantom empire of
Austria darkened the evening Of his life.