Perth Amboy evening news., 1916-11-22
DEAD EMPEROR
HAD LONG REIGN
Francis Joseph Mounted the
Throne in Middle of the
Last Century.
JOSEPH CHARLES
n l.. emperor Of Austria. apostolic
J king OF Hungary, king of Bohe

king OF Hungary, king of Bohe.
mia. king of Jerusalem, grand
duke Of Tuscany. duke Of Lorraine.
ETC.. was born at Schoenbrunn Aug. Is.
1880. the son of the Austrian Archduke
Francis Charles and the Archduchess
Sophie. his wife. who was a Bavariau
princess. Els origin was OF the high.
est. for In his veins flowed the blood
OF the Hapsburgs and Lorraines, who
for a thousand years had been maker,
OF history. His grandfather, Francis l.
Of Austria. was the last Holy Roman
emperor. Francis Joseph was no Owen
Glendower. at whose birth "the front
Of heaven was full of fiery shapes"
but the cannon which heralded his en-
trance into life had but lately been
trained against the great Napoleon.
and his cradle was rocked by storms
which shook all Europe. The spirit of
liberty was abroad. and it was not a
propitious hour for princes to be born.
Discomfort with the government was
rife in Austria, the Italian provinces
were filed with instruction. and Hun
gary was ciamoring for freedom. The
popular movement grew as Francis Jo-
seph grew Metternich retreated be-
fore the Austrian masses, and finally,
when the expulsion Of. Louis Philippe
from France set all the shackled peo-
pie Of the continent to rafting their
fetters In the face Of royalty, the En-
peror Ferdinand abdicated. and his
nephew, Francis Joseph, whose father
bad resigned his imperial rights. climb
ed upon Austria's tottering throne, an
emperor at eighteen. In 1S48
Inausurated important Reforms.
The young monarch's 1rsf step was
to promise free and constitutional
government, but In this he was beyond
his time. The course of events COM
PEELED him to close the national assem-
bly, he had called and assume absolute
power. He centralized the govern
ments of his Heterogeneous nationali.
ties at Vienna and tnaugurated impor-
tant fiscal and commercial reforms,
which soon won him the favor of this
Austrian middle classes. He effected
concordat with the pope which concil-
lated his Roman Catholic subjects. He
put down the Hungarian revolt.
In 1859 he had to fight France for
bis Italian possessions, and after the
disastrous defeat Of Solferino. where
he commanded in person with great
bravery. be lost Milan and northern
Lombardy. The Schleswig- Holstein
dispute following the spoliation Of Den
and with Germany. Sadowa cost Aus
tria venetia and eliminated her from
German politics. But these catastro-
phes ended Francis Joseph's foreign
complications for the time and left him
| free to attend to his domestic difficult
ties. He succeeded In reconciling the
almost irreconcila bic interests Of Aus
tria and Hungary. consummated the
compromise under which the dual king
dom Is still governed and about which
there has lately been 20 much talk,
promulgated a most liberal constitu-
ton. and on June 8. 1867. was crowned
king of Hungary at Pest-Ofen with
great pomp and ceremony. From that
time. though constantly the center Of
a political whirlpool. he ruled bis ec-
centric empire as an animal tanner con-
trois his menayerie. usiAg alternately
force and diplomacy.
Domestic Troubles.
His youth. so saddened by the losses
Of territory which his ancestors had
owned for ages, was further embittered
by the efforts Of his political enemies
to cause trouble between him and his
beautiful young wife. the Princess Eliz-
abeth of Bavaria. They did succeed
finally in effecting a separation Of the
emperor and empress. but 1t was only
temporary. Throughout his life the
curse of the Hapsburgs" In the form
of domestic tragedy pursued the proud
emperor of Austria as a hunter stalks
bis prey From that terrible day when
his brother Macmillan, deserted by
Louis Napoleon. who had made him
emperor of Mexico, was shot down like
a felon by the soldiers Of Juares and
the Empress Carlotta came home a
maniac Francis Joseph had been a man
OF sorrows, acquainted with grief. His
cousin. the Archduke Salvador, ran OF
to sea. preferring the life OF common
sailor to the exacuons of the severest
court in Christendom. and never was
heard of again. His only son, the
Crown Prince Rudolph. committed sui
eide In 1880 as the result of an unfor-
tunate love affair. Then came the
crowning stroke of misfortune. The
Empress Elizabeth. adored by high
and low as the imperial embodiment
of all the virtues. was assassinated by
an anarchist during visit to Swift
zerland. More recently the scandalous
elopement Of the crown princess OF
Saxony. who was an Austrian arch
duchess, reopened the emperor's heart
wounds. and the assassination Of his
nephew and heir. Archduke Francis
Ferdinand. with the morganatic wife
of the latter. the Duchess Of Hohen-
berg. broke him down completely
Death of Macmillan.
The tragic death of Macmillan was
the one incident in his sorrowful ca
reer- that the emperor was unable to
forgive. Francis Joseph ever regard
ed Mexico as his brothers murderer.
His gratitude to those who had shown
mercy or pity to the III starred Maxi
milan was no less long lived. Every