The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-12-07

estrange her love. At last they succeed
native Bavaria. She came back, but the
Viennese never forgave her. They charged
her with loving fox hunting IN Ireland
better han her duty and preferred to re-
member her always as the absent wife.
The estrangement widened. The en-
Vienna did not lack them. The empress
g y Sut mSTe s anS mere la % con sna Is ssrs ssd
lees a wife. The tragic death Of her only
son drew her nearer TO her husband for
a while, but there came a succeeding
after she almost disappeared from the
Aolfburg. af
Downfall Of Gossipers.
Then appeared KatharIna Schratt, for
merly Of the Imperiale theater. BY her
tact and wit she succeeded in creating for
herself a place below but beside the throne
meyer accorded before her time so openly
and so permanently to any woman. Spec
peror was wide and .nalicioHs. q OF course,
1T found its way to thee emp. 5, and there
followed an incident which ~testlfes to her
uncommon delicacy and courage.
Nettled by the continual humiliation OF
such distasteful scandal mongering, she
devised "a way to end II. One day she
took her youngest daughter by the hand,
and, to the i~mmeasurable astonishment of
her guests, set out to pay a long call on
Frau Schratt at her country palace in
Ischl, where all the world xnew the en-
peror spent hours daily. That ended 1t
effectually. 1t was impossible to gossip
before the suppress about a condition
which she herself had socially legallzed
by her presence. E#f
Schratt n 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 PEN
atty OF sudden and noiseless removal from
his surroundings. When upon the assas-
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 SchrattS appeared near
company for an hour or two. In turn he
delighted to call on her at her town house
as q private gentleman, where he could
meet a few friends of his own choosing,
and not guests imposed on him by ETH
quet or reasons of state. Politics was
never discussed. Frau Schratt had her
house, together with a goodly allowance,
but II never was objected hat the en-
peror was lavish with her and she had the
discretion not to make her ostentation a
Since the last Illness or the. emperor.
king-Francis Joseph was king Of Hun
gary, as we'll as emperor of Austria-be-
came generally known the eyes 'Uf the
entire world nave been turned toward
Schoenbrunn, the beautiful summer palace
on the outskirts of Vienna, in which the
emperor-king had been fghting his last
battle. The venerable monarch suffered
from inlampation of the lungs. His
spare, sinewy body put up a heroic fight
at the command Of his indomitable will,
but from the beginning the chances were
strength in the enfeebled frame to throw
off the grip of the fatal disease.
a Princsly Man.
With his passing there goes from the cir
Gle Of European soVereigns the most i'm
perial, most kinglyt and the most prlncely
nan that ever has filled a throne. When
he Is laid away in his final resting place
the people of Austria n of Hungary will
have seen the last Of a monarch who. IN
the truest sense of the word was the
fatherbof his people; a noble, unselfish and
modest man: a man born to inherit the
heights of human achievement, but whose
life bowed his head in the deepest sorrow.
1is people nave called him the silent suf-
ferer, the accomplishing martyr, the mon
! arch who not only wore the crown OF en-
crown of thorns. And silently he suffered.
His sense of duty to his imperial and royal
obligations made him forget and subordi-
nate his grievous personal affections.
For about 6S years Francis Joseph oc-
cupied the throne of the dual monarchy.
He followed his uncle in 1913, and those
were troublous days at home and abroad.
! War on his frontiers and revolutions with
and wise administration from this s1S-year-
old boy. In the beginning the arms OF
! Austria were victorious, but the initial
successes were 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 oil
| family Affections. His brother. ArChduke
! Macmillan, was shot in Mexico in 1857
his only son, Rudolph, committed suicide
near Vienna In 1889 and, finally, In 1898, his
wife, the Empress Elizabeth. was assas-
Never once during all these years Of dlf.
hcult adminis ration OF his realm n per.
sonal sorrow did the determined mar
whose life has Just come to an end give
way and declare his cross to be too heavy.
| Bitter family d~issensions marked the last
% years OF his reign, and unceasing con-
hicts among the various ~nationalities thai
go to compose the phantom empire OF
Austria darkened the evening OF his life,