Omaha daily bee., 1916-11-26
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THE BIG WORLD event is the death OF Fran
l. els Joseph, emperor. OF Austro- Hungary,
and the succession OF new ruling head OF the
ancient House of Hapsburg. In this country we
look back but little over hundred years to the
founders of republic, while in these old world
monarches the unbroken dypastc lines go back
a thousand years and more and in that time have
been enveloped in hoary tradition and hard-set
rules almost impossible to break away from. The
dead potentate will have state" funeral with
all the dazzling trapping, fantastic mummery and
imposing ceremony that attended the burial OF
Roman emperor when Rome ruled the world IN
the height Of glory. All the old court costumes
and customs will be brought forth and the costly
cortege with its glittering glamor, will again
.overawe the populace with deep sense OF the
wide rift that separates the common mortal IRON
the Amounted OF the Lord born into royalty by
divine right To curtail the agony and make things
more comfortable for the bereaved relatives and
sorrowing mourners, they could easily have an up
to-date automobile funeral, but that would not
conform to the requirements prescribed in i'm
peral tones which set forth in detail every move
that must be made in taking. the body. from
ebbed away, to the sepulchral vault where all his
ancestors are inferred As both the palace and
the imperial burial vault will be mentioned fire.
quently in the cable dispatches this brief descrip-
ton OF them which once wrote, after personal
sightseeing visit many years ago, may be inter
esting and timely:
"As in France the historical associations OF
the Bourbon monarchy cluster about Louis XIV,
in Austria the glory OF the empire is connected
with the reigns Of Maria Theresa and her son,
Joseph III. 1t was in her time that the imperial
palace at Schoenbrunn was erected following the
example set by the French sovereign at Versail-
les. The Austrian palace has one advantage in
that it is still the residence of the emperor at GER
tain periods of each year and is necessarily kept
in constant repair. Fortunately we arrived at
time when the interior was visible to the public
and followed the attendant through the various
rooms of state. 1t is beautiful building and
lavshly decorated. The interior u.s. think, much
finer than anything have seen elsewhere. The
size of the rooms and the magnihcence OF the
decorations impress the visitor most forcibly. The
banquet hall almost equals in grandeur the crystal
hall at Versailles in which King William Of Prus-
STA in 1871 was crowned emperor. Historically
the palace is important by reason OF its use by
the first Napoleon during his Austrian campaign.
In this same building and in the very room occu-
pied by the great conqueror, his son, the young
duke OF Reichstadt, breathed his last some twenty
odd years later and was laid to rest in the inn
perial vault under the Capucin church in Vienna,
where ll6 Of the Hapsburg family have been in
after years the body of that other unfortunate and
Inflated Hapsburg Macmillan, emperor of
Mexico, who lost his life in vain endeavor to
satisfy the ambition of Napoleon III. The fine
picture galleries OF Versailles are not repeated at
Schoenbrunn, but the latter is surrounded by
series of gardens that leave little to be still de-
sired. Also interesting are the two golden eagles,
French eagles, standing high above each gate post
of the entrance and now retained only on account
Of binding clause to that effect in the treaty of
peace concluded three-quarters OF century ago
between Napoleon / and Francis, the last of the
Holy Roman Emperors.'
The "Story of the Streets" printed in The Bee
last week with the explanation why Omaha's
main thoroughfare bears the name Farnam street.
instead OF being called Main street. or Broadway
or Market street Central avenue, as is true OF
so many made-to-order cities, recalls that the
name of Farnam street was not always what it
now is In my boyhood it was spelled Farm
ham" street and behind this is some peculiar his
tory. The street was named as already told,
after Connecticut inancier Henry Farnam,
prominently identified with the promotion and
building Of the Rock Island railroad and per-
sonal friend of Enos Lowe, to whom unqueston-
ably this compliment was due, and the name
appears so spelled on the original plat according
to which Alfred d. Jones laid out the townsite
The extra letter "h' seems to have gotten in by
an error of carelessness by some craftsman max
ing new map of the city in the early 70s. be-
cause find "Farnham street. spelled with the
III for the FIRST time in the city directory Of the
year 1873 and its use in that form continued for
at least ten years l was under the impression
that the dropping of the "h" out Of Farnam street
in the Sos was merely an experiment in simplifed
spelling to save writing needless letter but it
was, in fact rcverson to the original and correct
name. / mentioned this to Lewis S. Reed who
is now the best living encyclopedia of our early
geography and he confirms this record, Many
mistakes are made about other names on our
map" he said. II have seen Cunning with a
final S. but the street is named after Governor
Thomas B. Cunning, and the same is true of VIII
lam street, which has no s. but is named for
| Colonel William Banner, who was the surveyor
who laid out Hartman's addition, to which the
street leads We did have Market street. too,
crossing diagonally where the jog in Twentieth
street is now found, but it was vacated and dsap-
peared from the map"
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