Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-11-24
Disasters to the HapSburg
Family Have Been UnparaI-
led in Any Other Reigning
House in Europe
by Associated Press,

/ LONDON. Nov. 22.-With Francis
ioseph's death in the midst Of this
great conflict there is remark
able climax to a long list of
! tragedies in the Hapsburg family-a list
/ unparalleled in any other reigning house
/ in Europe-including the assassination
or violent death of seven near rela-
tives
The fortitude with which the emperor
bore each blow and in later years
| withstood the inroads of i'll nealth
himself was the wonder of his people.
Fears that the shock Of the assassina-
tion OF his heir. the Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, and his consort. while on a
state visit to Bosnia on June 2s last,
would kill the emperor were answered
in characteristic manner.
Francis Joseph, then nearing his
eighty-fourth birthday. recuperating at
IschI from a catarrhal affliction which
each spring had wore heavily upon him,
mustered strength to return to Vienna
Immediately. and take firm grip on
| the confused state Of affairs.
TURNED ON SERBIA
With the royal funeral rites OBJ
| served, and the new heir, the young
Archduke Carl Francis Joseph, recog-
nized, the venerable emperor and his
advisers turned to Serbia with demands
which startled all Europe. From the
ultimatum of July %. denouncing the
anti-Austrian propa ganda and demand
| ing prompt punishment of the assassins
| of Archduke Ferdinand, according to
| items supposedly dictated by Francis
Joseph himself, practically dates the
war now ravaging Europe.
In his manifesto of July %, the day
of formal declaration of war upon Ser
bia, Francis Joseph said:
THE intrigues of a malevolent OPP
ponent compel me in defense of the
honor Of my monarchy and for the pro-
| lection of its dignity and the security
| Of its possessions to grasp the sword
after long years of peace.
The hope that Serbia would keep its
word has not been fulfilled; the flame
Of its hatred for myself and my house
has always blazed higher
In this solemn hour I am fully con-
sciOus of the whole significance of my
resolve and my responsibility before
i the Almighty. / have examined and
weighed everything, and with serene
conscience set out on the path that
duty points
| With the war on, communication
Il VIII was pIdCAlCdAs Sul OAA.
/ Rumors of the emperor's assassination,
| or his impending death from shock
/ over the great war he had ordered,
were widely circulated, with denials fol-
lowing.
GREETINGS TO KAISER
| On August %, when the Germans
were moving into France. Francis Jo-
seph conveyed his greetings to En-.
peror William in these words:
| Victory after victory, God is with
you. He will be with US also. / most
| sincerely congratulate you, dear
Il friend, also the young hero, the crown
/ prince, and the Prince Rupprecht, as
well as the incomparably brave Ger
man army. Words fail to express what
moves me and with me, my army, in
| these days of worlds history"
1t is doubtful if in all history there
has been an active. authenticated
reign longer than that c. 'sed by the
death of Francis Joseph.
At nineteen years of age he assembled
the throne of Austria, upon abdlcation
| of his uncle. Ferdinand L, December 2,
1916. his death ending an active reign
| of sixty-seven years. all but the first
twenty of which he was also apostolic
king of Hungary.
Tradition says that Pharaoh ruled
| for ninety-nine years and there is the
more credible instance of Rameses II,
SeOstris of the Greeks, whose reign is
reputed to have covered siXty-seven
| years.
But in recorded history there GER
| tainly has been no reign equal in Pc
riod of time TO that of the Hapsburg
| which closed last night. Louis XIV of
France was nominally king for seventy
two years. He actually occupied the
throne for little more than half a CEN
fury. A closer rival, and the only one
N@.HH NNaWr 10
| who reigned for siXty-four years.
Francis Joseph's reign was an event.
| full as IL was long. From his imperial
| vantage point he saw the French mon
| archy go down, the second empire rise
| and crumble, the common flare briefly
| and the republic of today rise on it's
ashes; he saw the black pinions of the
| Prussian eagle stamped on the flag of
the new German empire-later to tower
threateningly over Austria itself; ne
saw the papacy shorn of its territorial
! demesne, while about IL a pickering
family of petty principalities was weld
ed into united Italy; he saw Spain, once
| the greatest of colonial powers, lose
the last OF her dependencies in two
oceans: he saw Japan opened to west
ern civilization. and later defeat the
! sprawling Colossus Of two continents;
he saw the most absolute despotisms-
\ representation TO the people; he saw at
a distance the United States cement its
federation with the blood OF a great in
| ternecine war, and he saw his own
brother prove that monarchy could not
take new root on American soil.
Il MANY PERSONAL SORROWS.
In his own country he faced internal
disscnsiOn and external aggressions
from the moment he came to the throne
BY the war of 1859 with France and
Sardinia he was forced to cede Lom-
hardy to Italy; by force of arms and
treaty he lost the Duchy OF Holstein
to Prussia and Venice to Italy; and by
the revolt OF Kossuthl the Hungarian
patriot, he barely escaped having his
dual empire cut in two.
But in human interest his personal
sorrows overshadow all. One after an
other they came upon him. In 1853 the
list OF tragic incidents began with an
attempt upon his own life. In 1867 his
brother, the Archduke Macmillan after
three years experiment as emperor of
Mexico, was captured by the army of
the patriot and condemned to death by
ia courJ-marJIaI whose sentence was