Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-11-17

TN THE vast drama Of the European
war there is, perhaps, no one feature
which Is more tragic and dramatic
than the literal fultilment of the curse
pronounced upon the House Of Hapsburg
by the Countess Karolyi
In 184S, when the young Emperor Fran
els Joseph OF Austria was suppressing,
with terrible crueties. the Hungarian re-
bellion. the Countess uttered this curse
upon him:
May Heaven and He'll blast his hap
piness! May his family be extermlnated,
May he be smitt.n in the persons OF
those he loves! May his life be wrecked,
and may his children be brought to ruin,"
Many reliable witnesses and histori-
ans state that these we're the actual words
uttered by the Countess. Her young son,
Count Michael karolyi who had surrcn-
dcred under promise of treatment az a
prisoner OF war. had been ruthlessly exc
cdted together with score of other Hun
garian patriots taken under similar con-
ditions.
The Countess. n passionate patriot and
! woman OF great beauty, made her way
/ through the guards surrounding the En-
( peror and pronounced this terrible SEN
: tence upon him before the Austrian sol.
diers could carry her away.
It is an indisputable fact that the curse
has been exactly fulfilled in every single
Z particular. The Empe. or lived TO see his
wife and only son murdered after lives of
enhancement his nephew and destined
successor assassinated and. finally. he
lived to plunge his empire into the great
war which has wrecked 1t. A few days
ago his successor, Emperor Charles, was
fugitive from his capital, not knowing at
.Shat moment he might meet n violent
death while Count Michael Karolyi.
grandson OF the woman who pronour ced
the curse, is leading figure in the pres
ent Hungarian revolution, and has helped
TO tear the Austro-Hungarian Empire to
pieces.
Note that the Counties did not call down
an immediate punishment on Francis
Joseph physically. She did not, like some
prophetesses Of old, call on Heaven to
strike him dead or blind or wither his
,,Sht hand. With grewsome ingenuity she
foretod the long chapter OF tragedies and
miseries which would fall upon Francis
Joseph's family and everything he cared
for.
AS a matter OF fact, the Emperor lived
until November, 1916 sixty-eight years
after the curse was uttered. He died in
his eighty-scventh year. During the whole
OF that long period he and his country
encountered uninterrupted disaster and
disgrace.
The year 1913 was memorable for pop
ular uprisings against kings and rulers
in all the German States and in several
other countries. The Hungarians rebelled
against the Austrian Emperor because a
law giving them selfgovernment had been
passed n century earlier and never put in
force. The Ilungarians won alarming sue
cesses. The Austrian Emperor, Ferdinand
j.. abdicated and his nephew Francis Jo-
seph, then eighteen years old, succeeded
him.
To save the glorious cause of autocrncy
the Russian Car came to the help OF
ftn AI1cf rin Erryn u H.
crushed the Hungarian forces. The Aus
trian triumph was accompanied by hor-
ribe atrocities and treacheries. Men who
had surrendered az prisoners Of war were
executed by the hundred. Others were
secretly tortured to death in prison. Not
less than 10000 Hungarians were massa-
cred by the imperial tyrants.
Having thus happily secured himself on
his rev throne, Francis Joseph soon aft
erward married his beautiful cousin the
Princess Elizabeth Of Bavaria. Their
married life was one O tho greatest I'M
happiness, during mos cf which they
were practically separa 81. The Empress
wandered incognito in lGany parts OF Flu.
rope, while the Emperor amused himself
with one frivolous companion after an
other.
In 1898 the Empress Elizabeth, after
suffering untold sorrows. was murdered
by All anarchist at Geneva.
Thus the first part of the Countess Kar-
olyiS culSe was fulfilled. The Emperor'S
happiness was blasted.
Every year Of the Kaiser's life WAS
filled with some misfortune. Austria had
acquired. by state marriages and intrigue.
the greater part OF northern Italy. The
Italians made many unsuccessful revo!ts.
but in $50 the French came to their as
distance and drove the Austrans out Of
Venetia and Tuscany.
Austria had enjoyed for nearly six
hundred years certain leadership Of the
German States. To put an end to this.
Prussia, under Bismarcks guidance,
marched all army to the gates of Viaana
and crushed Austria In seven weeks That
was in 1866 and thenceforth Austria he
came slave Of the Prussian conqueror.
Napoleon I'LL, as slight consolation for
defeating the Austrians in Italy, placed
Francis Joseph's brother Archduke Max
imilian, on the parvenu throne of MEXICO.
The United States was too much occupied
with the Civil War to interfere with this
arrangement so repugnant to the Monroe
Doctrine. The Mexieens rebelled against
Macmillan, hut Napoleon's soldiers waro
able to upheld him for time. When tie
Civil War was over the United States de-
claredi that European interference in
Mexico should cease. The Mexican leaders
Immediately gained control and moor May.
}imilian was shot by them in 1867. His