River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-06-13

ing OUT the guard. as the carriage,
drawn by it's four chestnut horses,
moved slowly along the streets, his
eyes under their overhanging thatch
were watching ahead, searching the
crowd for symptoms of unrest.
Anger he saw in plenty, and
suspicion. Scowling faces and frown-
ing brows. But as yet there was no
disorder. He sat with folded arms,
magnificent in his uniform beside Karl,
who wore civilian dress and looked
less royal than perhaps he felt.
And Karl, too, watched the crowd,
feeling its temper and feigning an in
difference he did not feel. Olga Los
trouble. More than that, he was Of
an age now to crave popularity. Many
Of the measures which had made him
| beloved in his own land had no higher
purpose than this, the smiles of the
crowd. So he watched and talked OF
Indifferent things.
1T is ten years since have been
here" he observed, "but there are few
changes"
''We have built no great buildings
said Mettlich bluntly. ''Wars have left
US no money, majesty, for building"
That being a closed road, so to
speak, Karl tried another 1.-THE
crown prince must be quite lad" he
experimental. "He was a babe in
arms, then, but frail, thought"
''He is sturdy now" The chancellor
4
relapsed into watchfulness.
Before I see the Princess Hedwig,"
Karl made another attempt, sit might
be well to tell me how she feels about
things. / would like to feel that the
prospect is at least not disagreeable to
/ her"
The chancellor was not listening.
There was trouble ahead. It had come,
then, after all. He muttered some
thing behind his gray mustache. The
horses stopped, as the crowd suddenly
closed in front of them.
''Drive on!' he said angrily, and the
coachman touched his whip to the
horses. But they only reared, to be
grasped at the brides by hostile hands
ahead.
Karl half rose from his seat.
"Sit still, majesty" said the chancel-
Tor. "It is the students. They will
talk, that is ALL
But it came perilously near to be
ing a riot. Led by some students,
pushed by Others, the crowd sur
rounded the two carriages, first NUT
tering, then yelling. A stone was
hurled, and struck one of the horses
Another denied the body Of the car
riage itself. A man with a handker-
chief tied over the lower half Of his
face mounted the shoulders of two
companions, and harangued the crowd
They wanted no friendship with Kar-
MIA. Were they to lose their national
existence? He eXhOrted them madly
through the handkerchief. A babel OF
noise, of swinging back and forth, OF
mounted police pushing through to
surround the carriage, of cries and the
dominating voices of the student
demagOgues. Then at last semblance
of order, low muttering, an escort of
police with drawn revOlvers around the
1 carriage, and it moved ahead.
Through it all the chancellor had sat
with folded arms. Only his livid face
told of his fury. Karl, too, had sat i'm
passive, picking at his small mustache,
But, as the carriage moved on, he
said: "a few moments ago observed
that there had been few changes. But
there has been, perceive, after all, a
| great change
zone cannot judge the many by the
few, majesty"
But Karl only raised his eyebrows.
In his rooms, removing the dust of
his journey, broken by the automobile
trip across the mountains where the
two railroads would some day meet,
Karl reflected on the situation. A dual
monarchy, one portion Of it restless
and revolutionary, was less desirable
than the present peace and prosperity
of Karnia. And unrest was contagious.
He might find himself in a difficult
position.
He glanced about his rooms. In one
of them Prince Hubert had met his
death. It was well enough for Nett
Itch to say the few could not speak for
the many. 1t took but one man to do
a murder, Karl reflected grimly.
But when he arrived for tea in the
archduchess' white drawing room he
was urbane and smiling. He kissed
the hand Of the archduchess and bent
over Hedwig's with a flash of white
teeth.
Then he saw Olga Loschek, and his
smile stiffened. The countess came
| forward, curtsied, and as he extended
his hand to her, touched it lightly
with her lips. They were quite cold.
For just an instant their eyes met.
It was, on the surface, an amiable
and quiet tea party. Hedwig had
taken up her position by a window,
and was conspicuously silent. Behind
her were the soft ring of silver against
china, the countess gay tones, Karls
suave ones, assuming gravity, as he
inquired as to his majesty's health