The Washington times., 1918-11-17


war there is, perhaps, no one feature
= which is more tragic and dramatic
than the literal fulhlment of the curse
pronounced upon the House Of Hapsburg
by the Countess Karolyi.
In 1s4S, when the young Emperor Fran
els Joseph of Austria was suppressing,
with terrible cruelties, the Hungarian re-
beIlion, the Countess uttered this curse
upon him:
FMay Heaven and He'll blast his hap
plness! May his family be exterminated!
May he be smitten 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 surren-
dered under promise Of treatment as q
prisoner Of war. had been ruthlessly exc
cuted, together with a score of other Hun
gariRn patriots taken under similar con-
ditions.
The Countess, a passionate patriot and
q woman Of great beauty, made her way
through the guards surrounding the En-
peror and pronounced this terrible sem
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
particular. The Emperor lived to see his
wife and only son murdered after lives of
estrangement his nephew and destined
successor assassinated, and/ finally. he
lived to plunge his empire into the great
war which has wrecked TIA few days
ago his successor, Emperor Charles, was
a fugitive from his capital not knowing at
what moment he might meet a violent
death, while Count Michael Karolyi,
grandson Of the woman who pronounced
the curse, is a leading figure in the pres
ent Hungarian revolution. and has helped
10 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
right hand. With grewsome ingenuity she
foretold the long chapter Of tragedies and
miseries which would fall upon Francis
Joseph's family and everything he cared
for.
As q matter of fact, the Emperor lived
until November, 1916, sixty-eight years
his eighty-seventh year. During the whole
Of that long period he and his country
encountered uninterrupted disaster and
disgrace.
The year 1S4S was memorable for pop
ular uprisings against kings and rulers
in all the German States and in several
other countries. TIE Hungarians rebelled
against the Austria1 Emperor because q
law giving them self-government had been
passed century earlier and never put in
force. The Hungarians won alarming sue
eesses The Austrian Emperor, Ferdinand
l., abdicated and his nephew, Francis Jo-
seph, then eighteen years old, succeeded
him.
To save the glorious cause Of autocracy
the Russian Gar came to the help Of
the Austrian Emperor, and together they
crushed the Hungarian forces. The Aus
trian triumph was accompanied by hor-
rible atrocities and treacheries. Men who
had surrendered as 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 new throne, Francis Joseph soon aft
erward married his beautiful cousin. the
Princess Elizabeth Of Bavaria. Their
married life was one of the greatest un-
happiness, during most Of which they
were practically separated. The Empress
wandered incognito in many parts Of Eu-
rope, while the Emperor amused himself
with one frivolous companion after an
other
IT 1888 the Empress Elizabeth, after
suffering untold sorrows, was murdered
by an anarchist at Geneva.
Thus the first part of the Countess Rar-
olyfs cW Sc was fulfilled The Emperor's
happiness was blasted.
| Every year Of the Kaiser's life was
filed with some misfortune. Austria had
acquired, by state marriages and intrigue,
the greater part of northern Italy. The
Italians made many unsuccessful revolts,
but in 1859 the French came to their as
lsissance and drove the Austrians out of
tVenetia and Tuscany.
Austria had enjoyed for nearly six
hundred years a certain leadership Of the
German States. To put an end to this.
Prussia, under Bismarck's guidance,
marched an army to the gates Of Vienna
and crushed Austria in seven weeks. That
was in 1866, and thenceforth Austria he
came a slave Of the Prussian conqueror.
Napoleon III, as a 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 Mexicans rebelled against
hut Napoleon's soldiers were
able to upheld him for time. When the
Civil War was over the United States de-
cIared that European interference in
Mexico should cease. The Mexican leaders
gained control and poor Msx-
Imilian was shot by them in 1867. His
vouuR wife was driven mad by this lraR-