The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-01-27
Once Favorite Of Emperor katti Schratt To Visit U. s.

!
 | New York. Jan. 27.-(SpeciaD-N l )nger young, but still retaining muc l her charm, katti Schratt, ''the mos l llked-of woman in Europe a fey l ears ago, is coming to America. FoI l fmoSt half a century she was the | avorite of Francis Joseph, emperor | f what was Austria and Hungary 1 Continental royalty bowed to her, the l vhole world knew and half the world l -ondoned the unconventional relation I ihip. The imperial family, even to | he wife and children of the autocratic monarch. treated "die Schratt'' as ar squal-for they dared not do other wsie!
 Now, at siXty-Seven, she is coming to America in a desperate attempt to regain on the stage the proud position she held so long ago when the young king smiled on her and claimed her for himself!
 Just so, it may be recalled, came Lola Montez, after ruling King Louis of Bavaria, who had plucked her from the ballet as Francis Joseph did Katti and Lola failedi
 Wanted Regal Role. A play is now in preparation for Katti. She personally suggested Ma rie Theresa that she might interpret a truly regal role of the period when Austria was second to none in world power.
 In the six years since Francis Jo- seph passed out of the world and Aus tria- Hungary, as has been forecast crumbIed about his bier, Katti Schratt has endured much. The story of the S25O,0O that the emperor had willed her proved false.
 He left her nothing and the allow ance she had received from the flaps burg treasury was abruptly cut off when her royal protector died. She lives in a little villa on the outskirts of Heitzing, which is itself a suburb, but this villa is the home in which the emperor installed her and it is all that is left undisturbed of the re- gal domain. A niece, a piquant little brunette who helps out the depleted family income by working in one of the American offices in Vienna, lives with her.
 Strangers ask: But where are the jewels, the money. the lands that he showered on her so long and lavish ly? The answer is ironica1 There were no showers of gold or gems, no estates for her. Francis Joseph was thrifty in his amours.
 Used Her Own Funds. Kattf until the last phase of the extraordinary romance, earned her living on the stage, rewarded, by an occasional jewel or token of less value. Out of her own funds, 1t is said, and it seems to be true, she entertained the monarch in simple fashion, and he died thinking only of his empire, which was dissolvfng around him. Katti Schratt has been in Ameri- ca, but so long ago that few Americans recall her. This was in 1882 when af Ra a Hungarian officer She organized a company and toured France, England and America, presenting at the old Tha1ia theater Sardou's "Divorcons-" She had been leading woman at the Hofburg theater in Vienna for several years before the emperor's attention was attracted to her It is said that the late Empress Elizabeth introduced them, though this is not clear. It is I certain that the empress was with him when ,he first commented on the grace and beauty of the young ac- tress. He went to her dressing room after the performance Katu was in the seventh heaven at the call. She the daughter of 8 baker, to be thus honored by the sovereign of the most exclusive court in the world!
 The Royal Romance
 The romance sped swiftly after that. The empress is known to have pro- tested, and it is known that her pro testations were futile Then, when it was plain that the attachment could not be roughly snapped off. diplomacy was exercised, but diplomacy failed too. Finally, the court and the public made a virtue of necessity and con- doned the situation.
 The empress did the same and by : a strange trick of fa1A - 0EaH an