White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-06-20
MAY EXHUME ROYAL
BODIES DEAD YEARS
Seek Truth of 41-Year-Old
Austrian Tragedy.

vienna.-Recent reports here have
summoned from the past the ghosts
of an unhappy pair who died for love
as truly as did Paolo and Francesca.
They were both members of the proud
est aristocracy in Europe, that of Aus
tria, and one was the Grown Prince
Rudolph, son of Francis Joseph and
Empress Elizabeth.
According to news dispatches, there
is movement on foot to cause the
bodies of these lovers to be exhumed
In order to find out whether they COM
mitted suicide or were murdered, as
was charged by enemies Of the mon
archy.
The story Of the crown prince and
| the young Baroness VetSera (she was
only sixteen years old at the time) is
strangely moving one, which has In
| spired many tears and much political
recrimination. Were they killed by
order of the politicians surrounding
Francis Joseph? Did the emperor
himself have hand in 1t? Or, de-
spairing of ever being united with the
chosen bride of his heart, did Rudolph
shoot her and then turn the pistol
against himself?
Meets Baroness.
Crown Prince Rudolph was a
handsome man about town in the Wen
ma of the eighties. He had literary
turn, but 1t was beneath the dignity of
the crown prince, said his father, to
be an amateur journalist. SO Ru-
dolph turned his attention to light
love and sport. Then one day he met
the beautiful Baroness Mary Vetsera.
OF this exquisite creature, Karl
Tschuppik, in his recent biography of
the Empress Elizabeth, writes as fol-
lows:
"The baroness mother had, since
her husbands death, lived in Vienna
with her two daughters in one of the
imposing houses in the ambassadors
quarter, the Salesianergasse. The fam
lily was connected with the aristocracy
and the house was much frequented
by sporting young cavalry officers.
The baroness had several brothers,
well connected. With the help of her
popular brothers the young beauty
found 1t easy to make a figure in So
ciety. The women of the Viennese
aristocracy were held to he the most
beautiful in Europe. Mary Vetsera
was unusually clever and lovely"
Love at First Sight.
1t was case of love at first sight
when the young people met at party.
Everybody noticed it, and the news
was at once carried to the emperor.
He frowned and disapproved. He
asked several days later to see his
son. The crown prince during that
interview confessed his love for the
beautiful young girl, who had already
come to visit him in his apartment,
stealing away secretly from her moth
err and her brothers. The emperor
commanded him not to see the young
woman again.
The next day, Monday, January %
1889, the crown prince took the train
to Baden, and thence drove to Mayer
ling. He awaited message from
Mary. 1t came. On Wednesday the
empress, expecting visit from her
son, received instead the tragic news
that Rudolph and his mistress had
been found dead at the hunting lodge
at Mayerlng She had been shot and
he clasped pistol in his dead hand.
Elizabeth, after debating with herself
for several agonizing hours, left her
apartments and told the emperor the
sorrowful news.
There is no doubt that Francis
Joseph and his court disapproved of
this love affair." So did Mary Vetsera' s
brothers. But who killed the enam-
ored couple, If they were killed? The
court clique or the baroness broth
ers? Or is it true, as the official ac-
count has it, that they died willingly
as the only way out?
This is what the exhumation Is In.
tended to show.