The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-04-29
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS .
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON

NEW YORK.-The Nazis haven't
~ bothered Frau Katherine
Schratt. Unlike the Pompadours
and Montespans, usually among the
first victims of po-
Frau Katie litical upheavals,
Immune to Austria's "Gnae-
Noxrs Ran dige Frau" as
Emperor Francis
Joseph called. her, has ridden the
surf-board of dynastic and political
change for nearly go years. She is
now eighty-two, doing crossword
puzzles, disclaiming knowledge Of
the current cataclysm, but longing
for the "good old days."
In those days, she was pretty
Katie Schratt, a dancer in the Burg
theater, which was under the pat
ronage of the emperor. After a hit
performance, with the emperor at
tending, she obtained an audience.
"Sire," she said, with a low
curtsey, 1--WE cannot maintain
ourselves ON the salaries you
pay. l owe $4,000 for my cos
tunes"
The emperor promised new ben
efice for the theater and said he
would help her take care of her
debts. She was backing gracefully
to the door when the emperor said:
"Gnaedige Frau, why do you
leave us?"
She stayed 40 years, in snug little
villa by the palace gates. The
emperor, after a hard day swinging
the scepter, used to drop in at Frau
Katie's, split bottle of Pilsener
and sing few songs. She knew all
the mellow old tunes which he par
ticularly liked. She used to darn his
socks and tell him when he needed
a hair cut.
She refused to accept gowns or
Jewels, always remaining the
"Gnaedige Frau" but the emperor,
by an amusing artifice, induced her
to accept a fortune in gems. He
was a famous huntsman. He told
her he was sending her wild boar
he had killed.
She saw no harm in that. When
it arrived, it had diamond earrings,
diamond neck
Slam Boar lace and bracelets
Is Studded and diamond
With JetDeIs breast pin, and it's
back was studded
with precious Hapsburg jewels. The
money lenders got them, after the
emperor's death.
She was supposed to know more
of the secrets of the realm than any
other person. She guarded them
carefully, but did reluctantly reveal
a few details of the Mayerling trag-
edy of 1885,.
She said Archduke Rudolf
shot himself, after killing Bar
Oness Vetsera. That's the ver-
sion of the film now running. 1t
would make a good story if
somebody could take Frau
Schratt to see 'sMayerling'' and
have her write critical review.
MARX ETHRIDGE becomes
AvA "czar" of the radio industry.
It is hard to think of Mr.. Ethridge
as car, or even a third assistant
Simon Legree, but he clicks neatly
as an able, def, diligent and re-
sourceful executive.
While Mr.. Ethridge is only forty
four years old, he is of the type Of
old-line, leg-man
Radio Car newspaper man,
Began Career with an Unsuitable
as a Leg Man appetite for news.
A native of Meri-
dian, Miss, with soft southern
speech and instructive courtesy, he
ought to be an excellent trouble
shooter for the radio, rather than
car. He was a reporter on the
Meridian Dispatch, studied at the
University of Mississippi and
romped on up through grades to the
managing editorship of the Macon
(Ga.) Telegraph. He was with the
New York Sun in 1925 and his old
friends there have been nominating
him vUday for loud cheer in this
corngf.
lie was lured back to Macon,
went thence to the Richmond
(Va.) Times, of which he was
publisher, and later became gen.
eral manager of the Louisville
COurier-J0urnal and Louisville
Times. He spent the year 1888
in central Europe, ON an Ober-
lander Trust fellowship, study
ing politics and economics and
the only touch of anti-climax
in his career-the Versailles
treaty.
The radio has picked man who
knows the social and educational
box-score as well as good enter
tainment. He is still general man
ager of the Courier-J ournal, up and
coming in the new enlightened lead
ership of the South. His "czar" Job
is unsalaried.
g Consolidated News Features.
WNU Service.
Talks Too Fast
A certain doctor had the habit of