THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5308, 15 February 1879, Page 2

THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

„ (From " Celebrities at Home" in thh 7 "WORLD." A TAiiii spare man, of soldierly bearing, in „ p the light-blue uniform of an Austrian general, who doeß not look much over forty, though he is nearer fifty, with sandy , hair cropped close to the head, and turn- , ing an iron-gray, regulation military whiskers and moustache, small restless > gray eyes, and the blunt features and 7 heavy lips which distinguish the Hapsburg family. This is the man whom, thirty years ago, a bloody revolution called to the throne of Austria. . His 3 uncle, the late Emperor Ferdinand, forced to abdicate, named his nephew, then a youth of but eighteen, as his : successor. That he has so long held • in check the clashing elements and bitter jealousies of the half-dozen rfatiol nalities which compose his dominions says " much for the patience, tact, and dogged spirit.of hard work which have carried him - through the difficulties and dangers where i a man of more brilliant and impulsive • character would have failed. He is master of six European languages, and wins the ; hearts of his subjects by addressing depui tations from Hungary and Bohemia, from [ Austrian Poland and Croatia, each inf'jLY i their mother- tongue. In spite of 4 his • almost proverbial misfortune in war, he is • personally very popular all over the empire; and no one who witnesses the enthusiastic welcome he received as he drove through ' ' ' the brilliantly illuminated streets of " - Vienna on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession could doubt as to the place he holds in the hearts of his people. At Ischl the Emperor rises with the sun, and ufter a cup of coffee and a Kvpfel starts off in an old undress uniform, jacket and foraging cap, with a thick stick f<» a

companion, on a solitary hour's ramble in the woods. Towards eight the Imperial courier arrives from Vienna; and some time is spent in attending to despatches and papers of State ; for Francis Joseph holds the strings of two or three portfolios in his hands, and is anything rather thfiii a crowned puppet. Then, if the weather be fine, he breakfasts with the Empress iind his children in a pretty garden pavilion; which commands magnificent views over the valleys of the Ischl and the Traun. At four he dines, generally enfamille. Prosaic and matter-of-fact as the Emperor looks, there is a touch of romance about his marriage. The Empress Elizabeth is his Bousin; Her elder sister, now Princess of Thurn-Taxis, was destined for the Imperial throne. But the young monarch, oh going to Munich to visit his intended bride, was so struck with the beauty and charms of her young sister, that, after a ball at the ScUoss of her father, Duke Max, he presented the simple young Bavarian, princess, than a mere girl of sixteen, with a bouquet, telling her that she was thenceforth Empress of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary. Austria and its Emperor seem to have a strange attraction for ex- Royalties |]and Serenities. Perhaps it is that some mysterious instinct tells them that the last of the Hapsburgs will one day be their companion in misfortune. The scarlet livery of the English Royal Family was for many years a familiar sight in Vienna, where the last of the old Irreconcilables, the late King of Hanover, resided. On a summer's evening at Ischl you may now and then meet the Emperor sauntering by the Traun's bank, with his arm in that of a plain-looking middle-aged man, in the undress uniform of an Austrian major. This is the exr Grand-Duke ef Tuscany. Sometimes the Orown-Prince of Hanover, now our own Duke of Cumberland, a colonel of Austrian cavalry, is his companion ; or Prince Milan, the fat sovereign who sits somewhat uneasily on the throne of Servia ; while half a dozen of the once rulers of petty principalities, wiped out from the map of Europe by the mailed hand of Bismarck, form around him a little court of unfortunates. The Empresß is less seldom seen in public ; nor, in spite of her beauty, is she so popular as her husband ; she is a splendid horse-woman, and rides well to "' hounds. You may meet her occasionally on horseback on some secluded road round v Ischl, attended only by an English groom, who, by the way, has been lately discharged for unsteady legs when on duty with his Royal mistress. And now and • then you may encounter the Emperor and Empress taking a tete-a-tete ramble in the woods, without any attendant whatever but the huge mastiff. The worthy Bürgermeister of Ischl is always asked to dine once with the Imperial family on the occasion of their summer visit, just like the country parson, when his Grace goes down in to Midlandshire for the shooting. Austriansof all nationalities in the Empire have a strong heroic kind of devotion for their simple soldier-sovereign. The ill fortune in war, which seems to follow him like some evil charm, has no apparent effect in the place he holds in their affections; perhaps from a presentiment that he is the only barrier which has stemmed so long the hated tide of Prussian-Germanism, and that he is the last of the great race of Hapsburg, on whose head will be united . . the triple crown of the Empire.