THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5861, 1 May 1897, Page 2

THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

THE HARDEST WORKING SOVEREIGN IN EUROPE. The Emperor of Austria, though an enormously powerful potentate, especially at this time, when the Turkish question is so much in men's minds, is but little known j to the outside world. He rarely leaves his ' kingdom, and his beautiful wife is of far more general interest to most people than I is Franais Josef I. And yet in two years the Emperor of Austria will celebrate his golden jubilee, and, with the exception of Queen Victoria, no living Sovereign in Europe has reigned for so long a time. The Hapsburgs are amongst the oldest and proudest Eoyal families in the world ; and Francis Josef 1 is not only Emperor of Austria ; he is King of Jerusalem, Apostolic ] King of Hungary, and Sovereign of Bohemia. He became Sovereign of the Dual Kingdom in 1848, at a time when a spirit of anarchy swept over the whole Continent, and had it not been for his extraordinary j ability and conciliatory powers there is no ! doubt that he also would have shared the fate of the then Kings of the French and of Prussia, and would have had to flee from his capital in disguise. No scandal has ever touched the Emperor of Austria's private life. He was still a young man when be fell in love with his lovely wife ; indeed, the story of their j marriage is quite a romance. His mother, the Archduchess Sophia, was exceedingly anxious that he should marry the eldest daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, and accordingly the Emperor, then a handsome young man of twenty-four, made his way to Munich, and by a mare accident came across the schoolgirl daughter of his host. i Princess Elizabeth was only fifteen, but the Emperor there and then made up his mind that it was she, and she alone, who must become Empress of Austria, and, greatly to his future father-in-law's astonishment, he formally asked for the young girl's hand. Accordingly, after an interval of two years, during which the ardent wooer loaded his youthful fiancee with splendid gifts of every description, the marriage took place on April 24, 1854, and there is no doubt that, notwithstanding the Empress's many eccentricities, Francis Josef has always remained passionately devoted to his first love. Unfortunately, the Viennese nobility did not take kindly to their Emperor's beautiful bride. On the other hand, the Empress has always been exceedingly beloved in Hungary, and before visiting Buda Pesth she took the greatest pains to acquire several of the dialects which go to compose the Magyar language. During many years the Imperial couple ied a very happy home life. They had three children — two daughters and a son, the Archduke Rudolf, to whom both his parents were exceedingly devoted. It is no secret that the marriage of the Crown Prince to Princess Stephanie of Belgium turned out to be, from every point of view, a very unhappy one. The Archduke fell violently in love with a beautiful Austrian girl of high rank, and after ascertaining that he could not legally separate himself from the Crown Princess, he and the young Baroness committed suicide. The tragic story is still vividly remembered even by those who had no kind of interest in the matter, therefore it is easy to imagine how terribly the awful event affected the Emperor, who himself insisted on breaking the news to the Archduke's mother. Perhaps it was then that the Austrian people first realised to the full their Emperor's exceptional qualities. Although stricken down with grief, he allowed nothing to interfere with the daily routine of his work, and, bearing his loss with extraordinary dignity and resignation, he immediately, and apparently without an effort, adopted as his heir his brother's eldest son, the Archduke Franz Salvator. Notwithstanding his many trials and keen private sorrows, the Emperor Francis Josef is still a splendid-looking man, and few people would credit him with being within a year or two of his seventieth birthday. He has always possessed exceptional physical vigour, and few of his subjects can rival him in endurance; indeed, he is known to tire out the mountain guides and hunters with whom he occasionally spends a few days during his rare holidays. The Emperor of Austria is a worker in the most serious sense of the term. Like most active people,, he is wretched when doing nothing, and really seems to enjoy, far more than is generally the case with sovereigns, the drudgery incumbent on his position. He rises at five every morning, and begins his day's work, summer and winter, with a "cold tub," a quarter of an hour of gymnastic exercise, and a cup of caft au lait, with two Vienna rolls. Without losing time he sets to work, and by eight o'clock he has generally read through, unassisted by any secretary, all the papers awaiting his signature, and also the mass of correspondence received by him each evening from the various Courts of Europe. He is fond of observing to those around him that he owes his splendid health, to his invariable rule of never working at night, but he does not attempt' to impose his way of life on those around him ; and his secretaries, who have for him an affection not unmixed with reverence, have always found in him the kindest of friends and mentors. Francis Josef early decided to do without any of the visible signs of royalty. Thus he goes abroad in his good city of Vienna in a quiet brougham ; and the only way in which the people know that the Emperor is passing is the fact that he has the finest horses in Austria, and that the footman pitting by the coachman wears a curious kind of head-dress, which is part of the royal livery. Excepting on State occasions, there are never any out-riders, and, above all, the police-detective element is entirely lacking. His Imperial Majesty has often said that he would rather run twenty times the risk of assassination than feel himself perpetually shadowed during his comings and goings ; and, strangely enough, fewer attempts have been made on his life than on that of almost any other Sovereign in Europe. Since his only son's tragic death, the Emperor of Austria has patiently devoted a portion of each day to initiating his heir, the Archduke Franz Salvator, into his future duties — somewhat a thankless task, as the young man shows no interest in kingly affairs, and as of^en as he can do so escapes the, to him, tedious lesson. The happiest hour in the Emperor's day is that in which he enjoys the undivided attention of his little granddaughter. He is exceedingly devoted to this child, and must often bitterly regret the fact that according to the Austrian law of succession she is debarred from ever becoming a second Maria Theresa. He himself taught the little Archduchess her letters, and almost every day he prepares for her some pleasant surprise. Small wonder, then, that the little girl is exceedingly fond of her grandfather, and she regrets as much as he does himself the fact that her mother, the widowed Crown Princess, is never so happy as when, away from Vienna, a town which is to her filled with the bitterest memories. One of the pleasantest traits in the curious character of Francis Josef is his extraordinary generosity and patience to and with his poorer subjects. Almost the whole of his private income goes, in charity, and it has become quite a custom among a certain section of the Viennese population to throw petitions into his carriage as he drives rapidly past. Like the Prince of the Arabian Nights, the Emperor of Austria is fond of making incognito excursions in the working people's quarters of his capital, and finding out for himself the real condition of those who dwell in them. Such a visit is always followed by results. Occasionally the police are ordered to see that certain unsanitary dwellings are swept off the face of the earth ; oragain,the , local clergy are surprised with a list,

emanating from the Imperial Palace, of poor families who require' assistance both spiritual and material. The Emperor never forgets that his is a dual kingdom, and ho has thoroughly won the heart of the susceptible Hungarians ; indeed, he makes no secret of it that his favourite residence is G-odollo, although of late years he has rarely found time to spend more than a very few days at a time in Hungary, and by his wish six of the twelve old beggars whose feet are washed by him each Easter are always chosen from among denizens of Hungarian villages. With, the exception of the Russian, the Austrian Court is the proudest in Europe, and both the Emperor and Empress have taken care to keep up the elaborate ceremonial belonging to their rank. This iB all the more singular when One considers how absolutely simple are their own personal tastes. Thus, though 500 people are employed in the Imperial kitchens, both the, Sovereigns make their daily meal 01 the plainest grilled meat, a mug of the celebrated PUsener beer or a glas3 of claret, an apple or a pear, and a cup of coffee. On the other hand, nothing could be more splendid than the Imperial entertainments, and on the occasion of a great dinner-party the host insists that everything shall be done on a lavish and gorgeous scale. The Empress seldom honours these banquets with her presence, and when she does so, oats nothing, but slowly sips from time to time a glass of milk. Like most great workers, the Emperor makes a point of getting a certain amount of exercise every day, generally accompanied by one of his Ministers, who one arid all accord him the title of "the most industrious man in the realm." But he does not only rely on his daily walk ; he has a gymnasium attached to his dressingroom, and spends his yearly holiday chamois hunting in the Istrian mountains. He is devoted to his surviving children, and always finds time to write his younger daughter a note every day; indeed, the' two Archduchesses, Princess Leopold of Bavaria, and the Archduchess Valerie, a charming girl, who lately married her cousin, the Archduke Franz Salvator, together with his little granddaughter, are the only bright spots in the Emperor'B austere and duty-filled life. Francis Josef possesses the Royal gift of never forgetting a face, and he has the i reputation of a quality with which princes are rarely credited— that is, being absolutely faithful to old friends. Count Taafe, so long his most faithful adviser and Minister, was one of his own early | playfellows.