Accessible to All.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XVII, 25 April 1903, Page 1166

Accessible to All.

It is no wonder the Emperor of Austria is loved by his people. Here is a pretty and democratic habit, to which Francis Joseph adheres, amid all the changes of fate and fortune: Twice a week he gives audience to any of his subjects who may wish to consult him. Their letters asking for an audience are sent in to the Emperor’s private secretary. Inquiries are made as to the truth of their contents, and, if satisfactory, tbe writer, of whatever rank he may happen to be, is granted an interview with his sovereign alone. Nothing has done more to endear the Emperor to his subjects than these informal audiences, through which countless wrongs have been quickly redressed, troubles smoothed away, assistance rendered, as well as frank, soldierly advice, and more distress relieved than the world will ever hear of. There the patriarchal system shows itself at its kindliest; there the sorrow-stricken monarch can for a while forget his griefs in the sympathy they have taught him. Perhaps, too, of all who come to him, and of all the poor whose feet he has washed each Eastertide, there is not one whom in his heart of hearts this hapless, wearied man does not enry.