網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[graphic][subsumed]

THE COURT CARRIAGES
Leaving St. Stephen's Cathedral after the special service in honor of the day.

him ceased so furiously to rage together.
Much had been lost-including Lombardy
and Venice-but much was steadily being
preserved. Hungary soon was saved to
Austria's name. He threw himself into
the business of governing as a business.
His brilliant education and intelligence, a
personality so simple and winning that it
has often been said that "no man or
woman can ever fail to love Franz Joseph
if the Emperor looks once into his eyes,"
the natural probity and dignity of his char-
acter-these traits came more and more
to the front. The sky has never cleared.
It is full of thunder and lightning.
no storm is likely to break over the white
head of the now venerable prince, who
little by little has won the boundless con-
fidence of a nation that doubts almost
everything else. What will become of
Austria-Hungary after the death of Franz
Joseph we cannot easily foresee. The

But

present fusion, almost out of hand, may become confusion. Hungary, the predominating kingdom, now only nominally dependent on Austria, may have the most important hand to play; and it may win the whole game. But there will be no war so long as the faithful, hard-working,

and nowadays old Emperor, leading the life of incessant state-toil in the Burg at Vienna or down in the villa at Ischl, is "the father of Austria," and day and night thinks of "only one thing, before God-how I can aid you, my people, and hold you indeed viribus unitis."

But, whatever the inner character or outer personality, whatever the honest struggles in his vicissitudes and noble efforts and successes as a prince, have won Franz Joseph his people's regard, it is the extraordinary group of private misfortunes that has drawn his subjects to him. Therein especially comes the human element and personal leverage. The mysterious suicide, or murder, of his only son (the very sort of prince, in many traits and in early popular acceptance, in truth "born," to succeed such a father) was a tragedy such as is rarely met in all history. We must go back to the White Ship for a like example. Aside from such a matter as Rudolph's death, the internal difficulties and disappointments of the Hapsburg family connection have been countless, all the while the Emperor was growing old. The assassination of his wife-a wife whom he always loved and

esteemed, in spite of the eccentricities of her life after sorrow for Rudolph had shattered it forever-was a climax that only a strong nature could support. Now, lately, the marriage of the heir to the throne under morganatic conditions has been a cruel disappointment, and an additional touch of incertitude to the throne. Many royal husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, furnish examples of men and women meeting the griefs that are human to all, irrespective of rank. But the sorrows of Franz Joseph as a son, husband, father, uncle, and much else, give him a most melancholy place in the group of sad-hearted royalty.

He has concentrated himself on his life-work as his great distraction. "I live in my people " is his motto, as much as the one he specially chose for his reign "Viribus Unitis"-a phrase spoken by him, let us say, not so much in irony as in hope. Hours long, day by day, he is at his desk. Nothing is neglected. Now and then even the humblest peasant can get a personal interview; an appeal, it may be, if justice has miscarried. The life of the good old man is as blameless as it is full of industry. His tastes are simple, and in food, clothing, amusements, all such matters, he is the pattern almost to an extreme, especially in extravagant and ever-running-into-debt Austrian society. He is profoundly religious. In fact, the Emperor's strong religious feeling is undoubtedly an unlucky factor in the

Clerical party-an ingredient of no beneficent kind. A thousand stories are current of his quiet, sincere charity and goodness to everybody, even to the undeserving.

"A good old man "indeed! It is love which furthers love, even if it does not beget it. The love of this prince for his subjects, united with his unwearied sense of duty to their welfare, maintains the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than anything else, in a fair show of integrity. "All my people know," runs the Emperor's letter to Dr. Koerber, after the birthday processions and illuminations and rejoicings, "that I have dedicated my whole life to them. . . . God the Almighty bless and preserve the bond which encircles my people and me!" It is no empty and policy-framed communication and prayer. There is just now an unusually bright row of strong sovereigns, who are admirable men and women, across the civilized world. Anarchy is an insult to the sentiment linking many a throne and race. Franz Joseph of Austria is a truly noble and elevating example among all his best contemporaries. Certainly it is to be hoped that even if he may not live to see his discontented subjects at one with one another-that is not likely, alas!-the bullet of an assassin will not be aimed at a heart that, as he once wrote to one of his Ministers, "would long ago have broken did I not believe in the love of God and of the people for whom he has bid me work as long as I can."

New Dead

By Charles G. D. Roberts

Where are the kind eyes gone

That watched me so? Was it but now they wept,

Or long ago?

Why did they run with tears

And yearn to me? What was it in my face

They feared to see?

Ah, World, when did I pass
Beyond your smile?
Forget you, for a long
Or little while?

Descending from the sun.
Irto this night-

Impenetrable dark

That chokes my sight

Ah, now I know why stirs
No more my breath!
My mouth is stopt with dust
My dream with death.

Where is this seed of self

I clutch to hold? Will it dissolve with me

Into the mold?

It slips. . . . Ah, let me sleep,
Worn, worn, outworn-
So to be strong, when I

Arise, new-born.

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]
[merged small][graphic]

T

THE DUKE OF THE ABRUZZI

HE Duke of the Abruzzi, returning unexpectedly after only eleven months' absence in the northern seas, surprised even the most hopeful believers in his polar expedition. His strong ship, the Stella Polare, was provisioned for three, and could even have remained away five, years. None imagined that he could so soon have accomplished the purposes of the expedition, and still less that he could have surpassed the polar record of the great Norwegian mariner Nansen. The Duke has been received in Italy with enthusiastic joy. Italians felt a natural pride that one of their race and one of their kingly house should have succeeded in such a difficult and perilous undertaking.

This young man, born at Madrid when his father, Amadeus of Savoy, was King of Spain, studied at the naval college in Leghorn. He was the first to reach the summit of Mount St. Elias on the Pacific,

and now, by this polar voyage, he has achieved a world-wide reputation. Employing his own private fortune to prepare this expensive expedition, and abandoning all the small pleasures of his age and rank, Louis of Savoy has set an example to the wealthy young men of Italy.

When, at noon of June 12, 1899, the Stella Polare set sail from Christiania, no one expected it to return this year, and Nansen believed that it would be absent at least two years. It was thought that the whaling-boats of Norway, which go far north, might perhaps bring some news of it; but on September 6, 1900, it touched the northern port of Norway, and soon told its own tale of disaster happily overcome, of hardy journeys over ice and snow on sleds drawn by dogs, of hardships from cold and hunger and the loss of several members of the ship's crew. Unlike Nansen, who expected to be carried to the Pole by the great current running from the

islands of Siberia to Greenland, the Duke of the Abruzzi planned to leave his ship in some quiet and safe harbor, and then with sleds send on to the north a series of exploring parties. The sled journey of Nansen with one companion, by which he reached latitude 86° 14', was an incident, while it was the chief idea of his young friend and admirer. The ship, at a fixed point, was to be the storehouse of provisions and the starting-point for sled journeys. These journeys were to be at first slow and short, gradually extending in time and length, finding the way and establishing depots of provisions. This was the same plan as that of Greely, who by sleds reached latitude 83° 42' in 1882. The difficulties overcome by Louis of Savoy and Captain Cagni are best understood by Nansen, who gave them both the most enthusiastic welcome on their arrival at Christiania. They reached latitude 86° 33′ in one-third of the time employed by Greely and one-half of that taken by Nansen. The sled journey made by Captain Cagni, which reached the nearest to

the Pole, was not to have been the las sent out if the entire programme had been executed.

The Stella Polare would have passed a second winter in the Bay of Teplitz had not an accident rendered it necessary to return. The ice broke around the ship and threw it with force upon the near land breaking a hole in the side a foot and a half long. For twenty-four hours the water entered and the case seemed des perate, until a new movement of the ice lifted the ship up on a strong glacier The carpenters then worked for their lives, using the woodwork of the interio of the ship. This was in September. habitation on the land was made from the ship's sails and some of the woodwork and a stove in the center reduced the temperature to seven degrees below zero, centigrade. But, without, it was fifty-two degrees below, and during the exercises with the sleds this extreme cold froze two fingers of the Duke and one of Captain Cagni, while all the men suffered more or less. One hundred and twenty dogs shut

A

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]
« 上一頁繼續 »