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Show Miscellany Count Berchtold . (By a Veteran Diplomat in the New York Tunes ) When m 18 0 war broke out between IVance and Germany the ent re respon s bil ty for the eonfl ct was la d at the doors not of Napoleon III, nor yet at those of the then king of Pruss a but at those of B smarck Sometimes wars are the result of irre s st ble popular sent ment as for n stance when in 1877 Czar Alexander II n sp te of h s autocracy was forced by the will of h s people to embark upon a long costly and sanglmary campa gn aga nst Turkey for wh ch neither h s go ernment nor h s army was n any way prepared Somet mes however wars are brought about by a far s ghted statesman n pursuance of a carefully elaborated pol cy n acsordance with what he believes to be the dest ny of h s country The Franco German struggle of forty four years ago was a war of th s 1 nd 1 ke those of Prus s a aga nst Austr a n 18bb and of Pruss a and Austr a aga nst Denma k n 1864 all three of wh ch were neel ed n the op n on of B smarct to es tabl sh the German emp re on ts pres ent bas b The war wh ch has now been co menced bv ustr a H nga y aga nst Ser a and wh ch b ds fa r to nvol e all the great powe of h ope as well as a n mber of k loms of p ondar n po an e f 1 K 1 o p w h h h o nt eopo F h a a who cont o s h o e n e a m u er o e e be den h o o n 15 hto d s wa and how en e ot tate att on h s a u a re u ant su reu he m ne popu a e ng now by the h h h b ast n down the be la and nd re tly to h taken not only a 1 Europe h s own countrjmen by sur bu st of publ c nd gnat on a aga nst faer a mmed ately ag ne in rde o Archduke le J nand ust fl e weeks oy be b assass ns armed pa d n t tated b personages h gh n h e at Belgrade had subs ded and oches ot a pac fic character del 1 by the peiei of Austr a and nga esj e t e had d spelled the no e he app ehens ons ot war both t n he bo aers of the dual emp re aud a so abroad Empe or W 11 am the closest ally of iustr a lu-d started on h s annual tr p to remote Scand na an wate s on board h s steam vacht Hohenzollern Czar "N holas was cru s ng w th h b onso t and h 1 ren on the Standart o t the p tu e&que oast of V- nland P es dent Po are was strain ng in a le surely fash on across the Bait c on board a i en h battlesh p from Kron stadt to pay a Ber es of. v s ts to the ourts of Stockholm Chr stian a and C openhagen a compan ed bv his pre m er M V v an K n V cto Em manuel had ret red with Queen Helen and h s da ghters to h s seas do re treat at San Eossore n northern Italy E en old Emperor Franc s Toseph had returned to h s summer res dence of Ischl and in sp te of his 84 years was descr bed by the Aus tr an papers as be ng engaged al most every day ra n or sh ne in the arduous and d fficult sport of stalking chamo s Suddenly w thout the 6l ghtest warn ng the world was startled by the news that the iustr an envoj' at Belgrade act ng under peremptory in struct ons fron Count Berchtold had presented to the Ser ian government an ult mat m couched n the most sharp and v go ous language and that he 1 a"d been ordered to demand h s passports and to leave Belgrade w th h s entire staff and the arch ves be long itr to h s n bs on unless he re ce ved an ent rely sat sfactory reply forty e ght hours later that s to say by Saturday even n" inst a week ago That the iustr an envoy left Bel grade at the appo nted t n e breaik ng off all relat ons w th the Serv an gov ernment and that a formal declarat on of war was ssued on the follow ng day not by Emperor Franc s Joseph nor yet by the prem er of Austr a or Hungary but by Count Berchtold over 1 s own name, m his capac ty as de facto chancellor of the dual em p re is already known to the Teaders of the Times Ou the news of the ult matnm be com ng known there ensued such a scurry ng on the part of old world rulers and statesmen as has not been seen n many a day Czar ka ser French pres dent Ital an king all hastened to the r respective cap tals as fast as spec al tra ns or forced draught of the steamsh ps on which they were traveling qould carry them As a general rule the great finan c al dynast es of Europe such as tho Rothschilds the Mendelsohns the Bar ngs manbge to learn beforehand of any such step as that taken by Count Berchtold Indeed their means of inf ormat on are usually super or to those of the var ous governments iust as a h ndred years ao when the Bothsch Ids n London knew of the vie tory of Waterloo nearly twenty four hours before the English cabinet re ce ved any ml mat on thereof In th s nstance that s to say m the case of the ult matum ssued by Count Berch told the great captains of mternat on ' al finance seem to have had no mkl ng . that any such step was contemplated by Austr a So little is known in this country about Count Berchtold who has iust set all Europe by the ears that it may be of interest to offer here a Ifew br ef notes concern ne h s personal ty and of that of the other men who are play ng a leading role m the present inter nat onal cr s s The character of people is often n dicated by the r hobb es and the hobby of Leopold von Berchtold is horse rac ng L ke Lo d Bosebery who won tho Derby when premier he s one of the pillars of the turf and has for vears ma nta ned a large rac mg stable an 1 stud farm of European renown at Arpadhalom one of h s places m Hungary H s colors are tfa m 1 ar on most of the cqnt nental race courses They are a rose colored ack et and wh te cap and u a copy of the Bac ng Calendar ssued by the Jockey cl b at V enna wh ch I have before me the count figi res as the second or th rd largest w nner of stakes for the year 1911 W th the except on of Lord Bose bery and also of Lord Palmerston who owed much of h s popular ty to h s well known pass on for horse rac n I cannot recall any other great statesman d r ng the last hundred vears who wh le n office ma nta ned a rac ng ab e an w kept h s o o s on the "e na d MI who va ao mean ud e o n en ente a ned a . n gn egarl tor Berchtold whom he earned to know when he o t was attached to the A st o H n a an embassy n London Indee 1 ng E Iward devel oped su h a 1 i nt tor Be ch old tl at he made a po n ot s nimon ng n m each sunnier Iron h s ca e or B hla to o n h m at Mar enbad where he round m ch peas re n h s compan o sh p Tor Berchtold s not only an exceed ngl well read man n London he spent nuch of h s t me n the 1 b ar of the Br t sh museum stud no- the b ograph es the corre spondence letters and rem n scence of Engl sh and fore gn statesmen and d plomats of the e ghteenth and earl n neteenth centur es but s 1 kew se eitremely fond of fun and when ho finds h mself a ong conen al sp ts becomes the leader of the re els to an extent that no one would bel e e who knows h m merely as a courtlj and stately m n ster and tatesman He has ndeed concealed under the most mpass e exter o and reser en manner a lo e of n err ment wh ch s character st callv V ennese and wh ch won for h n no end of pop lar tv when he was stat oned as sec etary Par s where he was known as one of the most popular members of the Un on club One of the count s pecul ar t es s h s pred lect on for tl e number twelve He does everything bv the dozen Hang ng s de by s de in an anteroom Of h s office are a dozen overcoats a dozen hats and a dozen walking st cks He mamta ns a fleet of twelve automob les and started h s rac ng stud with a dozen horses In fact he) Beems to regard the number as a sort of fetich Immensely r ch he looks every inch a thoroughbred tall si m well Bet up well groomed, w th clean cut features the chara ter st c long skull of a blue blooded race and with a pair of blue eyes somewhat cold and penetrat ng He talks Eng I sh aln ost without any trace ot foreign1 accent as does his w fe who vas brought up largely n England where her father the late Count Aloys Karoly spent so many years as em hassador to the Cou t of St James s H s family dates from the end of the fifteenth century when it rece ved first of all nob lity of the Holy Boman empire and a few 3 ears latbr a barony thereof In 16 3 the Berch tolls were Bt 11 further elevated to the rank of counts of the Holy Boman emp re and settled in Hungary where they became members of the Magyar nob 1 ty, and invested w th seats at the table of magnates (the Hungar an house of lords) n the early part of the re gn of Maria The resa Count Berchtold may be sa d to owe h s pos t on largely to the discernment of h 3 immed ate predecessor n office at the Ballplatz of the Hofburg at V enna the late Count d Aehrenthal When the latter at the nstance ot the murdered Archduke Franc s Fer dinand was called from the Austrian embassy at St Petersburg to succeed Count Golouchowski as m n ster ot fore gn affa rs at Vienna the first thing he did was to promote Leopold vera Berchtold from a me e secretary Bh p of embassy to succeed him as em bassador on the banks of the Neva Both Berchtold and h s wife the Com tesse Nand ne the short for Fer d nand ne were extremely popular at St Petersburg unt 1 the moment came for him to hand m person to iNicholas II m 1908 that autograph letter from h s own sovereign annoime ng the mcor porat on of the Ottoman provinces of Herzegov na and Bosn a into the dual empire A 1 ttle later he was comm ss oned to not fy the czar that unless he m med ately brought pressure to bear, upon eerv a fare ng her to demob 1 ze her army and to w thdraw t from the j Austr an boundary 1 ne the Austr an army would forthwith invade Buss an terr tory Th s message was backed up by an int mat on from the ka ser to Emperor N cholas nform ng h m that by v rtue of the terms of h s all ance w th Austr a the German army would have to co operate with that of Austr a n its mvas on of the Muscov te empire |