Show EMPEROR RULER WHOSE declaration OF WA WAR 11 0 ON N SERBIA PLUNGED FOURTEEN NATIONS IN WAR ascended the throne of austria at the age of nineteen upon abilina alon of his HI uncle and had reigned sixty eight year years tonna emperor l emperor brands joeeph la Is dead the aged emperor who had reigned nearly tight years as 86 36 years ot of age and his death hj hid been expected for or some time franci joseph passed a away ay 1 tuesday morning at 9 while the crowd in front of schoenbrunn ciagle were ere talking of the triumphant entry of teutonic troops into craiovan charles harles franci francis who a succeeds to the arone has been in neleana for some time bike like wildfire the news nes spread through the capital and the bells of all the city chir cherches ches joining in a solemn chorus awakened people to the fact that the long expected bad had at last come true one thing was upon everyone a lips though few spoke it probably afe tr greatest grea blessing to his empire was the fact that this stanch stanl old monarch clung as tenaciously as he did to the thin thread that still linked him with life in a world in which he had been long oa 01 grown had his death come two yearn years ago or only one or six months it woul I 1 have spelled disaster to the internal cohesion of the hapsburg monarchy it Is sate to say and hia his people have known it out these anxious two ears that no victory on the battle front no stroke of diplomacy no catastrophe of the war could have done for the allied cause what I 1 fran ran cla cis josephs death would have done at any time but this like the death of pope plus X the end of the venerable emperor fran els cis joseph Is charged largely against the great war the one man was a helpless spectator shocked at the horror of such a sudden and wide spread clash of arms the other the ho man whose action in avenging the as sassin of his heir engulfed fourteen nations in combat with francis josephs death in the midst of this great conflict there Is a st remarkable climax to a long hit list of trA tragedies gedles in the family a list unparalleled in any other reign ing house in burcope V drope including the assassination or violent death of seven near rela relatives tivee the fortitude with which the em geror bore each blo blow and in later years withstood the inroads of III health himself was nas the wonder of tho the people fears that the shock of tho the assassination of hia his heir tho the arc duke francis ferdinand and his con cou sort while on a state visit to bosnia on june 28 29 1914 would kill the em geror were answered in character ls tic manner francis then nearing ill ahti eighty tour birthday recuperated at ischa from a catarrhal affliction which each spring had wore heavily upon him muttered mustered strength to return to vienna immediately and take a orm firm grip on the confused contused state of affairs with the royal funeral rites observed and the tile new heir the young archduke carl francis joseph lecog nihed the venerable emperor and his advisers adv adli leera sers turned to serbia with de mands which startled all europe from the ultimatum ot of july 23 denouncing noun cing the anil antl austrian pro pagan da and demanding prompt of the assassins of or Archi archduke luke ferdi ferdl nand rand according to items supposedly dictated by francis joseph himself practically date dates the war now aravag ing europe it Is ii doubtful it in all history there has been an active authenticated reign longer than that closed by the death ot of brands joseph at 19 years of age he be ascended the thee throne of austria upon abdication rf hie his ducle ferdinand 1 I icem december ber 2 1818 1848 hie his death ending an active of sixty eight years all but the first twenty of which he was a so apostolic king of Ilung hungary ary t rands joseph a reign was as eventful as it was long I 1 irom rom his im aerial vantage point he saw the french monarchy go down the sec ond empire rise and crumble the corn com mune flare briefly and the republic of today rise on its ashes be he saw the black pinions of the prussian eagle stamped on the flag of the new ger man empire later to tower threaten angly over austria itself be he saw the papacy ehorn thorn of its territorial de mesne while about a bickering fam tam lly ily of or petty principalities was wielded into united italy he saw spain once the greatest of ca colonial lonial powers loee lose the last of her tier dependencies lc in two to be he saw japan opened to west erp arn civilization and later defeat the sprawling coos colossus sus of to continents he saw the most absolute despotisms russia turkey and persia con cede representation to the people be he saw BAW at a distance the united states cement its federation with the blood of a great internecine war and he saw his own brother prove p ove that mon men archy could not take new root on american noil in his own country he faced internal dissen dissensions and external aggressions from the moment he ascended tho the throne by the war nf of 1859 alth with I 1 ranee nee and sardinia he be was forced to cede lombard lombardy to italy by force of arms and treaty be he lost the duchy of holstein It to prussia and venice to italy and by the revolt of kossuth Kos Ko guth sauth the hungarian patriot he barely es having haying bis his dual empire cut in two hut la in human interest his person il U sorrows morros overshadowed all one after another they came upon him in 1853 the list of tragic incidents began with an attempt upon his on o n life ili ii 1867 ill his brother thu tho archduke maximilian after three years experiment as cm em geror of mexico was captured by the army of the patriots and condemned to death by a court martial whose sen tence was aas exe executed buted notwithstanding intercession in his behalf by the government ern ment of the bulted states Fri angland gland and prussia there followed the burning to death of a niece in vienna a sister met a similar fate in paris and a cousin drowned himself in St harenberg lake ake yet these were mere but minor tragedies in comparison with that which befell the ancient benl house of 1 tho the Haps burgs in 1889 he rudolf the imperial prince upon whom nhom the austrian austrians pinned their hopefl met death in a mastery which to this day is not cleared |