Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1881 — Whims of an Empress. [ARTICLE]

Whims of an Empress.

The Empress of Austria came to Paris much disposed to receive no official visit. She is a great, a very great lady in reality, ana in her own eyes; very capricious and strongwilled in carrying out her fancies and whim-whams. In the German fashion she can leave rank aside and be very charming with people of no rank to speak of, it such is her good pleasure. Captain Middleton, who is her esquire on the hunting fields of Ireland and England, had never reason to know that she is the proudest of the proud. With the circus girl Elsie, who was last year the idol of the Parisian Gommeux, her majesty is almost motherly, and very companionable. They smoke cigarettes together and talk gayly on equestrian subjects, the only subjects which interest the Kaisserin. But Elizabeth holds in foul 'scorn nouveaux en riches and self-made great ladies. All her prejudices, and what she deems her principles, are on the side of feudalism and right-divine monarchy, which, by the way, never lived on

good terms with the barons of the feudal period. She looks (although Austrians now under a free government) upon the English constitutional monarch with pity mingled with contempt, and calls her a poor, poultry yard fowl, who has no wing power to take a high and independent flight. When the French republic was represented at Vl«-nna by parvenu Ainltassadors, the empress was scarcely civil to their excellencies on the rare occasions on which they had opportunities to approach her. • The chief of the French executive called on her majesty at the Hotel Bristol and was received by her. The crowned Clorinda was surrounded by her household. Part of her hair, whrch is still of a burnished hazel-brown shade and splendidly luxuriant, was coiled round her head, and the rest was allowed to fall down behind her. She was dressed In a plain black velvet costume, with a linen collar and an enameled brooch. Elizabeth speaks French well, but with a German accent. The Empress of Austria has little

taste for reading. When ie is at l home she is generally very tired and lolb back in a deep, soft arm chair, or lire oa a sofa puffing cigarettes. She has an albupiby her with photos of her horses,her favorite dogs,her grandchild and her children. She hates brilliant assemblies, has no wish to be popular, thinks parliaments eonrepublicans and cannot imagine how the world was ever able to get on without steam locomotion. Her traveling train is a miniature palace. Bohemian glass is much employed in lending color and brightness to the little dining room. The couch in the bedroom is suspended. A small oratory, opening ana shutting at will, like a press, testifies to the orthodoxy of her majesty, who is not, however, a devotee.