Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1899 — THE AUSTRIAN EMPRESS [ARTICLE]

THE AUSTRIAN EMPRESS

Presence of Mind of the Maid Who Dressed Her Hair. An amusing anecdote is told of the pride the Empress of Austria took in her magnificent chestnut tresses, which fell down to her ankles. She used to have her hair brushed for hours every day. Her majesty was particularly anxious that the dresser who brushed her long braids should avoid pulling out a single hair. This, of course, was an impossibility, and the unfortunate maid concealed carefully in the pocket of her apron any hair which became entangled in the brush. One day the Empress, happening to glance into the looking-glass before which she sat, caught sight of the maid concealing a small roll of hair in the above-desribed fashion. Jumping up from her rock-ing-chair, her majesty grasped her attendant’s hand, exclaiming: “I have caught you at last! You are ruining my hair!” With a presence of mind that would have done honor to an expert diplomat, the maid replied, unhesitatingly: “I implore your majesty to forgive me; it never happened before. I only wished to have some of my sovereign’s hair to put in the locket which my little girl wears around her, neck as a talisman.” , Whether the Empress believed this clever invention or not, I do not know, but, shrugging her shapely shoulders she resumed her seat, laughing heartily, and the next day she presented her maid with a locket enriched with diamonds, saying, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes: “I think this is the kind of talisman your little daughter deserves for having such a clever mother.”