cause the first break, the first glimpse of reasonable
peace will in turn be forced on Germany by sorely tried
Austria-Hungary, bent by war and bowed by debt, it is well to
study a little the races and assess the influences of that
unfortunate land.

My wife's sister married a Hungarian Count, a member of the
Hungarian House of Lords, and I have met many of the political
leaders and magnates of that country on my trips there.

The Germans of Austria are handsomer, more attractive but far
less efficient than their bloody brethren from the cold,
wind-swept plains of Prussia. They have acquired a slight touch
of the Oriental and something of the manana (to-morrow) of the
Spaniards, a heritage, perhaps, of the days when Spain and
Austria were so closely connected by Hapsburg rule.

In the presence of an Austrian one feels his charm instead of the
aggressive personality which is Prussian. Undoubtedly the
Prussians counted on the good nature of the southern Germans,
Hungarians, Poles and Slavs in their insidious campaign to make
these peoples, practically, if not in name, subject and tributary
to Prussian rule. The Prussian propagandist has brought them face
to face with a new Kaiserism.

Shortly after the war a great number of Austrian professors of
German blood issued a manifesto demanding closer union with
Germany--a prelude to the plots being hatched in Berlin against
Hapsburg rule.

The Court of Austria is quite different from that of Berlin; no
modern ideas during the reign of Francis Joseph disturbed his
medieval outlook.

The beautiful Empress of Austria, who was assassinated by an
anarchist in Switzerland, was probably insane. At any rate, for
many years she lived apart from the Emperor, devoted to hunting
and horses, going often as far as Ireland for her favourite sport
and seldom appearing in Vienna. Francis Joseph, however, was
consoled by an ex-actress, Frau Kathie Schratt, whom he visited
daily and who occupied a position in Vienna almost as powerful as
that of the mistresses of Louis XIV. Even in this very war when
Frau Schratt established a hospital, she was photographed in the
centre of a group of women all occupied at this hospital and all
holding the highest rank at the Austrian Court. The instant the
old Emperor died, however, her power, influence and prestige
disappeared and I imagine that her titled and high born helpers
were not long in deserting the hospital wards over which she had
presided