SEONG Noi AINA EE fi One of the Beautiful Gem-Encrusted Gloves Treasured by Hapsburgs for Centuries. VIENNA. N emperor dead from starvation! A His widow destitute!' Her seven children objects of charity! A year ago they owned gems worth thirty million gold crowns, or $6,000,000! To-day they are victims of what investigators call "the greatest swindle of the century!" The first complete story of why Emperor Karl of Austria died from very lack of food, and how Princess Zita lost her crown jewels--a truly fabulous fortune !---is wrevealed by Swiss officials Front View of the Ancient Roman Iron Cross with Jewels in the Aus- trian Crown. {C) Keystone View Co. or Sy . (C) Keystone View Co, One. of the Last "Royal" Photos of I1l-Fated Emperor Karl, Princess Zita, and Prince Otho of Austria, and in Background the Magnificent Coronation Mantle of Jewels Worked on Purple Cloth. who have been holding a secrét inquiry at Geneva. Zita, they say, was tricked out of the treasure; her agents inveigled into accepting an "ad- vance" of $25,000 for the sale of baubles valued at more than two hundred times that much; left with no documents but debts that quickly gulped,that paltry sum; duped as surely and swiftly as any farm boy parting with his savings for a gold brick! Zita, her sons and daughters, are living in penury on the little island of Madeira The Crown of Amazing Verdict of the Secret Court That & ealed the Lost Austrian Empire Showing Some of the Priceless Jewels Dating Back to the Roman Period ww) off the Spanish coast where Karl, last of a line of Rin that ruled in Europe since the thirteenth centry, sleeps in what is practically a pauper's grave. : The world is familiar with the events leading up to the exile of Karl and Zita and the fallen emperor's. sudden and tragic death at the age of only thirty- five. What the world did not know, until the Swiss inquiry revealed it, was the juggling of millions that went on behind the scenes. On March 24, 1919, Karl and Zita a their family left his Castle of Ree the Danube whither he had retired after the proclamation of November, 1918, that created the Austria-Hungarian republic, and travelled to Switzerland. The ex-emperor laughed at the idea of want then, for he carried with him one of the most marvelous, collections of SEL jewels the world has ever kn Keystone View Oo Sought the Stolen Jewels and Rev Ex-Empress Zita and Six of Her Seven Children. SR ME Se Her Fabulous Treasur Left to Right, ex-Crown Prince Otho, Archduke Robert, Archduke Felix, Archduchess Charlotte in Princess Zita's Arms; Archduke Rudolph Austrian crowns lavished by emperors for many decades past to enrfch the house that had been giving kings to Hungary since 1282. : The jewels included four pink diamonds --and in the entire world only eight pink diamonds have ever been discovered! They included the coronation mantle of the Holy Roman German Empire, its lions -- d ms worked in gems on a background of purple cloth. There were, too, the coronation sandals of pearls sewn on purple velvet, and the iron crown with its diadem of rubies, and the iron cross set with shimmering stones. With such a stupendous treasure in their possession, Kail and Zita spared no expenses in their Swiss life. The jewels were left intact, for Karl's head seethed with a plot to regain his throne. On October 22, 1921, the conspiracy came to a swift head--and swifter disaster. Karl and Zita flew in an air- lane to Burgenland, where royalists were n revolt. Scarcely had they arrived, One of the Missing Coronation Sandals and Archduchess Adelaide. when the insurrection was crushed. The ex-emperor and his devoted wife were turned over to the Allies, placed on a British warship, and sent to Madeira. Before starting his dash for a throne, Karl intrusted the crown jewels. to his faithful major-domo, Baron Steiner, in- structing him not to part with them with- out written authorization. As soon as the failure of the plot be- came known, the creditors of Karl in Switzerland descended on the Baron like a horde of harassing wolves, Despairing of getting Karl's ear or ob- taining a written order to sell some of the jewels and thus stave off the creditors, Baron Steiner went to an aunt of the emperor. ' 'She willingly signed an au- thorization for the sale of the jewels through, a small oup of financiers, ostensibly only for urpose of paying off the most pressing obligations of Karl. In a few hours after Baron Steiner ob- tained his written permission to dispose of the jewels, there appeared in Geneva three men who described themselves as "international jewelers." They offered to find imme- Worked with Pearls on Purple Velvet. .../ purchasers for the entire collection. They agreed to ad- vance three hundred thousand francs, or about five thousand Jounds, as an evidence of good aith. And Baron Steiner, see- ing the one way out of a maze of trouble, accepted their prop- osition and handed over the gems! Karl was in complete ignor- ance of what was passing on the continent. The Allies had placed him in a handsome villa in Ma- deira for which they paid the rent. Not a penny, however, was granted for his maintenance. One of the stipulations of the ex-emperor's exile was that he Sovld fat eave the ig This n not apply to e em- press. Karl sent her to Geneva to get the jewels, sell 2 few of them and thus supply him with enough cath to meet nses. Zits arrived in the Swiss capital, she was stunned to learn that the jewels were gone. More than that, she was in- > formed that the thirty thousand francs "advance" had been swallowed up in the enormous bill of costs presented by Karl's creditors. A faithful lady-in-waiting describes the scene when the ex-emperor stood on the wharf at Funchal to welcome back his wife, fondly imagining that she brought with her the wherewithal to end their troubles. They embraced and exchanged a few words. She whispered in his ear; he started back with a look of horror on his face. The next day Karl and his family vacated the villa. Once lord of millions, the last of the Hapsburgs was literally a beggar. Through the kindness of the neighborhood priest, a cottage on the island was Placed at their disposal. In a few 'we the former emperor gged twenty years. His hair turned white. He looked fifty instead of thirty-five. On some days, but for charity, the family would have gone without a crust. The cold was great despite the supposed mild- ness of the Madeira climate. No wood or coal could be bought because of lack of money. Karl paced his garden like a caged lion. He developed a racking cough. Bronchitis, then pneumonia, at- tacked him. Weak for want of food, ex- hausted by worry, his pride cut to the quick, his heart broken, he took to a tumble-down bed in a ramshackle hovel. So died Karl Franz Joseph, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary from 1915 to 1918, last a: line that from 1282 gave kings to Hungary and Bohemia, from 1438 to 1806 rulers to Germany, from 1516 to 1700 kings to Spain, from 1804 to the proclamation of the Republic kings tor Austria--a poor, shivering, hungry pauper at the last, literally killed by the same privations suffered by the humblest subjects of his former kingdom. : At the instance of the mourning Zita, the Swiss began their inquiry. The three = "international jewelers" testified they had been deceived by intermediaries. Finally they contradigted each other, dodging the onus of the "sale," laying responsibility at each other's doors. The jewels, they declared, had passed beyond their hands. They were--who knew where? Not they. Not the court. Certainly not Princess Zita, looking out from the doo of her cottage to the gray waste of the tie.