Excerpt from War Diary of an American Woman: To the Proclamation of the Holy War, 1914 Geneva, Switzerland, June 28th, 1914. The dreaming, drifting summer days, by the blue waters of Lake Leman, are rudely shaken by the ominous report that comes thundering over the Alps of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Throne of the Dual Monarchy, in the Bosnian City of Sarajevo. All the world stands aghast at the accomplished deed of a Servian serf, a deed that adds one more drama of sorrow to the grief-bowed Monarch of the Austrian realm and stabs the twain country a heart thrust, that is soon to sound the trumpet call of war over the length and breadth of Europe. Unto the royal dead, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his Consort, the Duchess of Hohenberg, all honor is given midst traces and trappings of wo and the entire world renders sympathy to the aged Emperor's court and country while farseeing seers, gazing at War clouds, watch and wait the effect and verdict of a nation's grief and grievance. To those not in the scheme of things, only silence seems to follow, the dead-death silence, the re-action, the torpor, the dazedness of tragedy hangs heavy over the Empire of Emperor Joseph. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.