As if I needed a reminder after the earlier post, a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer reminded me how old -- how truly old -- I am.

A nearby costume shop is going out of business, and they're having an online sale. As it happens, I used to go there when I was a teenager. I remember the owner.

"Sorry, we're closed," said the owner, Joyce Williamson. "We're shutting down. I'm retiring. The doors are only open for prospective bidders."

Bidders like Patricia Ries, who owns O'Byrne Costumes on the 7200 block of Frankford Avenue in the city's Mayfair section. Ries was at Stern's checking out the inventory that goes on sale today - via the Internet only - through next Thursday.

All 8,000 square feet of custom-made costumes and accessories must go: latex ear tips, teeth and scars; smoking jackets and Victorian capes; robes to outfit Greeks and Romans, monks and witches, cardinals, nuns and popes.

The shop's basement storage area, which runs the full length and twice the width of the store itself, is stuffed with fur suits and enough Elvis outfits (fringed and not) to outfit a Vegas stage show. There's one entire room just for hats, and another with nothing but heads: dogs, dwarfs, bulls and bears; chickens, pandas, mice (three blind) and bunnies - 41 white, 4 pink, 8 floppy-eared.

Your typical "when I was a kid" story, right? Read on:

Rack after rack of authentic military uniforms are still here from 1900, the year that Irvin Stern, a former tailor for the Emperor Franz Joseph and the Austrian royal family, opened his Theatrical Costume House, the shop's original name.

Ian and Joyce Williamson, transplanted Britons, bought Stern's shop in the 1980s after he died at the age of 106.

The guy died in 1980 at the age of 106. That means today he'd be 132. I didn't know he'd opened the original place in 1900, nor that he'd been a tailor to the Emperor Franz Josef.

Sheesh.

Does that mean that in my flaky teenage years I actually met a guy who knew and worked for Franz Josef, Austro-Hungarian Emperor? Such a factoid does more than make me feel old; it makes me feel positively ancient. Why, Franz Josef was born in 1830 for God's sake!

Here he is, in his prime:

From the looks of the guy, I'd say he'd have been able to keep a tailor pretty busy.

Franz Josef was the uncle of Archduke Ferdinand, the man whose assassination started World War I, and the next to the last of the Hapsburg Emperors. He died at 86 in the middle of World War I, a major result of which his empire was broken up.

Austria Hungary was not perfect, but it included a lot more than what we think of as Austria and Hungary. It united (more or less) a vast swath of territory which was simply and rather thoughtlessly chopped into various pieces. The following is a list of countries today whose territory was located -- all in part -- inside Austria-Hungary by the time of the breakup:

Austria

Hungary

Czech Republic

Croatia

Slovakia

Bosnia and Hercegovina

Slovenia

Poland (voivodships of Silesia, Lesser Poland and Subcarpathia)

Ukraine (oblasts of Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Chernivtsi)

Romania (region of Transylvania and the county of Suceava)

Serbia and Montenegro (autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia and the bay of Boka Kotorska in Montenegro)

Italy (autonomous regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia)

While the latter is most often remembered for its extremely punitive terms towards Germany (resulting in the rise of Hitler and World War II), the ruination of the Austro Hungarian empire is often forgotten:

It is often forgotten, that with the energy put into the punishment of Germany, other countries fought on her side and, equally, had to be dealt with. These countries were Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Austria-Hungary had to sign two peace settlements, indicative of the fact that this state was shortly to be divided into two.

Austria signed the Treaty of Saint Germain.

Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon.

Austria and Hungary were treated as two completely new countries after these treaties were signed. Both lost land to neighbouring countries; the new state of Czechoslovakia was effectively created out of this carve up of land; large blocks of land went to Poland, Roumania and Yugoslavia. Part of Austria went to Italy.

Both new countries had to reduce their military capability and both states had to pay reparations for war damage. However, the figures involved were nowhere near as high as the figure imposed on Germany.

Bulgaria had to sign the Treaty of Neuilly. Bulgaria lost land to the new state of Yugoslavia, had to reduce her military capability and had to pay reparations.

Ugh!

This ought to be two, three, four essays. I'm being really superficial, and my bias is showing. I hope readers will forgive this bias, but I'm not feeling very charitable towards Woodrow Wilson or the French right now. The point is, my Monday morning quarterback (while nearly 90 years too late) thinks the breakup of Austria Hungary did more harm than good. While it was packaged as idealism at the time, it was more motivated by French (and Clemenceau's) fear of Germany having Austria Hungary as a powerful ally than anything else. But in the long run having a bunch of little contrived countries made it easier for Hitler to make his moves as the mood struck him. (To say nothing of Stalin and the Iron Curtain.)

I know an elderly woman whose family had lived for years in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and she maintains that it was a more stable solution than anything since. After the breakup, her family didn't know which "country" to live in, and they were forced to run back and forth between countries, none of which (because of newly emerged nationalities and religio-political associations) were now suitable for the family. Her father was killed by the Nazis, and finally she made it to the United States.

There are so many "but for" causes of World War One that it's mind boggling to contemplate. The mess could have been prevented but for this, and but for that, and "what if" alternate history scenario games can be played forever.

Obviously, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was a major precipitating event. But there was an earlier assassination which, had that been prevented, would have prevented Archduke Ferdinand from ever being targeted for assassination.... Only it's not really settled that the earlier assassination was in fact an assassination.....

This was all on my mind as I listened to the Glenn and Helen Show's latest podcast interview with James Swanson, author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. While a secondary question is whether women should stay away from actors (this has nothing to do with George Clooney, of course), what most fascinated me about the interview was the endless intrigue and conspiracy theories generated by the assassination. Unlike Ferdinand's, the assassination of Lincoln didn't trigger a war, as the country had already been exhausted by one. But who was really behind John Wilkes Booth, the endless romanticizing of him, these are perplexing questions.

Often, historical puzzles are not pieced together until everyone connected with the events is dead. That's because old emotions die, and the ability to see historical events objectively grows over time.

Reasons for coverups tend to fade.

While it's unlikely to captivate the public interest and generate conspiracy theories the same way that the Lincoln assassination did, I think history needs to take a much closer look at the "suicide" of Franz Josef's only son, Crown Prince Rudolf. I don't think it was a suicide, but an assassination. While the death occurred in 1889, the long-term fallout was World War One:

Following the death of the emperor's only son, the marriage of Franz Josef and Elisabeth collapsed completely, with the empress spending much of her time abroad, particularly in England and Ireland where she loved to hunt. The new heir presumptive to the Austrian, Bohemian and Hungarian thrones was Archduke Karl Ludwig, eldest surviving brother of the emperor. After Karl Ludwig's death, his oldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive. His assassination in 1914 led a chain of events that produced World War I.

Had Rudolf lived, it is possible that Emperor Franz Josef would have abdicated as had his uncle, passing the thrones to an emperor who was much more liberal in outlook and opposed to Austria's military alliance with Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany that played such a part in triggering the First World War.

The German note [the Papal Nuncio had expressed serious doubts about the official story], as well as the forensic evidence found in Vetsera's [the paramour's] body, are just many of the proofs challenging the official version of Rudolf and Marie's death. Many have alleged that Rudolf's body showed signs of a violent confrontation before death. Lacerations were discovered in several parts of the body. His hands showed signs of struggle, which might demonstrate that the poor Crown Prince tried desperately to fight off his would-be assassins. It also seems that the revolver used to kill both Rudolf and Vetsera was not the one owned by the Crown Prince, and that all six bullets were fired. In this case, Marie Vetsera was not the foul victim of a tragic love affair, but the unwilling witness of one of the most daring political assassinations ever achieved.

Zita alleged that Clemenceau was conspiring to overthrow Franz Joseph and place germanophobe Rudolf on the throne. This would allow Austria to break away from her allegiance to Germany and sign an alliance with France. Rudolf, Zita believed, refused to partake in the conspiracy and was killed to secure his silence.

(Wish I could have run this past the Emperor's tailor.)