Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1858-05-07
Autobiography of Lola n1ontez.

autobiography on last Monday evening.
to'an audience which nearly filed Hope
Chapel. Broadway, New York. We copy |
from the Herald
Several journals had, she said, called
for % lecture on Lola Montes. II might
be supposed that she was well enough
acquainted with that parsonage to under.
take the task. twas not pleasant to hold
up TO the world mirror OF ones self,
and though newspapers had sometimes
styled her imprudent, yet 1t was with
more than diffidence she undertook the
subject. As Bufns says. eva were girls
together-l applause land have been
30 closely connected with that landy is
very much like speaking of thyself." A
woman, like man, dislikes to hold the
mirror up to nature, and few can sum
mon TIE courage to stand face to face
with themselves. IT'S only those women
who have met the difficulties and braved
the dangers that are common to the lot
Of men. that dare do it. Those pieces of
Of human waxwork. to whom life means
eating. drinking, the Opera. and sleep
ing, know none Of the rules which apply
TO others whose stormy nature forces
them into the battle of every day life. A
drawing room firt knew little Of the tidal
current with which other women have to
contend. Alas for the woman forced out
into the currents of active life Some
who had the strength to get there were
powerless to stand the tide. Their great
misfortune was too much energy for wo-
mans present sphere. and too little for
her proper one. A gifted man well said.
SEA woman. with wis and beauty, needed
the quilts of the porcupine for self pres
ervation."
Daniel O'Connell claimed to have been
the best abused man in the world. She
would not say Lola Montez was the best
abused woman, but surely she had been
abused enough. She had the honor Of
being the subject of more newspaper par
agrsphs than any living woman. She was
the heorine of twenty>three biographies.
Seven cities claimed Homer seven times
seven disputed for the birthplace of Lola
Montez, if her biographies are to be be-
lieved. Lola was myth-Spain. Ger
many, Cuba. Italy. India and Turkey
were each her birthplace. Lord Byron,
King Louisa Bavaria, and others numer-
Gus as the signs of the Zodiac, were. in
turn. her father, and wretched fugitive
from the gallows will have it that she is
the issue of a washerwoman named Mol
ly Watson, Betsy Watson, or Betsy Reat
gan. If 1 were Lola Montez. continued
tho lecturer, / should doubt if I were
born at all. But if all that has been writ
ten of her be true, she has been born
again many times. Minerva spraug from
the brain of Jupiter, but Lola has been
born of the brain of each one of her biz
ographers. Lola Montez was, in truth,
born in Limerick. in 1924. Her father
was the son of Sir E. Gilbert. an English
man, land her mother one of the Olevers
of Castle Oliver, Ireland, who were con-
nections of the Spanish Montalgos that
lost extensive fortunes in the French and
Don Carlos wars. The Montalgos are Of
English, Irish aud Moorish blood-a
somewhat combsutible mixture. Her fa>
ther was made an ensign at seventeen by
the Duke of York, captain and married
TO q girl of fifteen ere he was twenty.
The second year of this union Lola Mon
teL was born. She was baptised Maria
Daloyez Eliza Rosanna Gilbert. Her
father was ordered to the East Indies
soon after her birth, and there died Of
the cholera, leaving her mother widow
at eighteen, and the young Lola to the
care of Maj. Patrick Cragie.
The difficulties of the young widow
were numerous. Suitors surrounded her
ON every side. till the air, said the lee
sturer, trembled of their emotion for miles
around. She gave her hand to Maj.
sCraige, then Assistant Adiutant General
OF the British army in Calcutta. Young
Lola was sent to the care of the Cragies,
NJ Al ia
tie Indian girl. who spoke but little pa.
tots of Spanish and Hindostanee, was first
made lion. and made the foundation oil
her pranks. Thence she removed to the
care Of Sir Jasper Nichols. who spent
most of his time in Paris; while il
a French convent with the daughter
Of Sir Jasper with her she crossed
the channel and finished" her edu>
cation at boarding school in Bath
There Lola's mother came to see her
Heaps of dresses were prepared and
hosts Of ornaments and when Lola,
then but fifteen. enquired, "what for 90
she was told sit was none of her bust
ness" Through the Intervention oil
Captain James-young and handsome
she learned that her mother had pledged
her hand to q wealthy old East India
Judge. named Lumley, whose attractions
were metallic and coined into rupees.
This. says the lecturer, was the first
spark to the magazine. An explosion fol.
lowed, and the upshot was that Lola
eloped with Captain James to Ireland.
There no clergyman would marry a girl
of fourteen without her mothers consent
With much reluctance consent was al
last given. and Miss Gilbert became Mrs
James. The Captain proved but the
outside shell of of a husband. and Inlu