Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-18


AmuslnG and singular GOSSIP AbOut Leila
Montez-Her Career IN AustrnItn-Her
Appearance Behind the Scenes, and Her
Smoking Capacity-LOla ms n Spiritual
Matchmaker Stratascm 20 Escape from
the Police-Account Of her BEING Horse
whipped By n Woman.
A correspondent Of the New York Scots
man, who appears to be well informed, fur
nishes that paper the following interesting
gossip shout the career of the late Lola
Montez in Australia:
When introduced to L~ola-quietly smok-
ing 9 Cigarette found that as long as |
behaved myself | had no reason to dread q
horseswhip. She was no fury, but q Bohe.
milan Grace, with a latent dash of the devil.
She ehatted away as if | had known her all
my LIE, invited me to a conversations at
her hotel on the following Sunday, and was
IN the middle of a story about her husband,
Dir. Head, when the manager (sundry mes.
sages having been disregarded) rushed up TO
inform her that the house had been waiting
Tor her for some minutes-a circumstance
which did not appear in the slightest degree
10 rutte her free and easy tranquility. She
played with a good deal of piqusncy, but
was evidently a novice in 'stsge business"
AS to the dancing, the least said Of that the
better. -
On the following Sunday evening a little
Hindoo boy in white robe and turban ush-
cred me into "Madame's' ~drawing-room, in
Harris Hotel, Church-hill. On an ottomsn,
IN a chintz dressing-gown, with a girdle like
q beH-rope roundh his loins, wearing, more
over, q blu tasselled red fez and yellow
morocco slippers with turned up toes, sat a
not very sapient artist, who had taken part
In the ''Ballarat Instruction" nursing one
OF his knees and smoking a huge hookab,
His wife. a once welLknown "BIoomer lee
turess, a quiet little lady, however, with
skirts of orthodox length, q French daRseuse,
q recently imported star from North and
South American theaters, large eyed and
longlimbed, Lola's 'sheep-dog"9a Southern
States lady, who loved Lola as much as she
d~etested that 'she Judas, Mrs. Beecher
StOwe-Californian and local actors and &C
~tresses, and a few of my critical confreres,
were the company. All the men were
smoking So was the hostess looking
much prettier in her black silk skirt, black
velvet jacket, lace habit. shirt and collar,
unpainted face, and school. girl cluster Of
short curls, than when bedizened for the
glare of the foot-lights.
IN the sideboard stood a tumbler of
cigarettes. Two dozen of these Lola smoked
between seven on Sunday evening and two
on Monday morning. Bringing the smoke
out Of her nostrils and her ears was a trick
that she thought nothing of. One of her
bmal feats, though not very feminine, was
very extraordinary. She took a long pull at
her tube of snowy paper, opened her mouth,
but no smoke could be seen. She then took
q draught of water, opened her mouth, and
out came q cloud of smoke. This, she
informed us, was the Spanish mode of smok-
ing tobacco, instead of putting out its fumes
before they were tasted, in the absurd English
style.
On table turning, also, and 'ispiritualism'
generally, ste talked in a comical er cathsdrd
tone-balf justified by the freaks which she
q d her American friends made the furniture
of the room perform. Taps certainly were
heard in the middle of telescope. tables in
reply to queries, and claw tables ~pirouetted
on one toe. In animal magnetism, again,
she was a professed believer, and, if the fol,
lowing story be true, she bad good reason to
be so. While living in Paris with Head.
she said, she had determined to give a grand
reception. A few hours before her guests
assembled, her husband chose TO take himself
off to London. She was much annoyed, and
consulted one of her guests, Dumas, the
elder, as TO the best method of obtaining re
venge for the slight to which she had been
subjected. He advised her to send for
Alexis, he clairvoyant, to keep him in her
house, snd from his revelations to construct
q diary and nocturnal Of the proceedings of
the truant. She followed the advice.
In process of time tie truant returned,
and, With many excuses for his unavoidable
absence on business presented her with a
hamper of peaches, grapes and pines. "Ah,
Garden, ! yesterday, your friend Charlie =,
o. the Guards, asked, For whom are you
buying these and you said, You know |
must bring a peace offering to the little
DEVIL" "How the internal regions do you
know that?" calculated Heali, conscience
stricken snd aghast "Thatr" replied Lola,
with supreme contempt for his ignorance of
the extent OF her information and then she
ICai from Der notes full, true and particular
Alexis derived account Of all her lords
golngs en- curing the ten days and nights he
lad been away. l tell the tale as it was told
10 me.
On ell kinds of topics Lola talked with
smsrtneis-of the Jesuits who, she main
tanned, were the bigoted seyerers of the
purely PlGtonic association which existed
betW cen Ludwig of Bavaria and the Count
ess OF Landsielt,) not Ouly with smartness,
but With smart Of liberty she proclaimed
herself sn arcent d%evotee, showing, with
especial pride, among the trinkets, nuggets,
&c. sue received in America, a portrait of
Washington, presented to her by the fremen
of Boston.
The Sydney ladies were very much chag-
iii edbyibolas general correctness of con-
duct. Beyond an apOcryphal story that she
had blseg eEed the eye Of one of her actors
with a Champagne bottle, thrown 1t him at
supper,tlme, and another, not much more
authentic, that she bad threatened to fling a
little Hungarian refugee Count ont of a
window, DO charge, although sundry SQUAT
tiers were mad as March hares about her,
could be brought against her during her first
stay in SyiIey.
An EscGPGde-A thoroughly Lolesque
tscapade signalized her departure from Port
Jackson. Her Californian company proying
with one or two exceptions, a set Of muffS
she dismissed them in Sydney, paving them
al their dues. They had hoped to be taken
on TO Melbourne, and, being disappointed,
determined to do all in their power to pre-
vent Lolatrom reaching Port Phillip. Ac.
c%oIdingly they trumped up claims against
her, and Just as the steamboat in which she
had taken her passage was nearing the sgd
nty Hear the boat Of the Sydney bailiff shot
alongsioe. and the Sydney bailif boarded the
packet. In vain was security offered for
Lolai The obdurate official insisted on carry
ing Der OF.
Very well, cried Lola, "wait a minutel'
enc desc bded to her cabin, undressed and
eoI INTO ter berth. Take ME now" she
ulumphastiy exclaimed to the bailif, who
was hdgeting about the door like a terrier at
q rat-hole One glance into the state room
IN ABOLITION TO the curses both loud and deep
from her r~etinue, and the threat Of the
steamer TO "eut the painter Of that there boat
II them as owns IL amt over the side in two
tWos -eonyineed the legal funetionary that
lie had better leave Lola unmolested.
Arrived on the 'Other side" Lola provided
the artists and authors of the Melbourne
1wnch rluh psoqium for cuts and paragraphs
Tor weeks and became, as she Was RI tbe
Californian a prime favorits in the Victoria
oiggings ole returned 70 the other colony,
which the highly proper portion Of ~ Nes,
South Welsh gave her did her worst 10 de-
prive herself Of the support Of those who
were willing 70 Judge her simply on her az
fistie merits. For merely limiting that Il wa