The Shasta courier., 1870-04-02
SHASTA COURIER.
The Last Days of "a bohemian
woman.

The New York correspondent Of the
Philadelphia Telegraph writes as follows ::
The other evening | accepted an invita-
ton of a somewhat peculiar character, and
paid visit to certain feminine reputable
ty, who at one time was exceedingly well
known as Queen in Bohemia. That time
has long since passed, and the woman of
good abilities, who might..have wen fair
success upon the stage or with her pen,
now lives from hand to mouth in one
wretched room, dealing out spiteful Ian
guage in excellent language, smoking
strong cigars, drinking raw whisky, sand
wiching her sentences with highly favored
oaths, examining herself with spiritualism,
and indulging largely in "reminiscences of
PALMER days, when diamonds and laces
were plentiful and she one Of the giddiest
FloIas of the period.
The acquaintance who introduced me,
promised me that should see strange
sight, to use his own language, :" an intel
lectual woman going to the devil"
The description was very sad one. 1t
was very sad to see that woman lying there
for it was past midnight and she was in
bed-her hair streaming upon the pillow,
the rumpled frills of her night dress betray-
ing more than blonde burlesque ampli-
tude of bosom, her cheeks more hec-
tic than any rouge could make them, and
her eyes flashing like generous, dark gems
With a carelessness which she neither
apologized for nor ATTEMPTED to remedy,
the bedclothes were huddled around her
form, and as we entered she flung down a
book-it was Sweder borg's " Heaven and
Hellp-and greeted us with saucy self
possession which the airness Of her attire
rendered rather piquant Itwas like visit
ing a played-out Cora Pearl-a cocotte in
her last days when the first two syllables
are gone:out Of the bubble and-squeak Of
existence, and only the squeak remains
She had come down to the soup maigre Of
life, after having fingered long, 10th to de-
part, over the grouse and pheasant. Some
valuable diamonds she still retained and
one magnificent cluster sLe had fastened
around her neck. The furniture of the
room was extremely cheap and common
and the various articles of the toilet were
slung" around with a greater regard tc
the convenience of the moment than the
eternal fitness of things.
How she talked Itwas painfully graf
flying to hear her Her power in conver-
sation was far beyond that of any one else
in the loom, and she welded it necessarily
and with apparent relish during the hour
we remained; now giving anecdotes Of
Lola Montez and Adah Isaacs Menkin
(whose portraits decorate the walls of hel
ROOM now vehemently declaiming against
what she termed the shameless of woman
who VIGOROUSLY apes morality and scanda-
Lies, for spite's sake, profession she never
possessed the physical charms to succeed
in. Putting the very strong cigar that one
of the men in the room had offered her
bullying her guest for not having brought
her so much as mug of ale from the
restaurant below, quoting thoughtful apho
risms from Bulwer and emotional passage.
from Byron, expressing a sensuous deligh
in children, and especially in boys, swallow
ing raw liquor with no greater apparen
flush either in her face or emphasis, proud
ly tramping down her sense of degradation
and boasting that, right or wrong, sh'
meant to fight it out on that line to the las
day of her existence, defantly announcing
that it was her principle in life to do as sh
pleased without caring a - what any
body thought, the woman was spectacle
not easy to be forgotten. She was one 0
those fascinating sinners whose repentanc
angels are said to rejoice over. Win sh
ever give them a chance.