New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-27
LAUR3 MATILDA JENKINS.

A contemporary reprints from an English
magazine an account written by a female
snob-may we say a snobess i-of visit to
that unfortunate but peppery little lady,
Eugenia BOnaparte. The points IN which
women are better than men are many, and one
way in special they have conspicuous advantage
of u.s. 1t is rare to find female Jenkins, and
though some cases occur to us which we could
name, these are rare exceptions. AS rule, it
takes q man to be Jenkins.
But the English magazine we speak of has
lighted upon rare specimen of this dlsagreee-
able animal. She goes to sec the Empress on
the strength, apparently, of her living in
place where that lady had at one time been
in her youth. From the style in which her
account of her visit is written, we should
Judge that she may have been lady's maid
or dressmaker's assistant employed in the
family where the cx-Empress was stopping,
and that she had spent her hours off work in
reading dime novels in bed by the light of
tallow dip. AS Napoleon and his wife are
more disposed than ever, since they met their
deserts to be accessible, and there are
plenty of Americans to testify that in their
best estate they never were nice about their
company, there is no difficulty in explaining
how o person of this sort could get access to
Chiselhurst. Indeed, we dare say, if she were
honest she would confess, frankly, that she
was out of work, and called to see if she
could get place. All this is mere conjecture,
and about a very unimportant matter. Only,
as we think the woman's speech bewrayeth
her. BE that as it may, she shows her breed
ing by making the unhappy woman she had
an interview with as ridiculous as possible:
"Her eyes filed with tears, and rested on her
"shabby black Dress" forsooth! We doubt if
even the necessity that Eugenia is under, just
now, to make as strong an appeal as possible
to the sympathies of the world, would make
her willing to be represented' as shabbily
dressed. 1t is true, she has always depended
q good deal upon the power Of humbug-wit-
ness, the famous farce Of her visit to the
cholera hospital, and her stage-play when she
packed her boys trunk for the tented field
but she likes to humbug people in her
own way, and we doubt if she will
be pleased with her female Jenkins's awkward
inventions. Further on, there is a very dime
novelist account, by Jenkins, but pretending
to be by Eugenia, of the attack upon the
Tuileries and the awfully jolly sad conduct
Oh mOD Oh IudU OCCdSfOu. I1cT own
servants, who hated her and despised her,
robbed her in the most barefaced, shameless
way, and her own conscience sent her seud-
ding before the rising blast with what loose
plumber she could seize and carry off; but If
she had been as Innocent and brave as the
Princess Clotilde, she might have stepped into
her carriage with tranquil dignity and left
Paris in the cars, and not In vegetable
wagon. She is made to say that "the thief
"dogs" whatever that may mean) "of Belle
"ville wanted her blood" But they did not,
really. They only preferred her room TO her
company. The climax Of her description Of
what never happened Is worth quoting: "I
"'never left my room; lay down little on
"'my bed for rest, but did not undress; I
"'would not Be murdered In my bed IN my
Straightforward She made little motion with
cher hand as she said this" writes Jenkins,
that cannot describe. 1t told Of the deli
:" cacy Of the woman, and the lofty decorum
" Of the sovereign that carefully gathers her
"robes about her ere she dies!"
Although Jenkins cannot describe this won
derful and comprehensive gesture-did Eu-
gania learn 1t Of. Delsarte, or Of Theresa =
she describes the ex-Empresss, eyes so beauti-
fully that we believe she could have favored
us il abe had tried. "Her eyes filed with
ssa l.sa.ts 100 o. a b "a s.