Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-31
POOR CARLOTTA.
Publisher and Proprietor.

The Last MOurnful Days of the Wild
Ow of MaXImtIiRn-The Romance
and the Reality OF uhe Life Of an
Insane Empress.
Rome Letter to Philadelphia Bulletin.l
A month or six weeks past there ap-
peared in several of the European jour
mails an extremely interesting account of
the poor Empress Carlotta. 1t has been
reprinted, | see, in the American news
papers. | was talking of this account
lately with parsonage who knows a
great deal of European courts and the
private affairs of royalties. This per-
son said: The description given of the
present life and habits of the Empress
leads one to believe that she is no longer
insane; she may be melancholy, but she
has her reason, and is sternly refusing to
hold communication with the outside
world, in which she suffered so much
sorrow. Is not that the impression il
made upon your"
replied in the affirmative, and, apro.
pos to the Empress mode of life, | told
my visitor a strange and interesting
story | had heard that morning, of a
ladywho,bad had some fatal griefthat had
swept away from her all human hope AND
help. She was woman Of fortune, high
culture, learned, indeed; she was singu
larly alone in lite; all her near relatives
were dead. She was about thirty five
years of age. She lived in an elegantly
furnished Apartment; one of the rooms
was fine library; ali on one fiat, Ell
suite, as is common in European houses
She dismissed her servants, for thirt,
years refused to hold any intercourse
with society, and led an entirely solitar!
life.
Every morning a confidential servan
entered door that was left unlocked a
a certain hour. She vert into a bed
room and put it in order, also the dining
room, removing the dishes of the pre-
ceding day, and placed on the table tn
food for the succeeding twenty fou
hours; but she never saw her mistress
Written orders, made in the concisest
clearest form, were left from time t
time on the dining or dressing-table
Through these orders all business wa
directed, and everything was provide
that was needed by the recluse. Th
whole suite of rooms, except the dining
sleeping, and dressing rooms. RENAME
strictly closed for thirty years. Peopl
talked a great deal at first, but in tim
the lady and her solitary life we're fo
gotten. The original confidential se
want died, and another person succeede
to the post, but nothing changed tn
habits of the lady-she was never see
by any one. Thirty years went b,
Then one morning the servant foun
the bed undisturbed, the food untouchet
She forced the doors and searched for HI
mistress. She passed through lor
succession of rooms. A thick bed
dust lay over every article of furnitur
silent covering over carpets and floor
But straight through the rooms was
narrow, direct path to the end room
library, a path swept clean by the lor
trailing garments of that solitary woms
: in her daily walk of thirty years.
swerved neither to the right nor to Il
: left. The servant followed the strsnl
: path to the library. There she four
her mistress seated at q reading table
. a high-backed chair. Her hands we
, folded peacefully in her lap, her het
was leaning back. The sad, worn o
: face was calm ana still. She had,
: last, gone to that other solitude, Deaf
On the table were Homer and Virg
2 They seemed to be the only books s
: had read, as the others on the shelly
we're bound with the dust of yea
{ There was not one written line or wo
b left. The solitary thirty years had endt
4 as they had been lived, in solemn silenC
The sorrowing woman at last knew t
!; Great Secret, which told her why she h
Il been called to suffer such keen mort
D anguish that it had snapped all bon
10 between her and her kind.
After l had finished this story |
friend said, with fine, sarcastic smil
Yes, this is very affecting; but we mi
: bring ourselves back to earth with ste
- realities. All such stories are fabl
and no greater fable is there than 4
one published of the poor Empress
z, Mexico. 1t is a pious fable, howev
invented by her friends to throw arou
her last days an air of decorous dign
? that does not exist Their loving CT
'' for her memory induces them to sc