The Lake County star., 1876-06-08
Plcture of Marie Ant0inetfe.

nj. Georges Avernel gives the follow
ing odd picture of the Austrian Queen
"Once upon time there was young
princess-beautiful as the day, accord
ing to her hatterers, red-headed as the
March moon, so said the envious-who
at the age of fifteen was married to the
heir to the throne of a friendly state.
This prince was but one year older than
she, but of very different disposition.
He was as dull and heavy as she was
gay. No one had ever heard him utter
word in public, and his only tastes
were for hunting and masonry. After
his marriage he continued to hunt the
stag, to help the masons when they
came to work on the palace, and to sit at
table without opening his mouth except
TO greedily dev0ur food. AS to the
princess, she cared for no other society
than that of a number of dirty, noisy
little dogs that tore and ssiled her
dresses. Her greatest pleasure was to
ride on donkey at the risk of being
thrown and she liked to have some one
point out to her all the odd visages at
the court, proceeding that amused her
so much that she often burst out laugh
ing in peoples faces. Her only init
mate friends were ladies that were rs
fond of talking scandal Us herself, which
is saying not little. Called by the de-
crees of Providence to govern II great
country one day, side by side with her
stupid husband, she despised her fu-
ture subjects 80 much that she ceased To
respect herself; she neglected TO put on
corsets when about to appear in public,
and she never brushed her teeth, al
though, as we nave stated, she was very
fond of laughing. Knowing well that
the slightest Of her capiices were to be
Obeyed, she refused To learn anything.
| Her ignorance was excessive. She could
scarcely form her letters and although
she had reader, she could not endure
to listen to him for more than half an
hour day, and then only by dint of
playing with her dogs or with little chill
dren who were brought to her expressly.
Neither music nor even singing had any
charms for her, because to study them
would have required some application"
The author gives a singular glimpse of
the state of the Court of France at that
epoch. He says: "Marie Antoinette
only passed from Austria to France to be
| SuuJ up Ill NeTSdllleS dS Ill ~ ClOlStcT.
She did not stir thence for long time.
There was no other universe for the
dauphiness than this Versailles, with its
dependencies, Marty, Choisy-le-Roi,
Compiegne, and FontaineDleau. where
the court went regularly every year,
passing from one chateau TO the other,
ut the same seasons, with accessories as
burdensome as those of an army on a
march. While kings like Gustavus III,
and emperors like Joseph II, wandered
over Europe or travelled through their
states to observe or to learn, the King of
France and his family remained at home
walled up in that palace life wherein en-
tered no sound from the outside world.
The court and the capital seemed the
antipodes Of each other, and 50 widely
were they separated that, ut the end OF
two years, Marie Antoinette, Dauphiness
of France, had not once visited Paris"
Taken altogether, this little brochure
shows Marie Antoinette as frivolous,
foolish, obstinate, conspiring with her
mother against her adopted country,
crying out at the news of foreign in.
vasion, 81 feel myself 10 be more OF a
German than ever" Truly, rs Roche
fort once said, "That death upon the
scailold was tremendous puff" (m Grt
recLlnc) "for Marie AntOinette."