The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-13
Josie Mansfield'S Mansion.

DAYS CAo NEW 1Ork Express: "A
large brown-stone mansion on the
north side of Twenty.third street, be.
tween Eighth and Ninth avenues, for
many years was the noted residence of
Josie Mansfield. It was in this dwell.
ing that many of the prominent mem
bers OF the old Tammany and Erie rail-
way rings met and enjoyed the gor-
geous generosity of Col. Fisk and the
society of Miss Mansfield, for she
could charm when she pleased, being
well educated and thoroughly in
formed upon general topics, and her
conversational faculties perfectly Gull
tivated. She was at that time the
beautiful houri of that peculiar para
disc, and reigned supreme. Here, es-
pecially on New Years day, she held
high and festive court, surrounded by
every appointment that wealth could
contribute and taste suggest. Her
personal appearance was perfectly COR
geous, and the dimly-lighted rooms
fairly intoxicated the senses with the
perfume of the bewildering profusion
OF the choicest natural flowers that
the liberal purse of her patron had
furnished. Her court upon these &C.
casions was attended by eminent
judges, prominent lawyers and doc
tors, politicians, authors, actors,
brokers, railroad kings, sporting gen.
tlemen. otficeholders, effice.seekers,
and Bohemians, all vieing with each
other in paying homage to the power
and beauty Of this Cyprian queen for
She was like
A dream OF poetry, that may not be
The last New Years day that she
held held her court seemed to excel in
brilliancy and the distingue throng
that crowded her salons any that had
preceded it, and she fairly outshone
herself. Among the gayest of the
gay two persons in particular were
noticeable, and they each quaffed the
sparkling wine and drank to her
health and beauty, they pledged also
to each other eternal friendship.
Alas! how soon was one to realize
that ga thing of beauty is not joy
forever and the other to taste the
pangs of a bitter death =? But 50 it
proved. Toward the close of that
New Years night the two stood to-
ether and chatted merrily.
Her looks were like beams of The morning
sun,
Forth looking through the windows of the
east,
When first the fleecy cattle have begun
Upon the pearled grass to make their feast.
When the next New Years day ar
rived, what transformation scene
had taken place! One of these thref
persons were sleeping the sleep of
death away off in a narrow cell in a
country church-yard the other in
narrow cell of a walled prison, with
no sleep but the fevered sleep of an
over-excited brain, and in condition
worse than death could bring; and she
perhaps beautiful--yet now wretch
ed; and if now y sleepless outcast,
certainly with no home-a wanderer
in strange land and among strange
faces. Since then that house has
changed hands several times, and that
New Years day night was the last that
revelry held her court there. Colonel
Fisk, from the first to the last, ex-
pended ST., 900 for and upon it, and a
short time ago it was sold for $50, 900,
and is now the property of Nine.
DaVivo. It is a superb mansion and
its decrease in valuation is caused,
not by reason Of it's former associa-
lions, but by the present immense de-
DrecIatiOn in real estate