The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-09-08
A. HEROINE OUT OF LUCK.
Career OF N wealthy, Romantic aud
Homely Female.
New York LINES


= Career OF Wealthy, Romantic aud
Homely Female.
New York Times.
: Another warlke adventures has come
to grief. This time it is not doctor and
major Mary Walker, of American fame,
nor the American princes Salm-Salm who
befriended the Hapsburg emperor OF
Mexico. The new heroine is Mile. Mer-
, Gus, young lady of Dutch birth, who
! has been playing the mixed part of Joan
!, of Arc and Florence Nightingale in the
, Servian war. The excentric young per-
son is said to have been endowed with a
large fortune, the accumulated savings
of the thrifty Hellanders, her ancestors.
Most likely, in some Dutch boarding
school she read the life and adventures
of La Pucelle, or she may have read
Beadie's dime novels, surreptitiously con-
veyed to her under cover of her bread
and butter, or in her weekly washing /;
) such, we believe, being the custom with
all ill-regulated female students. Fired
by the example of the Maid of Orleans,
intoxicated by visions of glory which the
careers of the empress Helena and Flor
ence Nightingale brought into her imagi-
1 nation, Mile. Mercus made up her mind
to strike for liberty and career. No
sooner was she emancipated from the re-
straints of boarding-schoOl and the
thraldom of pantalettes than she started
out, as we should say in America, con
her own hook" Here, at least was.
one woman who not only had romance
and opportunities butplenty of money.
The first duty of Mile. Mercus was to
build temple at Jerusalem. This vo-
tive offering was probably intended to i'm
part sort of religious tone to her future
career, and earn for her the reverence of
the christian world. The temple, which
is still extant, is described as being
something unique in architecture. 1T
was designed and executed by some Bel
gian (but not profane) Mullett. 1t was
erected near the monument which marks
the spot where our Savior's tomb is sup
pose to have been. At an age when most
girls are flirting in the surf, or prinking
before a mirror, Mercus was up to her
eyes in mortar and masonry at Jerusa-
lem. This pious work cost her about
$75, 900, but it failed to awaken for her
that holy enthusiasm which she had ex-
pected. Not long after this the troubles
in France engaged her attention and she
threw her wOmanly influence as well as
her cash, on the side of the communists. |
She wore phrygian cap on special Occa-
sions, and was quite as ready to play |
the part of the goddess of reason as she |
had been to be offered up sacrifice to |
MosIem hate, if the Turks had regarded |
her with other feelings than thOse' of |
blank amazements. She approved, In a |
judieially bloodthirsty way, of the MUIR
der of the hostages, and thought the !
sacrifice of the archbishop of Paris very |
proper act. 1t is hardly necessary to add |
that this portion of her career has |
made enemies for her in Paris. And the |
gossips of that wicked city do not hest
tate to say that Mercus is more like Lola
Montez than the maid of Orleans, except
that Mercus does not pretend to be adam
seuse.
Various other dreams of fame absorbed
the energies and dollars of this extraordi-
nary young woman, but her taste for
glory and gunpowder usually led her to
the devious verge of battle fought wher-
ever there was a speck of war. When
the HerzegoviDians broke into hOstilities,
she emulated the example of a we'll
known American female, and aspired to
the command of a military force. She
promised to raise a battery for the insur-
gents, and intrusted twelve hundred
pounds to gentleman for the purchase
of guns. This person, with the heartless
duplicity of the sterner sex, put the
money in bis pocket, and went on pleas
ure excursion, from which he had not,
at last accounts returned. Mile. Mercus
was not discouraged, and she yet possess
ed half million dollars. The Servian
invasion promised more excitement than
the Herzegovinian affair." besides, she
had failed to get her artillery command.
She built hospital at tShabatz fOrty-four
miles west of Belgrade, and went into the
Nightingale and Geneva Cross business
with great spirit. She seems to have
combined political instruction with nurs-
ing and medical attention. While
she bound up the broken heads of
Servian soldiers, she preached republi-
canism. The variety of republicanism
which Mercus brought from the Paris
commune is not fashionable in Servia,
where the ruler, though not full-fedged
sovereign, is nevertheless prince of the
blood royal. A cable dispatch tells us
that this modern and revised edition of
Joan of Arc has been taken to Belgrade
with view to her expulsion from Ser
Wan territory. This is an ignoble ending
to such an exceedingly lively career.
Doubtless the young lady would prefer
a littly romantic martyrdom, just now, I
for the sake of keeping up appearances
TO the end. But the days OF burning at
the stake, like the days of chivalry, are !
now no more. The most that the Ser
Wan government could do for her would
be to conduct her to the frontier, or to
swear her and let her go" as we should '
have done under similar warlike circum-
stances. Unhappily, the lady, though '
rich and under thirty, is not pretty; and
as she is small and dark-faced, it is not
likely that she could coax job out of '
an American congress, or wheedle an aged I
into posing for his statue, I
if she should choose art rather than war '
as field of adventure. We may well
be sorry for Mercus. She had good in I
tentions, and if she has failed as a vol
unteer skirmisher on the battle field, she I
may console herself with the reflection {
that she is not the first who has seen men t
shut the gates of honor on wOmankind. g