The Russellville Democrat., 1881-02-24
FROM PALACE TO HOyEL.
A Simple Death Notice Brings Out the History of a French Count.
 Nav York Star


 It was simple notice in the coroners' office of q coroner wanted" at No. l02 Wooster street, to grant burial permit for the body of Ida Marguerite d'Agremont, that brought out the story of French man, who, although a count, was com pelled to follow the humble avocation of a newspaper carrier. Mime. Agreements history was an uneventful one, save that she was the wife of a French noble whose family genealogy goes back to the time of Charlemagne, while she was simple and hard-working German woman, who washed and scrubbed for living Mrs. Agremont died on Monday night in her fifty-third year, of a pulmonary disease, aggravated by the inhalation of coal gas. The woman not having been attended by a physician for some time before her death, it was necessary for the coroner to view the remains. When Coroner Knox visited the miserable room occupied by Mime. q d'Agremont, in the hetenement-house at No. 102 Wooster street, he found in it a number of French people surrounding a poorly y-dressed man, with dlstin- guished air and soldierly bearing, whom they respectfully addressed as monsieur le count.o
 Monsieur dAgremont, as the husband of the woman preferred being addressed, but whose full title is Count August de Biragues-d' 'Agremont, is descendant of Boris D'Jserte, one of the nobles of the court of Charlemange. He is related to d'Agremont-Linden formerly minister of foreign affairs of Belgium, and to Di Birague, privy councillor to Charles Albert, the grandfather of the present king of Italy. Compte d'Agremont was born in his ancestral castle, between the villages of St. Germain des Pres and Gyles Nonaines, in the department Loi- rette, during the time of the French res toration, and is now about sixty-five years of age. The family fortune had been considerably diminished by the French revolution, when the government confiscated nearly all their property. He was educated in the Ecole Militaire. and entered the French military service where he commanded squadron in the Chasseurs D'Afrique. In 1855 during the Indian mutiny, he threw up his commis- sion and entered the service of Nina Sahib, who made him a abrigadier-general. When the mutiny was suppressed, d'Agre- mont came to this country, where he married his late wife. To obtain live lihood he sold papers to the French resi- dents of the Eighth and Fifteenth wards among whom he is familiarly known as 'LetComte." He ebecame an American citi- zen and discarded portion of his name, signing himself plain August q Agremont Among the French people with whom he came in contact, the old gentleman has always been respected. Daily he visited the office of the Courier Des Etats Unis, and, with military carriage and bundle of newspapers under his arms, he can be seen every day supplying his customers in ann about the French quarter about Greene and Houston streets. A Star re- porter called on Monsieur dAgremont at 69 West Houston street, where he is boarding, and conversed with him.
 Monsieur De Comte," the reporter said, in the course of the conversation, but the old gentleman checked him with:
 'I am an American citizen; l am not now count, although l am the head of one of the oldest of the haute noblesse of France" When he understood that he was talking to reporter, M. d'Agremont waxed indignant and said:
 ''I do not want to be dragged from the obscurity which I have sought. l wish to remain as 1 am, and do not want to figure in the papers,"
 But sM. dAgremont, you sell the papers, and unless there is something in them to interest people, you must know very well that people will not buy them"
 "Yes that is so,' philosophically said the old gentleman, and he continued dissertation on American institutions.