The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-07-28
The Baroness Jewel Box.
FROM THE GERMAN.

The Baroness Rukavlna Eltz was the
most splendid and dashing parsonage in
the Er valley. Her castle near Somlyo
was the finest specimen of a great resi-
dence in all that shadow of the Ermel-
lex, and she, Roumanian by birth,
and Hungarian by marriage, seemed
to unite all the brilliant characteristics
of both these picturesque races.
She was widow to begin with, and
since the animal, man, has speculated
upon the varieties of the angel, woman,
widow has been pronounced the most
amiable variety of the species. She
was very beautiful, tall, blue-eyed,
black-haired, piquant, red and white,
with the most scornful little mouth, and
the most delicate profile; her hand and
foot were models, although the latter
was frequently stamped when she was
not pleased. She was-in the third
and last place, as the preachers say
very rich, and had fallen heiress to two
collections of jewels which were almost
fabulously valuable. A brilliant crea
ture, the baroness, She owned villages
and vineyards, and made large income
every year FROM her sale of ruster, a
wine of pale golden hue, which had
as full and peculiar favor as she ha0
herself. The baroness sent her wine to
Vienna, where it was considered almost
equal to Tokay. OF course she had
suitors, the beautiful, sharp baroness
They came from Pennsylvania and Rus
sia, from Roumania and all Hungary
from Austria and from the German
principalities, and as for the unlucky
wretches about Puspoki, and the Behar
settlement, and the country gentlemen
of Erdiozegh, they knelt and worshiped
in vain as she da he'd past them on her
feet thoroughbred, for she was Diana,
as huntress, and the queen of the
amazons; also her black horse Tetenyer
was said to emit fire from his nostrils
when he stopped to breathe.
This grand lady was afraid of nobody,
loved nobody, had no friends save the
nuns at the foot of the Rez Gebirge and
one old priest who seemed to be deeply
in her confidence. Every year she made
O grand visit somewhere - Vienna,
Paris, Rome, London or st. Petersburg.
She spent money like water, made
every body talk, wonder and admire, and
her splendid jewels were the envy of all
the court ladies.
Yes she was afraid of one man, and
that was her steward, Neusiedler, he
who for years had managed her vast es-
tates, her vineyards and her wheat fields,
her fields and fisheries.
Neusiedler was q crouching, cross,
eyed, mean-looking man, married to O
bold, black-eyed, large-nosed woman,
who was twice his size, and who lived
in the village, near the castle, and who
spent her time envying and hating the
baroness. Madame Pasteur, the French
companion, and Matilde, the French
maid, who never left the baroness,
thought that Neusiedler and his wife
had the evil eye, and that they would
some day wilt the baroness. But Ruka.
vina Eltz laughed at this fear, and kept
on her course exultant. Still when the
yearly payday came round, and she had
to look over accounts with Neusiedler,
she did show what sue never had shown
befOre-fear.
Among her Jewels was a splendid
rope of pearl-colored pearls, the rarest
thing in the whole world, neither black
nor white, but pearl color. with three
great emerald pendants, each as large
as small pear. The emperor always
noticed this jewel with a smile and a
compliment when the Baroness Ruka-
vina Eltz went to court ball at Vienna.
He told her that the empress had moth
ing half as handsome, and it is to be
feared that the emperor spoke also OF
the white neck on which the necklace
rested, for Rukavina Eltz was apt to
blush and look magnifcently we'll al
such moments. Then she had great
chains of sapphires as blue as her eyes
and some big rubies which the baror
had given her tthe old baron, twice hel
age, who went down into Roumania fol
her when she was fifteen); and she had
diamonds, of course-every rich lady
has diamonds-and a grand boxful o.
engraved amethysts and antique gems
Some, that Cardinal Antonelli gave hel
IN Rome, for he, too, had admired the
wild baroness.
Indeed, if the Baroness Rukavinf
Eltz had ever written her memoirs wha
story she could have told But the
end of every woman's history is that she
finally falls in love; and such was thu
beginning of the end of the story O
Rukavina Eltz. She went to England
one summer, and there was younl
Lord Ronald Somerset, or Lord Georg,
Leveson Montague, or young Lore
Howard Plantagenet (they mix them VI
so these English words, they are no
half so individual as our Hungarian
names), who could ride better than sh