Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-02-19

The Lovely Kentuckienne Who
Passes rs an Artists Model
In Paris. e.
Globe. pemocrat,s Paris Lotter.l

Globe. Democrats Paris L~otter.l
Another model, who represents the
western world, is from Kentucky. She
is Of Bourbon county, in the renowned
Bluegrass region, but removed with
her parents to Louisville when she
was sixteen. There she was married
to a young man, the son of a prominent
and prosperous merchant, and they
came abroad on a bridal tour of two
or three years in Europe. Her hus-
band had been rather fast from boy
hood, and here his fastness degener-
ated into arrant proAigacy. His coarse
immortality so alienated her affections
that she had come to the conclusion
that she could not live with him much
longer unless he should reform.
While in this quandary he relieved
her from any anxiety as to the course
she should take by running off with a
notorious l%orette, who had, for the
time, completely fascinated him. His
digh. left her unprovided for-he was
already in debt, and she knew not
where to turn for support. She could
have written to his parents or her own,
but her pride was so hurt by his deser-
ton that she scorned to receive or
ask aid from anybody. She could en-
broider very well--having acquired
that accomplishment at a convent in
Kentucky, where she had been edu-
cated-and she put her talent 10 use.
She changed her name; went into
humble lodgings in the Latin quarter,
and, by tOiling fourteen hours a day,
managed to subsist. She was twenty
two, was singularly handsome and had
a superb figure. She knew as we'll as
any one could tell her how many hun
dreds O men there were in this licen-
tious city who would buy her at her
own price. But she felt a proud sat
isfaction in the thought that she was
not for sale. After a few months she
became acquainted with a German art
student, living on the floor below her,
and he, seeing her poverty and admir-
ing her beauty, spoke Of her becom-
ingalmodel. The idea was abhorrent to
her at first; but, assured that virtuOus
girls were often models, and having
often seen and talked with those who
were models, she finally consented to.
be one herself.
In the beginning, she declined to
expose anything except her arms and
bust, and ever this overwhelmed her
with shame. But she o o found that
the painters and students regarded
her so abstractedly that she ceased to
experience any sense Of confusion be-
fore them. After awhile she was will
ing to stand for full lengths, and now
she admits that she thinks nothing of
her wholly undraped poses. She
also testi6es that the men Of the pal
cite and brush never show her the
slightest discOurtesy and that, with all
their external roughness, they are
gentlemen at heart. | have heard her
spoken of by many Of the artists, and
they all say that her reputation is
spotless. The Frenchmen are at a
loss to account for her peculiarities, as
they consider them. They cannot
comprehend how she can be poor and
young and beautiful, and yet remain
virtuOus. They have named her the
Yankee Goddess of Chastity"
"She is a most mysterious woman"
remarked a prominent artist to me
only yesterday Il am wholly at a loss
to solve her"
That" l replied, sis because she
is an American. Frenchmen under
stand only Frenchwomen."
THAT must be it, monsieur. She
is an American; that explains the in
explicable. America and Americans
are absolute riddles"