Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-12-10
eureka Dailp 5eutiuel.
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 10. 1884.
THE CoLoNNA FAMILY.

topic for the newspapers oil America and
Europe until the event has taken place.
Soon after this the affair will lose in
terest for all but the kinsfolk of the con-
tracing parties. 1t is often asked by
the snarIer why the newspapers gossip SO
much about such things? The reason is
the public demands it. The most uc-
cessful journal (of the class advertising
mediums''), is the n that is read by the
greatest number Of persons. The very
cynic who damns a newspaper for harp
ing on some particular theme that is dis
tasteful to him, which he nevertheless
reads and discusses thoroughly, bears
testimony to the business value and popu.
larity of the newspaper he criticises. Ii
the people want sensations, and any
newspaper fails to give it to them,
it goes to the wall, that's all there
is about it. The marriage Of Miss Eva
and Prince Colonna is merely a sensation
of the milder sort. 1t is not a strange,
but is is a remarkable, society event. A
nobleman WEEDS a plebeian girl. The lat
ter has millions Of money, and the for
mer q name. Each has what the other
has not and Graves. A swap-blood for
fortune and fortune for blood. Not that
Miss Mackay's blood is not as healthy
and as rich (what is rich blood?) as
Colonna's, but that society, being artifi-
cial. does not think 80. The fashionable
world believes that the Prince had to
do violence to himself and family in order
to marry a woman from those whom he
doubtless has referred to a thousand
times, in the words Of Horace, as MIsER-
ABLE vULGUs; but this same fashionable
world appreciates the power Of ready
money and plenty of it, and, for this
reason, is less shocked by Colonna's sacri-
fee. There are a plenty others who re-
gard 81, 900. 900 as more valuable to any
good young girl than any princely name
to be bought with it. Some readers Of
classic poetry take no interest in the
genealogical history Of Homer's heroes,
and actually never turn over the leaves
of that book Of the Iliad which gives the
chronicle in detaill Yet no student of
Greek chivalry who had any family his
tory of his own, even if it went back
three generations only, ever did such
skipping unless he was q blockhead.
How men with the genealogical tree, real
or imagined, do make soup out Of that
skeleton! To such as these we commend
the following article from the San Fran
cisco Chronicle. To the other part Of
the world it may be Of interest as show
ing how impractical Miss Eva proposes
to be, when, perhaps. she might have
caught some other fellow as good every
way, and as much to her liking, as the
prospective Prince of Galateo:
The announcement of the engagement
Of Miss Mackey to Prince Colonna is the
topic Of the day in society. 1t is, in one
point of view, a feather in the cap of
California that the daughter of a Cali
fornian should be admitted into one Of
the oldest and most famous Of the noble
houses Of Europe. The Colonnas were
princes when the ancestry Of most Of the
monarchs of the present day were no.
bodies. There was a Colonna who was
q Erhffnn Cardinal ~ the orrza1aa |
There was q Colonna who ruled Rome as
chief counselor Of the Pope at the time
when Rome ruled the world, and Kings
held the stirrups of the Popes. 1t was a
Colonna who became chief of the Guelphs, |
from whom Queen Victoria claims de-
scent, at a period when the Guelph
Ghibelline feud was hottest. There was
q Colonna who became Pope, and it is
said of his nephew that the breath was
hardly out OF his Holiness body when
the graceless scamp rihed his treasure
box, and Pope Eugene Nv had to make
war upon him to get it back. One Of
the greatest Generals that Italy ever
produced was Prosper Colonna; and one
Of the sweetest italian poets, whose
verses are still read by men Of letters,
was Vittoria Colonna. In the splendid
Colonna Palace at Rome the visitor is
taken to see a noble painting of the battle
of Lepanto, and he is told that the Sec
ond in command at that memorable
fight, which was one Of the decisive bat
ties Of the world, was Marc Antonio
Colonna. Surely this is a house one
may be proud Of marrying into.
TIE Crlannaa ~ nniu o~aak |
mobiles, they were good friends Of the
people-all but one Of them, who got
killed by Rienzi. In their castle which
was built ON the site and with the
stones which had once been q Roman
mausoleum. fugitives were always sure
of q refuge from their enemies. The
visitor to the Colonna Gardens, who
gazes into a hole at some great frag-
ments of stone, which he is told are the
ruins of the temple that Aurelian erected
to the sun 1000 years ago. can easily,
with the aid Of the early italian histori-
ans, people the scene with the furious
crowds that used to do battle in those
gardens under their feudal chiefs and
hurl the dead and the dying into that
hole.
The young man with whom this arti-