The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-11-11
xUaENIE PAST AND PRESENT.
The Remarkable Career Of the
Elk Empress Of the Fronch.
Lacy II. Hooper in the Current.

Lacy II. Hooper in the Current.
As Empress. the fair Eugene wa
chiefly remarkable tor the taste anC
splendor of her toilets. Of her Nigh
be thus paraphrssed the epigram OF
Charles II.-she never wore shabby
thing and never said wise one
Like most Spanish girls. she had re
eeiyed very limited education. She
was narrow-minded and unintellect
nal, though very sweet and winning
In her manners. The witty or ap
propriate remarks that she, as En-
press, was called upon to make in
public were all written for her be.
forehand, and she was as carefully
coached In them as ever was an
actress in the speeches of new part.
I'm fact, she had no talents except for
dress. She tried amateur acting. at
Complegne, in imitation of Marie
AntOinette at the little Trianon, and,
despite her beauty, even her fatterers
we're force j to confess that she was a
failure. She was in her element
whilst inventiDg new dresses bal u
toilets in pulled tulle with a chain of
diamonds drawn through each puff.
dresses in silk and velvet with the
lOw-necked corsages hung with dia-
nond fringes, others all In the costli-
ct lace clouds upon clouds of point
TAlencon or point a Paiguille-
mantles of genuine Eastern cashmere,
stiff with golden emdroidery-there
was no end to her magnificence and
to her caprices. She instituted the
rule that at the summer parties at
Compeigne no lady was to appear
twice in the same dress, so a forI-
nights invitation entaiIed upon the
lady accepting it the purchase of a
wardrobe of forty-two dresses at the
very least, as three changes a day
we're requisite, with an addition of
some two or three specially msgnif-
cent ball dresses for possible extra
occasion.
1t would have been well for France
had the Empress confined her atten-
ton to her gowns and her gewgaws,
and left politics alone. She tried to
reign and invented special toilet in
which to preside over cabinet meet
ings. She did more than anybody
else to bring about the war with
Prussia, her religious convictions as
Spanish Catholic having persuaded
her that war with the country of the
infdel and the hereto would be a
holy crusade, and one specially blest
by heaven. When left widow, she
tormented her sons life out with her
parsimony. her bigotry and her exac-
lions. She kept him On the smallest
possible allowance consistent with his
position las a royal prince and the
associate of the sons of Queen Vic
toris. She would not even allow him
sufficient income to keep second
horse, or to take rooms In London dur
ing the season. A French Eairdress-
er on Bond street placed a suite of
rooms over his shop at the disposal of
the young Prince Imperial, remark
ing with a smile that his princely |
guest could pay up all arrears of rent |
when he became Emperor. 1t was to
escape from home worries and home
exactions that the poor boy went of
to Zululand, there to lose his young
life beneath the spears of a handful
of savsges.
What contrast does not the EN-
press Eugene of to-day present to
the beauteous girl countess described
1t the beginning of my article. /
have seen her once within the last few
years. 1t was on the occasion of the
brief visit that she made to Paris
some months ago. A pale old lady,
with bleached hair and a crippled
gait, shrouded in Grape and cashmere,
was mounting slowly and with diff
Guilty into carriage on the Place
Vendome as l was passing by.
THAT is the Empress" said a side
walk lounger as the carriage drove
off. l, too, had recognized her.
When last l saw her Gin 1870 she
was a painted, powdered, penciled,
bewiggeG caricature of ber former
'elf, the radiant young sovereign that
had seen in 1854. Now she looks
ike the ghost of the dead empire, the
van, joyless,~ faded image of what
,nce was the most dazzling vision of
beauty and splendor and queenliness
mat the sun had ever shone upon.