Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-21
Gales and sketfhes.
The Empress Eugene


heauty came to charm the fashionable
| world of Paris. 1t was the season when
the Partisan bellies used to appear at balls
! and at the Opera with their tresses pow
dered with gold or with silver, the brunettes
wearing gold powder and the blondes sill
yer. On certain gala night at Les ltaliens
every onera-glass in the house was level
ed at box, wherein sat the loveliest girl
that had been seen in Paris for many a
day. Tall and slender, with an exquisite
lv formed head set upon her shoulders,
with that purity of line about the neck
and throat that is in itself one OF the rar-
est beauties. with long. aimond-shaped
blue ewes, pale, delicate complexion. the
sweetest of smiles and locks OF a golden
chestnut on which the silver powder glis-
tened like hoar-irost, she was being for
poet to dream about and for painter to
immortaliZe This was the young Eugene
de Montiio. Comtesse de Teba. In those
DAYS she had the reputation If being a
fast Young lady. a wild tiirtatious damsel,
thoroughly correct so far as her morals
were concerned, but rather given to
periIous fun and hazardous escapades.
At that time there was no one that
the mischief loving beauty delighted so
much in ridiculing. as the President OF the
Republic, Prince Louis Napoleon. His
long nose, his short legs, he comforter
that he wore on cold days when riding on
horse back in the Bots, were all food for
the mirth making propensities of the
Countess. But one evening the CAV Eu-
genie was presented to the taciturn Presi-
dent, at one of the balls OF the Elysee
The impression that she produced upon
him was immediate and powerful He soon
became her declared adorer But there
exists French anecdote respecting the
mother Of pretty little actress. who thus
questions one of her daughters adorers ::
Are your intentions marriage or other
wise?h They are otherwise" is the
gentlemen's candid reply. II is no secret
that for a long time Prince Louis Napole-
on's attentions were decidedly "other-
wise" 1t is true that the young lady and
her family were people of suspicious
ly shady WAYS of living. One meets
in Europe continually with such
groups as the old Comtesse de Mon
tito and her two fair daughters;
people that live off the fat of the
land one day, and subsist on dry bones
the next. The rooms over grocer's shop
at Versailles. that were once occupied by
the future Empress of France and her
mother and sister, are still pointed out to
those interested in the fortunes of the fam
lily. But the fair Spanish maiden was not
to be won on any terms save those of wed
lock. How can get up to you ?" cried
the new made Emperor one day. pausing
on horseback beneath the window of Mile
de MOntiio's apartment at the Palace of
COmpiegne during one of the early parties
there. You must 90 round through the
chapel sire, was the laughing reiolnder.
While the preimnaries of the marriage
were still pending some republican friend
sent to the future Empress a copy OF Vic
tor Hugo's Napoleon the Little" and
besought her to read it. She did so. and
sent back the volume with the remark,
Little or great. mean to marry him."
AS Empress, the fair Eugene was chief
ly remarkable for the taste and splendor
of her toilettes. OF her might be thus
paraphrased the epigram on Charles IL
she never wore a shabby thing and never
said a wise one Like most Spanish girls,
she had received very limited education.
She was narrow minded and unintellec-
tual though very sweet and winning in
her manners. The witty or appropriate
remarks that she, as Empress, was called
upon to make in public were all written
for her beforehand, and she was as care
fully cOcched in them as ever was an
actress in the speeches of new part. In
fact she had no talents except for dress.
She tried amateur acting at Compiegne,
in imitation of Marie Antoinette at the
Little Trianon, and despite her beauty,
even her flatterers were forced to con-
fess that she was a failure. She was in
her element whilst inventing new dresses
ball toilettes in puffed tulle with a chain
OF diamonds drawn through each puff.
dresses in silk and velvet with the low
necked corsages hung with diamond
fringes. others all in the costIiest lace
clouds upon clouds of point d'Alenson or
point a ragulle- mantles OF genuine
Eastern cashmere. stiff with golden en-
broidery-there was no end to her mag
nificence and to her caprices. She institu-
ted the rule that at the summer parties at
Compeigne no lady was to appear twice
in the same dress, so a fortnight's invita-
ton entailed upon the lady accepting it
the purchase of q wardrobe of AZ dresses
at the very least, as three changes a day
were requisite, with an addition of some
two or three specially magnificent ball
dresses for possible extra occasions.
1t would have been well for France had
the Empress confined her attention to her
gowns and her gewgaws. and left politics
alone. She tried to reign, and invented
a special toilette in which to preside over
Cabinet meetings. She did more than
anybody else to bring about the war with
Prussia. her religious convictions as a
Spanish Catholic having persuaded her
that war with the country of the infidel
and the hereto would be holy crusade
and one specially best by Heaven When
left widow she tormented her sons life out
with her psrsimony, her bigotry, and her
exactions. She kept him on the smallest
possible allowance consistent with his DO
sition as royal Prince, and the associate
of the sons of Queen Victoria She would
not even allow him a sufficient income to
keep second horse. or to take rooms
in London during the season. A French
hairdresser on Bond Street placed a suite
of rooms over bis shop at the disposal of
the young Prince Imperial. remarking
with 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 exactiops that the poor
boy went off to Zululand, there to lose his
Young life beneath the spears of handful