The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-11-08
THE STORY OF TWO BEAUTIES,
Matte Ould and Nellie HaZeltIne-The Fa-
tally that Attends the Gift of Beauty.
From the kCir YORK UOrld,

that ATTENDS the Glft OF Beauty.
/ From the Nc1c YORK World.
A strange fatality seems always to
time of Helen of Troy down to the pres
ent hour. Cleopatra, after having tri-
umphcd over both julius Caesar and
Mark Antony, sought relief in suicide.
Everybody knows the sad story of Pet
raIch and Laura, or Abelard and IIeloise,
and of Beatrice Cenci. The truthfulness
as we'll as the pathos Of this idea is won
derfully wrought out and fixed forever
in Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet"
There seems to be a sort of penalty for
being surprisingly beautiful. Very few
women who have become famous because
Of their beauty have lived to a mature
age of reasonable contentment and hap
piness. Probably the most beautiful wo-
man known in this country during recent
years was Matte Ould, of Virginia. She
wasnot only girl of transcendent beau
ty of face, but of wondrously brilliant
intellect. Her father, Robert Ould, was
famous during the war as commissioner
for the exchange Of prisoners on the part
| of the Confederate Government. When
a young man he was district attorney Tor
the District of Columbia, and lived in
Washington. He was lawyer of much
dignity and ability, but the latter part
of his life was clouded by the defeat of
the Confederacy and the unhappy ending
of his daughter life. She was the per-
son more than any other who gave White
Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, great fame
as watering place. Sometimes fash
ion resort owes its success to the patron
age of single person. 1t was largely if
not entirely SO in this instance.
Matte Culd was the bright and smil-
ing leader of coterie of young girls that
grew up in Richmond just after the war.
| They were the last and most famous rep
resentatives Of society of Virginia and
| the South that now seems to be we'll
nigh extinct. They We're at White Sui
| phur during the summers OF 1928 and
| thereabout. No such assemblages have
| since been seen there, nor will any like
them be ever seen there or elsewhere
again. 1t was the last brilliant glow of
southern chivalry-a something that has
now passed into the realms of memory
and of worth mainly as a foundation
upon which romancers of the future may
| build. For three or four seasons White
Sulphur was the rallying place for that
limited number of Southern gentlemen
altogether swept away by the war. Most
of the men had been distinguished offic-
ers in the Confederate army, such as
| General Butler, General Gary and Gen
eral Hampton, of South Carolina; Gen
eral Joe johnson, of Virginia; General
Gordon, of Georgia; General Beauregard,
Of Louisiana, and dozens of commanders
of lesser renown. Most of them were yet
in the vigor of manhood and had about
them the fresh fame that had come from
their achievements on the battle field.
L
away. Many of the opinions and preju-
dices held before the war were still en-.
tertained; the heroism of Jackson, Lee
and hundreds of others was a theme of
exhaustless congratulations; battles were
fought anew and victories were won
afresh. In this charmed circle, almost
closed to people of the North, Matte
Ould was the acknowledged queen. She
was the belle of every great ball given at
White Sulphur for two or three seasons.
And she justly earned the distinction
given her. OF all the brilliantly beauti-
full women of the sunny South none have
been her equal. Her company was sought
by every distinguished soldier and states
man. Her presence was like magic
charm to every assemblage.
In voice, look, gesture, movement, ev-
erything, she was superlatively attrac-
tive. She was the realization to every
man of all that he had ever in the wild
est stretches of his imagination pictured
beautiful woman to be. Hair that fell
about her head and face and neck and
shoulders like a golden cloud; eyes that
were great and luminous and appealing,
that subdued every beholder; such eyes
under such wealth of hair; such cheeks
of rose tint, full and round; a neck OF
perfect p0ise, graceful as the swans and
white and soft as the swan s-down; a
bosom that rose and fell like the bosom
of the sea, and mouth that could but
give some sweet utterance to charm
every listener. Whether in the ball
room, at dinner, or in a simple social
gathering of a few close friends, she was
the same unspeakably delightful crea
ture, too unearthly 10 be touched by hui
man hands and too valuable a prize for
any one man, whether he be the con
queror of hundred battlefelds or states
man full of honors. All these came tc
her and bowed themselves at her feet
No woman was ever more completely the
master of men, and many a one lives to-
day to testify to the sharpness of his
grief at her refusal of his addresses. But
a shadow comes suddenly and shuts out
, forever all view of this lovely girl. The
sad story OF her departure from her pa
ternal roof, hasty marriage and untimely
death will probably never be told in fui
and probably ought not to be. Hel
own mother had died when she was a
5 child, and just as she was coming to girl
hood her father married a second time
, and between her and her stepmothel
there arose an irreconcilable feud, which
embroied even the father, and at a mo-
ment when she was piqued and humili
ated at some cruel word where there
ought to have been expressed kindliel
sentiment she left her home forever and
consented to- marriage more through a
feeling of revenge than the prompting OF
her own heart and Judgment. She made
the fatal mistake of marrying a man she
did not love, and from the day she went
5 to live under his roof her spirit was bro
ken, and she wilted away like flower
plucked by rude hands. In two years
she had died still unreconciled to hel
father, and it was not long till he had
followed her, his heart having been com.
pletely crushed by the death of his beau
tiful daughter. In this tragedy there
! |