New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-08
PARIS SOCIETY.
THE COMTE DE PARIS-LADY CAITIINESS
AND THE THEOSOPHISTS

The COmte de Paris has been elected member OF
the Historical Society. His godfathers were the
Due de la rr6moIlle aud the Marquis dc Vogue,
former Ambassador TO the Court of Vienna and
author of an interesting book of travels IN the
Levant and Holy Land. The society is supposed
to be political. Nevertheless it has an OrleanISt
and clerical tingc II was founded IN 1884 ana h'd
for n long of years NJ. Guizot for lts presi-
dent. At present there are about 700 members.
The annual subscription is thirty francs. On Nay
80 it will celebrate its Jubilee. The COmte de Paris
will probably make an attempt on that occasion 10
come forward. He longs for prominence but his
naturally vacillating and timid disposition keeps
him back His wife urges him to assume the att-
tude of a Pretender She has vigorous Will but no
brains he has less intellect than the world gives
him credit for possessing and no will whatever I'M
Less to read newspapers and write dull books. HIS
head is poorly shaped and his chest weak. There
was consumption both in his fathers and MS
mothers family, two of LOuis PhlIppes brothers
and of his daughters having died OF that disease
and the late Duchesse dOrleans having been con-
stantly threatened with it. The Cont" de faris ~
Obliged to winter in the south. He vas weakly
child and was with difficulty reared on a pure milk
diet If it had been his des tiny TO succeed TO an
English throne he might have been respectable
sort of constitutional king. bishop told me last
week that he subscribes u the Sacre Ceur Church
building fund and the last time be was asked Tor
money gave 800 francs, but on the agreement that
his name was not to figure on the subscription hSts
and that 1t was not even to be mentioned Oy one
member Of the committee to another. Ferry, who
Mt least has character. is much more likely TO de-
velop into some sort of perpetual ruler than the
COmte de Paris.
Louis Phppe's grandson has not a single quality
which would captivate French electors, and the
Royalists are beginning to see that he is more in
their way than anything else, and to hope that
Providence or dynamite may remove him. nave
heard this plOus desire expressed by some leading
men Of what used TO be the fuslOnist party. de
scrbed to you his attitude toward the English
Royal family on the occasion OF the Duke OF
Albany's death. French Royalist in speaking TO
me about it said He has nethcri tact, dignity
brass nor pluck What the deuce can we do with
such a poor creature at our head ~ Personally
rather like the Comte de Paris, although cannot
help thinking him miserable igurehead for
party The family tradition that he represents Is
contemptible LOuis Philippe at best was fox. lie
was the son Of Egalite, who gave out that Marie
AntOnette was the mistress of her brother-n-law
and of the Swede Comte Fersen. and that ner
daughter was the child of the former and her son
the Due of Normandy who was imprisoned in the
for the death of Louis XVI. and boosted of being
himself the son of his mothers coachman. She was
a Messalina and had petite ndiSOn near Vincennes
where according to authentic police reports she
used TO have orgies. Her husband was a miserable
prest-ridden being. The Regent was pleasant
rou6 and so stepped in vice that he admired his own
daughters, the Duchesse de Berri and Mademoiselle
de Charoais as much and III the same way as he
admired Madame de Panabere. Read Mchelet the
elder Dumas and the memoirs of his contemporaries
about his admiration for the tN Princesses. Read
Macaulay about the vices of Philippe. Due dor
leans. father of the Regent and brother of Louis
QuatOrze. This Philippe was accused Of poisoning
his wife the beautiful Henriette Stuart. daughter
of Charles l. of England, for motives too vile to be
gone into The timidity and cOwardice of the Or
leans Princes arises from the hereditary bad con-
science of the family. They tremble at their
shadows. There is mo moral elevation in any of
them. How could there be Louis Philippe was
see Louis Blancs Historic de Dix Ans and
Cretineau Jolys Affare de ST. Leu"j the accom-
pce of Sophie Dawes in the murder of the last of the
Condos, whose fortune the Due dAumae now
joys.
Lady Cathness gave a ball on Tuesday evening,
when Mr. and Mis-. Levi Morton gave their select
party, which I find the Marquise de Gallifet
and the Duke and Duchesse Decazes at
tended. Lady Cathness is the very wealthy
widow of the scientific Scotch earl who a
few years ago visited New-York along with
his daughter, Lady Fanny Sinclair. She
used to be very like the Empress Eugene. She
lives in magnificent style for about i've weeks each
year in the FaubOurg St. German, where she has
taken a lease of the Due Of PozzO de Borgo's man
sion. which stands between a large courtyard and
park-lllle garden. The furniture was accumulated
during perhaps hundred and fifty years by her
ladyshIp's English and Spanish ancestors. Ii in
cudes quantity of paintings by contemporaries
and cOuntrymen Of HOgarth. There are some Rey-
noldses, COpeys and MOrlands in the collection,
and Velasquez. The late Due de Perslgny once
said with a sigh: The Emperor has made ME
Grand Cross Senator Ambassador. Member of the
Council of Regency and Minister. He has given
me estates and money and chateau. But there is
one thing he can't give me-a servant born IN my
family Nearly all Lady Cathness's domestics
have grown gray in her service and are children of
old retaners. They are mostly English. She has
a Cuban mulatto who was born on her fathers
property in the Antilles and Hindoo male
attendant who because a TheOSophiSt is
on a very favored footing. Every Tuesday
evening TheOsOphst meeting is held IN her house.
No member of the sect TO which she belongs was at
her ball Madame Blavatsky went to Enghien to
mediate in garden there. l am to meet her at
Lady Caithnesss next week and to hear from her
a statement of her doctrine. None of the Theoso-
phsts of her little church eat meat or drink wine.
The brethren do not go into any society in which
they might fall in with ladies wearing lOw-bodied
dresses Some of them devote themselves TO
meditation and avoid all those who
are not of their faith They believe
that they are acquiring the power to work mira
cles and becoming superior to death. Indeed, life
seems to them sort of death, and at best unless TO
those who keep their souls from impurity) an
agglomeraton of pleasing but lllusory images.
Lady Calthness is not by any means an ascetic At
home she eats no meat and drinks no wine. But
when she goes 70 dine at the house of acquaint-
anna Lila tnI,na w hat Is set hefnre her Sha alsn