Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-12-25
A FEMININE CRGSUS.
Tho Richest woman I'm the Wor' d
md IIor RRIIK Life.

tut Ooutn American commission, Mrltes
an interesting letter from Chill TO the
Chicago Inter Ocean describing the I'M
bounded wealth and splendor of Donna
Isadora Cousino, of Chill, the richest
woman in the world. She is known by
the sobriqnet of the Countess of Monte
Crlsto, and no one, not even herself,
knows the exact number of her millions.
Her ancestry goes back TO the days of
the conquest, and were then famous, as
they had fought with distinction under
the ensign of the Arragons before thealli-
ancs with CASTLE. The ancestors of her
la'e husband, too, came over early and
shared In the spoils of the conquest
Their estates on both sides, were con-
linnally increased by the addition of
those of less thrifty proprietors, until
they became the largest and most valua-
bic of all the haciendas of Chill. Both
estates were united twenty-four years
ago by the marriage of the late
Don and his surviving widow.
While he lived he was the richest man
in Chill, and she the richest women, for
their property was kept separate, both
managing their own estates. The hus-
band, at his death, wi led all his prop
erty to his wife, so that now. she has
millions of acres of land, millions of
money, hundreds of thousands of focks
and herds, coal, copper and silver mines,
! acres of real estate in the cities of Santi-
ago and Valparaiso, fleet of iron steam
ships, smelling works, railroad and
other productive property that yield her
an income of millions year. She ex-
erts all her ingenuity to spend as much
Of it as she can, and she succeeds quite
well. Her coal mines alone bring her in
the trife of $50, 900 a month. and as
they are the only source from which coal
can be obtained in South America, any
one who does not buy from the widow
may go to Great Britain for it. 1t costs
the widow but ST. 80 ton to mine and
deliver this coal, and she sells it for
$3.50 ton, just shade less than the
cost of imported British coal AS the
deposit is inexhaustible, and she has the
monopoly, and makes about 900 per cent
on every ton of it, her income from this
source alone would suffice to keep
her in pin money. She has q feet of
eight iron steamships, built in England,
to carry the coal up both SIDES OF the
South American coast. At otta she
has copper and smelling works, and her
coaling shi ps bring ore from Peru and
Ecuador on their return cargo, and flour
AMI merchandise from Buenos Ayres.
Nine. Cousino owns every house IN
the town of Lolita, and its 1000 inhabi.
tauts are dependent on her for support.
In Coronel nine-tenths of its s, 600 in
habitants are on her ay rolls. Her brick
kilns and her potteries supply all the
tiles and carthenware on the west coast.
She pays out about $500, 600 month in
WAGES in these two towns alone, most Of
which comes back t. her through her
own supply stores at a nice profit. The
WIDOW lives most of her time in Lolita to
suner!ntend her business She is now
building a million dollar mansion there,
the architects, builders, decorators and
designers, and most of the material, be-
ing imported from France. A short
time ago she shipped a cargo of hides
and wool in one of her steamers to Bor-
deauS, and it is to come back with
building supplies for this mansion. The
mansion is in the centre of the finest
private park in the world, filled with
statuary, fountains, caves, cascades and
all kinds of beautiful trees, plants and
flowers, and wild and domestiGated ami
mails. The improvement of its natural
beauty cost over $ ,000,000 She has
another park and palace at Nacul, near
San'iago-the finest plantation in South
Nmcrica. In these valleys she has
boundless fields Of grain. great orchards
AMI vineyards, and countless herds She
employs here three hundred or four
hundred men, and more than one thou
sand poems or native Indians. The vine
yard of M:cul supplies nearly all the
markets Of Chilli with c,aret and sherry
Wines and her cellar here, building SOC
feet long and 100 wide. is always full.
( Madame makes her own bottles, but i'm
rorts her labels from France. She has
the most extensive racing stable in South
] America and bets heavily on her Owr
horses. At the last meeting her winnings
were over 500, 900, outside the purse.
won by her horses, which she divide,
among her stable employees.
She has an ther large estate some thirty
miles from Santiago. She has two
houses in the city, one of them being the
former residence of Henry Meiggs, thu
California fugitive, which was the frs
ma sion in Santiago at the time it wa
built. The other is a palace of rega
splendor and was built by Partisan
architects and artists at fabulous cost
The rentals from her city real estat,
amounts to hundreds of thousands O
dollars year. She lately presented the
city of Santiago with park of 100 acre
md race-conrse adjoining it.
Nine. Cousino, while generous Il
profligacy, is remarkable business
woman, and has weekly reports from
her uperintendents- of them ar
Scotchmen- on every detail of he
affairs, One of the latter remarks that
stick or stone cannot be removed bu
she knows it. Madame is said to b.
fond OF young men, and keeps fifteen o
twenty of them always around her. Sh
gives them all the money they can spent
and in turn expects them to entertai
her. When the United States fleet wa
Mt Valparaiso not long since she invites
al the officers to spend a week with he
at Macul and sent a special train to brin
them up. Admiral Upshur aud twent
Of his officers accepted the invitation
and had high old time at the widow
expense. She would not let them spen
n dollar, and she sent word to all tn
shops in town to let them have all the
wanted and charge it to her. Every on
of distinction who roes to Chill is enter
tanned by her. Lady Brassey, in one c
her books Of travel, gives an account c
the splendor in which the sonora live
and the manner in which she entertaine
h"r
Last spring Sonora Cous'no fitted on
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