Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-12-22
A FEMININE MONTE cR1sTo
The Richest Woman in America
and Her Daily Life.
IN. Y. world.l

world. She is known by the sobri
quet Of the Countess Of Monte Crlsto
aud no one, not even herself, knows
the exact number of her millions
Her ancestry goes back TO the days ol
the conquest, and were then famous,
as they had fought with distinction
under the ensign of the Arragons be.
fore the alliance with CASTLE. The
ancestors of her late husband, too
came over early aud shared IN the
spoils Of the conquest. Their estates
on both sides, were continually in.
creased by the addition of those ol
less thrifty proprietors, until they be-
came the largest and most valuable
OF all the haciendas of Chill. Dotl
estates were united twenty-four years
ago by the marriage Of the late Don
aud his surviving widow. While he
lived he was the richest man IN Chill
aud she the richest woman, for tIeiI
property was kept separate, both man.
agingdheir own estates. The hus.
band, at ms death, willed all his prop.
erty to his wife, so that now she has
millions of acres of land, millions OI
money, hundreds of thousands oil
flocks aud herds, coal, copper and
silver mines, acres of real estate IN
the cities of Santiago aud Valparaiso,
fleet Of iron steamships, smelling
works, a railroad and other produc.
tive property that yield her an in.
come Of millions a year. She cxer.s
all her ingenuity to spend as much OF
IL as she can, and she succeeds quite
well. Her coal mines alone bring her
In the trifle of $4,000 month, aud
as they are the only source from
which coal can be obtained in South
America, anv one who does not buy
from the widow may go TO Great
Briliau orit. 1t costs the widow
but $l,35 a ton 10 mine and deliver
this coal, and she sells it for $3.50 n
ton, just shade less than the cost of
imported British coal. AS the depos-
II Is in exhaustible, and she has the
monopoly, and makes about 800 per
cent on every ton of il, her income
from this source alone would suffice
TO keep her IN pin money. She has a
lleet OF eight iron steamships, built in
England, TO carry the coal up both
sides Of the South American coasts.
At Lotts she has copper aud smelt-
ing works, and her coaling ships
bring ore FROM Peru and Ecuador on
their return cargo, and -four aud
merchandise from Buenos Ayres.
Mme. Cousino owns every house
IN the town of Lotta, aud its 1000 in-
habitants are dependent on her for
support. In Coronel nine-tenths of
its 5000 inhabitants are on her pay
rolls. Her brick kiIns and her pot
teries supply all the tiles aud earthen-
ware on the west coast. She pays
out about $4,000 month IN wages
IN the these two towns alone, most OF
which comes back to her through her
own supply stores at u nice profit.
The widow lives most of her time in
LOtta TO superintend her business
She is now buildinga milllon-dollar
mansion there, the architects, build
ers, decorators and designers, aud
most of the material, being imported
from France. A short time ago she
shipped cargo of hides aud wool in
one of her steamers TO Bordeaux, and
IL is to come back with building sup.
plies for the mansion. The mansion
Is in the centre of the fiuest private
park IN the world, filled with statu-
AIRY, fountains, caves, cascades and all
kinds of beautiful trees, plants and
flowers, and wild and domesticated
animals. The improvement of Its
natural beauty costs over 81 100000.
She has another park and palace at
Macul, near Santiago-the finest
plantation in South America. In
these valleys she has boundless fields
of grain, great orchards and vine
yards, and countless herds. She en-
ploys here three hundred or four
hundred men, and more than one
thousand poems or native Indians.
The vineyard of Macul supplies near
ly all the markets of Chill with claret
and sherry wines, and her cellar here,
a building 500 feet long and 100 wide,
is always full. Madame makes her
own bottles, but imports her labels
from France. She has the most ex-
tensive racing stable in South Amer
lea, and bets heavily on her own
horses. At the last meeting her win.
nings were over 100000, outside the
purses won by her horses which she
divides among her stable employees.
She has another large estate SOME
thirty miles from Santiago. She has
two houses in the city, one of them
being the former residence of Henry
Meiggs, the California fugitive,
which was the finest mansion in San-
tiago at the time 1t was built. The
other Is a place of real splendor and
was built by Partisan architects and
artists at a fabulous cost. The rem
tails from her city real estate amount
to hundreds of thousands of dollars
a year. She lately presented the city
of Santiago with park of 100 acres
and race-course adjoining it.
Nine. Cousino, while generous to
profligacy, Is a remarkable business
woman and has weekly reports from
her Observation-Disclosures of them
are Scotchmen-on every detail of
her affairs. One ofthe latter remarks
that stick or stone cannot be re-
moved but she knows it. Madame is
said to be fond of young men and
keeps fifteen or twenty Of them al
ways around her. She gives them
all the money the can spend and in re-
turn expects them to entertain her.
When the United States fleet was
at Valparaiso not long SINCE she in
vited all the officers to spend week
with her at Macul and sent q special
train to bring them up. Admiral
Upshur and twenty Of his officers ac-
cepted the invitation and had high
old time at the widows expense. She
would not let them spend a dollar
and she sent word to all the shops IN
town to let them have all they want
ed and charge 1t to her. Every one
of distinction who goes to Chill il
entertained by her. Lady Brassey,
in one of her books of travel, gives
an account of the splendor in which
the Sonora lives and the manner in
which she entertained her. Last
spring Sonora Cousino fitted out one