Morning journal and courier., 1886-08-03
THE LATE CORA PEARL.
Woman Whose Career Was Marked
by Extravaganza and Coarseness.

by Extravaganza and Coarseness.
Paris Letter to the London Truth
In the advanced sheets of 'fCora Pearls
Memoirs" which she sent round to the old
friends who had survived her decline, she
related how her salon came to be known as
lies Petits Tuileries." But all this was ex-
purgated in return for small sums of money
and replaced by fctional padding. Cora
was not the original ''pretty horsebreaker''
about whom the smartest writer who was
abont thirty years ago on the staff of the
Saturday Review did not then disdain to
write. Her points as an equestrian were
first noticed by the Persigny Embassy, and
when it returned to Paris she came with it.
M. Rouher was one of the very few leading
men of the empire who, when she burst
upon the French capital, did not go to her
card parties. The earliest impression she
produced on the world and his wife wasgiv-
en- in the nickname of La Lune Rousse, or
the Red Full Moon. which towards the end
of spring comedies with blighting blasts and
biighting chills. That nickname was in it.
self a photograph of the woman and her dis
position. 1t suggested her round face, car
roty hair; unamiability of temper and a
laugh which, if bereft of jollity, stretched
small eyes, high cheek bones, freckles, but
an otherwise beautiful skin and good teeth
The mouth was visibly formed to eat and
drink, to talk "slang" and swear. Like the
Empress of Austria, her English had been
learned of stablemen, and her French was of
the vilest kind that british tongue, round
which hung the accent of a Regents Park
news, could utter. It was dreadful in the
Bois to hear her cry out in her strong, hus-
ky voice, "Now then." ''AIl right" "Con-
found your eyes!" ''Wot har you up to
there!" But that sort of vulgarity did not
strike the men who then directed European
affairs SO unpleasantly as itFlid the mincing
gentility whicn is rife in minor middle class
life in England. 1t used to be said here, be-
fore equal rights were talked of in England,
that 'L'Anglaise nest pas fausse, mais ellie
est faussee." Cora was neither one nor the
other Her great characteristics were au-
dacity and the complete absence of kindly
any other gentle sentiment, unless for
lap dogs and horses. I used in my young
the Bois to study the current of grand-world
life which rolled by there in a strong and
glinting flow. Cora was one of the promi-
nent sights. More timid SHINING sisters used
to go early in the morning to take their con-
stitutional canter in the alleys reserved for
equestrians. But Cora came late and would
not stand being ignored by those who at
tended her card parties. AS they met there
Prince Napoleon, De Morny, Persigny,
Achille, Fould, Barons Heckeren, Konigs-
warter and Haussmann, the whole Italian
legation, Marshal Magnan, Khalil Bey, Jan
Yier de la Motto, the gay Prefect of the Eure
and the chief favorite of the court ladies,
all the Neys and the Comte Bacciochi, they
were careful not to offend her. felt all the
astonishment of green goose when at the
first Tuileries ball to which went [ saw in
the cercle in the throne-room all the persons
or personages who composed the cavalcade
of Cora. She had what she called an inde-
pendent English spirit and wasn't going to
knuckle under to French cats. By this she
meant that she to be treated in public as
friend no matter what foreign lady was
looking on. And so she was.
In habit Cora had a fine figure. But in
her ball-dress at the opera house she did not
evidently its moneys worth, and the corsage
was far too low and not sufficiently adhesive
to the bust, which it must be said was so
finely formed that Duval, when she was al
most elderly, had it often moulded. Her
collar bones were too strong, without, how
ever, being "salt cellars" In my Bois de
Boulogne and opera house studies of Cora l
was struck with the character of her mirth.
It was not light, bright or joyous, and can
only give an idea OF it by comparing it to
the boisterousness of an English crowd on a
bank holiday, or perhaps still more on the
road from EPSON after liquor had replaced
the exhilaration of an outing. The face had
none of that illumination which warmth of
heart and Imagination give. 1t was dismal
even when she was roaring with laughter
and cracking her strong jokes in low English
or ridiculous French. Those who fancy
that because "Bouillon" Duval spent seven
teen millions on her she must have been a
lovely creature will hardly accept nv sketch,
They must remember that not only Eros is
blind. but binding, and that most men are
fools where women are concerned.