Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-01

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matte and acrohatic, more difficult, perhaps,
in its tense, intcrminable poses, its prpiigious
muscular endurance and marvellous feats Of
agility; but its old poetic enchantmcmt has
changed into avoluptuous bacchanal intoxica-
ton, making il les. fine art, than "blaCk
art Since her time the dancers smile which
used to come and 60 easily and naturally,
with charming effect, has heightened and
frightened into grin, and her floating, airy
tlrapery has shortened and stiifened into a
ruff, very much misplaced On that long ago
summer morning also saw TagG6ni, as she
was standing ON her balcony looking smil-
ingly out ON the lake-a light, graceful little
figure, robcd in white, and all a-fiufter with
gay ribbons. More than a quarter Of
a century later | again saw her,
at large and merry garden party
in London-then a little thin, bent,
sad-eyed old lady, all in black, sitting
retired from the crowd with two or three
other elderly eX-artists Our hostess pointed
her out TO me, hut not till saw her rise and
come across the lawn to tale leave of that
pleasant huStcss-moving with something of a
dancers elasticity Of step and peculiar swing
OF the skirts, as though she were walking up
the staSc-nOt till | marked her matrhleSs
grace of manner and the sweetness of her
parting smile could realize that before us
was indeed that dainty and airy creature who
used to float across the scene brushing over,
hut not, they said. bending ferns and flowers
she whose very flesh seemed diaphanous,
ike her drapery, whose bones seemed filed
with air, like those of birls-she whose chaste,
Gender and exquisite acting even Chateau
BRAND ravei about-she who WAS IA
Sylphider
At Cernobbia, Caroline Of Brunswick, un-
crowned Queen of England, when Princess Of
Wales, sought such consolation as nature
could give, for her matrimonial troubles and
squabbleS. with that first gentleman and
brute of Europe, George ". In sight of
our windows is the Villa Este, now the swell
Hotel de la Refine Il Augloterre,' a sort of
monument Of that unhappy princess, as the
oldest part WAS once her palace and figures in
history aS the nursery of the shameful scan
ialS which finally resulted in the famous
trial of Queen Caroline" Here, with court,
small, but jolly, she rode, and sailed and
ytrolled and danced with a RECKLESS, restless
gayety. unconscious that the spies OF her
rOyal enemies were all about her, rs alert and
keen-eyed as the lizards, darting in and out
of the shrubhery and rockwork along her
garden paths Here she was served by the
handsome Italian courier, or valet, known
on the trial as 'non-miriconio," he not reco
lecting anything in the least eliminating to
himself or his mistress. Queen Caroline was
doubtless Il much injured and prosecuted wo-
man, but she WAS not prude or Puritan
and probably was as far from being Portia
as her husband was from being Caesar, and
only by her maternal love saved from
becOming an utterly reckless royal adven-
tureSS, sowing Europe with scandals.
Speaking Of adventupsses, | am reminded
Of the famous, or infamous Fannie Lear,
or MrS. Harriet Ely Blackfori. who lately
died in Paris, expelled for the second time
from that gay capital, as some dozen years
before she had hoen expelled from st Peters
burg, where she hnd incited an infatuated
lover, the Grand Duke Nicholas Constantine
wich, To the theft Of his mothers diamonds:
and as, a few years later, she had been ex-
PEELED from home, where it was said she had
caioled another royal or semi-rUyal lover,
Count Miraiiori, son Of the kings morganatic
wife, into raising money by clever imitation
Of the signature Of his revcrsd sire. We
were at home when the scandal broke out and
the lady was moved on in such a summary
manner that her maid was Obliged to take a
bundle Of her Iinen wet and dripping from
the tubs of the hotel laundry. So it seems
that she led one royal admirer to steal from
his mother, and the other from his father,
but what were thoss crimes 20 that OF rob
bing her own mother of all joy and peace in
hfe and dishOnOring the name of her dead
fatheri
, A short time after the expulsion from
Rome we CHANGED TO see Mrs Blarkfort in
Naples driving alone, but with a gallant
young officer riding beside her landau. She
was then slight, graceful, exceedingly
pretty woman, seeming still very young, and
with a strange look of innocence in her beau
tiful. appealing eyes, and she was dressed with
quiet elegance Nothing striking about her,
except her personality-or something move
and rarer than beauty. Blood will tell
stories sometimes This reckless, wicked,
abandoned adventures came of good old
New England Puritan stock Her father,
DIR. Ezra Styles Ely, of Philadelphia, dis
tinCuished divine, was the son of divine and
the grandson of other divines. ID. d. was
a family decoration. The Ely and Styles
boys were born into pulpitS and preSbyteries
Good old DIR. Ely was the pastor Of my father
and mother, and of the historical Trum-
bull family, in the sober, ariStocratic old
town of Lebanon, Conn. A cody, proper
and infinitely respectable couple were the
parSon and his wife tshe was a Styles, a
model pair, who lived modestly and right
eously and peacefully. But ahl if they could
have had prophetic vision of the career of
their youngest granddaughter! Since their
time we have become a great country-have
developed steam, electricity, woman's rights,
and have sent out the boldest explorers and
greatest adventuresSeS Of the world
BY the way, | came very near letting off
one of those things one would rather have
left unssid" on seeing in the evening paper
the dispatch from Paris, announcing the de
mise Of the noted dupsRturiSrd Americana.
At the head of the dinner table OF the pen
sion" in which we then were sat a fair and
elegant Polish lady, who, in her girlhood, WAS
a beauty, a toast and a prima donna ia the
Russian capital, and who, though a little
jIdSS6e, Is still very lovely, with a COM
plexion of milk and roses and glory
Il golden hair-the sort OF woman
who would impress one as having history,
which she has Though now happily married
to Russian officer and associating with titled
ladies, it is an open secret that she once sus-
tanned a morganatic, or a still less formal, re-
iation to a very high parsonage in Russia
Forgetting this Romanoff romance, l Wa
abnut calling the attention of the lady and
her husband 10 the neurological paragraph,
when friend who better knew her story
whispered that Mile Lear had actually
been the successful rival OF Mime. V; that
the princely protector and victim Of the wick
ed little Philadclphian and the mysterious
Grand Duke" whose vagrant affections ara
said TO have once twined about the tall and
slender Pole, were one and the same Nicholas
and Identical Constantinowich. II WAS lit
tie coincidence, but odd such a thing rs one
looks for only in novels After all, the world
is narrow, and about the center Of it is u
Milan Pension. GRACE GREENWOOD.