Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-09-15

A Picture Of Her in All the Bloom and
Brilliancy Of Her Charms.

Picture Of Her in All the Bloom and
Brilliancv Of Her Charms.
Tie weather to-day is wet and dismal.
1t reminds me OF the first day that l ever
set eyes on Paris. 1t was in the month OF
May, 1874. This "Reminiscences, and a
perusal OF an article by my brilliant col
league Brander Matthews, which l have
Just seen. have impelled me to write some
thing about the Paris over thirty years
ago. was a young girl then, full OF
life and spirits, and enjoying to the utmost
the delights of q trip to Europe, then a lar
more uncommon thingth it isnowadays,
and especially this season, when it seems
as if the United States had tripped over
and poured its creme de la creme into
Europe. Paris was very different then,
socially and politically, from what it is
at present. The Empire a in the first
blaze OF its glory.
The Empress Eugene was then the royal
beauty par excellence of Europe. She was
not quite 80 years Of rye, and was in all
the bloom and brilliancy OF her charms.
l Jaw her first in the imperial loge at the
Coincide Franchise. She was attired in
pure white and wore a splendid necklace
of immense pearls. On the front of the
box before her was placed a great bouquet
OF roses with long stems made up with
seeming carelessness and tied with a
ribbon. She was very, very lovely, and
her grace was even more attractive than
her beauty. As l write there rises before
me a vision OF the small, gracefully-poised
head, with it's wealth of golden chestnut
hair; the long, slender throat; the slop:ng
shoulders, whittier than the glistening pearls
AIa% ol,r,ol fbop,. tho snff h1,,a avoo.
aud, above all, the indiscribable and un-
accountable melancholy OF the expression
sadness not to be chased away even by
the frequent smiles hat disclosed her
pearly, even teeth. 1t was an expression
like that which rests like a shadow on the
handsome, intellectual features OF Van
dyck's portraits of Charles L look pro-
phetic, it is said, OF coming misfortune
and OF dreary doom.
She was unpopular even then, despite
her charms and her afiabllity; and when
she vent our to drive few and far between
were the hats lifted in greeting to her or
the cries of "Vive lImperatrice!" that
marked her progress. There was then re-
siding in Paris a gentleman from Philadel-
phia. long since deceased, who cherished an
ardent and chivalrous admiration for the
fair empress, and whenever he saw her car
ElAR6 dRpI OoCuluS AO "OutA LUSH ulC II
middle Of the street, wave his
hat in the air, and shout give
l,Imperatrice!' with all the force OF a pair
OF %stentorian lungs. do not think tnat
his honest and demonstrative homage dis
pleased in the least it's imperial object.
She used always to respond to his greeting
by a most gracious bow and one OF the
smiles. Even then the Parisians
had contrived to show her that they hated
her. and that in their eyes she was 1.-THE
Spanish woman" the alien and the in
truder-an heir to all the unpopu-
larity OF the American Marie Entoi-
nette. She used to dress exquisitely
in those days. her toilets being of a simple
yet costly elegance, suited to her youth and
grace, and to the poetic nature OF her
beauty. l remember her at the races,
dressed all in pale delicate lilac, her silk
dress having frinRes of the same hue wove
in it's founces. She had not yet invented
c~rinoline; that was to come q few months
late.-Lucy Hooper's Paris Letter.