The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-07
other type-founders had been invited to take an
interest In ii, but that up to the present time no
one Of them had touched it."
Further Facts About the Notorious Queen or
the European Demi-Monde.

CORA PEARL
Further Facts About the Notorious Queen Of
the European Demi-Monde.
Prof. F. Nichols Crouch says, in addition to
his statement in Yesterdays Sun, that if Cora
Pearl, the celebrated Queen of the Demi-
Monde" whose memoirs are about to be issued in
France. is his daughter Emma. she is consider
ably Older than she is stated to be in the account
of her from Paris published in yesterdays Sun.
That account represented her to be forty-four
years old. His daughter Emma was about ff
teen years old when he came to this country, in
1849, leaving her with two of his other daugh-
tiers, at a nunnery school at Paris. That would
now make her ffty-two years old. But the diff
ference In age scarcely initiates against the the
DRY that Cora and Emma are the same person,
since it is not q very thing for women
to make mistakes as to their age on the side of
youthfulness.
Prof. Crouch left his daughters, who were at
the Paris school, in charge of his mother. who
was married to Mr.. Watts, first violincello at Her
Ma1esty's Theater. His mother had purchased
property in Guernsey, and moved there with her
husband. There the Misses Crouch spent their
vacations. While there Emma quarreled with
Mr.. Watts, and left her g~randmother's. Prof.
Crouch has never from that time to this known
where his daughter Emma was. though his
mother did for some time keep up communion
ton with her.
The following interesting sketch is given by
Inc Philadelphia Evening Ielegraph:
Cora took up her abode in Paris in the days
when the Second Empire vas in the full flood of
its artificial prosperity. She had not a hand
some face, but she had a fine figure, and she rode
superbly. Literally, she galloped into notoriety
in Paris. and under the rule of the third Ma
poleon n%otoriety was fame. One Of her great
conquests was Jerome Napoleon. whom she cap
tured while out with the Princes stag hounds at
Meudon-riding , hounds and riding to hearts
were pretty much the same thing with this
cheerful young person. Another of her great
friends in those halcyon and vociferous days was
Due de Mornv-he who figures in Daudets Ma
bob as the Due de Mora-and it is said that
decker, the notorious Swiss banker, succeeded
through her In winning over De Morny to his
side, and thus secured the continuation of the
French war against Mexico. Counts and dukes
without number were also found in her train.
and here adventures were quite as exciting as
any pictured by Daudet and Feuillet
With the Franco-Prussian war and the Com
mune the star OF Cora's destiny paled; and as she
was growing to be an oidish woman by this time,
1t never again recovered its brilliancy. Astro-
nomically speaking, she reached the point of her
highest ascension simultaneously with the EN-
pire; that is to say, in 1867, the exhibition year.
In was in this year that she played Cupid in
the opera of Orphee aux Enfers,' dressing the
Part extensively, tastefully, but not excessively,
in a zone and necklace of diamonds. After the
wreck OF the Empire, Cora returned to Paris
having been temporarily domiciled in London
e1A SAO tCEOpiAOA Ui50 tlxhdl " ACG u.
But it was a dark time in Paris. She was
growing old; her titled friends no longer
were numerous, and the few left to
her were far less friendly than of yore. But
she was rich, for, with commendable prudence,
she had garnered her harvest while the sun still
sbone. Under this combination of circum-
stances the time seemed favorable for her turn
ing devote. However, young Duval-the rich
proprietor Of the many cheap eating houses in
Paris, founded by the worthy butcher his father
--appaar0d unOn the Scpna and his plaiut (ay-
pressed frequently and always in four fgures)
was needed. All Paris laughed at this conquest
that the industrious Cora had made in the youth
of her old age. and Cora laughed too, for the
francs she was winning were plentiful and real.
When the francs were all gone she dropped the
butchers son as she would have dropped an
orange that she had squeezed dry; the butchers
son, being refused admission to her apartment,
incontinently shot himself upon the thresh-
hold. This was in Christmas week. 1872.
The upshot of the affair was that Cora
was ordered out of France. She appealed to
Lord Lyons for help in vain. but after drifting
about Europe for a time. was permitted to settle
down in Paris again. But it was no longer the
Paris of the Due de Mora and the Comte do
Camors. and she vas Obliged to raise tho wind
by auctioning off her treasures. This sale was
one of the events of the day, and realized some
$50, 900, which was about twice the intrinsic
value of the articles disposed of. The last time
she was heard of by the world at large was
three years ago, when her milliner brought her
before the courts to know why she should not
discharge a trifing balance of 4. 4l5f. 23c, which
remained due on an old account, the original
amount Of which was 80, 000f.
Jules Claretie, the present director of the
Theatcr Francois, some years ago devoted his at
tention to Cora Pearls career, and tersely de-
scribed her as "a part of the history of the Sec
ond empire. She was a pale woman, with a lit
tie cats nose, eyes hardly pierced in her face. a
large mouth, and hair of an odd reddish hue.
Her cold. hard look was like that of Sheffield
steel She is not wrote q correspondent in
January. 1876-'she is not, and never has been,
handsome; on the contrary, she is, and has al
ways has been, very plain"