The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1888-05-04
ms Il EVE

Mrs. Paran Stevens history. sava
tho New York Graphic, is a strange
one, and reads like a romance. and
her lite is a remarkable example of tho
change in position and fortune that
often comes to American women.
She lived up in Lowell, Mass. where
she was a waiter-girl in a restaurant.
She was a pretty, pcachy-faccd young
woman, aud as Minnetta Read, which
was her maiden name, had hosts of
admirers. Indeed, she was one of the
acknowledged bellies among the pretty
shop and mill girls that crowded that
manufacturing city.
Old Paran Stevens had started IN
life - q stable boy in a county hotel
mp IN Now Hampshire. He was a
genuine Yankee. and not a dollar Of
nus scanty earnings eve Slipped
through. mis- fingers in an unnoticed
way. He had a little wayside re-
sort of his own pretty soon, and kept
op IN his thrifty economical ways.
. Then he went down to Boston and
started q coffee house, saved his mon-
ey, lived closely. and in the course of
ten g twelve years got an interest in
The Revere House, finally became its
sole owner. aud then. bought tho Tire.
mont House. In the management of
these two hotels he made most of thu
5000, 900 or &c, 600, 600 that has been
causing all the strife since his death.
In 1861 Atr. Stevens built and opened
h Continental Hotel in Philadelphia.
and un!cv his management it became
ono OF tho best among the great hotels
IN the e. dutry, u reputation which! has
not Mctt lcssened in these latter DAYS.
He was then managing Mt tho same
me tho fremont Hcuss in BOSTON,
ilc Fifth Avenue in New YoEk, and
tho Continental i'll philadelphia.
he was u c%onnois.eur i'm wines and
liquors. anu the stock with which he
filled tho collars of these hotels was
never cguntlcd in America, and has
KEPT ny tue reputation of their brands
to tbs day. Indeed, the famous
''stevens shc,vy," which cheers the
hearts Of the lovers of that wine, chi,
bc found nowhere else new than in
tho cellars of those three hotels, whore
odd faran Stevens stored it years aga.
When he grew rich his first wife
died. aud Minnctta Read, the Lowell
shop.girl. tripped down to Boston and
married the already millionaire hotel
Keeper. while the people there raised
their eyes in half wonder and astonisll-
mont. He educated her aud she
proved an apt pupil, and when she
touad herself mentally equipped to
push her way among tho blue bloods
OF that city she began tho social fight
that che carried to New York aud
which has been the sole occupation of
Her life almost eve since.
OF course Boston society sat down
on her very promptly, and when her
husband died she made her homo in
this city and transferred the struggle
to the house on Fifth avenue, near
Twenty-eighth street. Her daughter
Minnie Inherited the good looks Of the
Lowell shop.girl. but no American
would suit the ambitious mother for a
son-in-law, so the charming, bright
faced girl was hawed about Europe
Until the American papers were filled
WITH the histories of the mothers
struggles among the nobility for u tie
tied husband to suit her own tastes.
(. She did not succeed very we'll, and
was finally compelled to content her.
self with a son of Sir Alfred Paget,
whose family was as poor us a church
mouse, but who belonged to what is
known in England as the '.Prince of
Ws!es' sct."
Luckily Fagct has turned out to be a
pretty good fellow. and been q kindly
sort Of y husband, but the marriage
dix .iot aid Mrs. Stevens in her efforts
To torch elbows with the Astors. the
Vanderbilts. the Livingstons, the Stuy-
vesants or any of the other people who
pride themselves on being 100 years
away from the time when their fore
fathers had to work for a living.
Az she grows older Mrs. Stevens be-
comes moro determined to make her.
self known and felt in New York So
ciety, and Of course the doors are
being moro sodulously bolted against
her entrance. Yet she gives some of
the finest dinners; her wines aro Of
tho best; her chef has fcw supcriors.
and her hospitality is unboundcd. Sho
10 worth t4.000.00O or 100000, and
besides being the owner Of the Victoria
Hotel she has . large interest In the
management Of the Fifth Avenue. Of
which her husband was before his
death . part proprietor.
Mr.. Henry Norman Of the Pail Nall
Ans>fe haa r.an chad Gan Francisco nm