Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-05-03
THE EMPRESS EUGENE.
Court Life of the Celebrated lady now
Ex-Empress of the French.

I
| She rose Mt about half past nine, and
/ took the late breakfast replacing lunch
| in France, with the Emperor alone. nj
! half past eleven. At two her ladies
came. In Paris they slept at their
/ own homes, but in the country resi-
! deuces they had their stated turns OF
/ waiting, and during that time lived at
| the palaces. Amongst her ladies, of
| course some were more agreeable to
! her than others; but she must accept
| the ineXorable turn of precedence, aud
could not choose her companions. Day
! after day she drove out with the lady
whose privilege entitled her to seat
in the imperial carriage; day after day
| she went to the Bots de Boulogne, and
/ bowed necessarily to the crowd day
after day she returned Just in time To
| dress for dinner; and then came the
weary evening, where nobody had
anything to say, or, if they adj, dared
| to say it, No one could sit down till
she gave the gracious permission but
! this she did Invariably in the case of
ladies' Her ready good-naturc would
/ have willingly extended the privilege
to the gentleman in waiting, but this
was contrary to rule, and must not be-
| So the ladies sat i'm a circle and the
| gentlemen "stood at ease" tired oat
| before the close of the evening. When
| her Majesty retired, scarcely had the
last fold of her skirt passed the door
| before all the weary attendants threw
! themselves on the sofas. The presence
of Majesty necessarily prevented all
animated conversation; every one
awaited the pleasure of the soyereigus
The Emperor spoke very little,a and in
soft. languid voice; the Empress, feel
ing that the general chill would be
unbearable if she did not take the
lead, chatted necessarily with a sort
of feverish vivacity, Her voice did
not seem to belong to that sweet face;
| it was the Spanish voice, cultural and
harsh. She spoke French with per-
feet flHency, but with decided for
egn accent.
The WEAKNESS of those evenings be-
came SO uncomfortable that all kinds of
experiments were tried to vary their
monotony. One night the Empress
suddenly took n fancy to make arti-
| fetal flowers, and chamberlain was
Immediately dispatched, at nine o clock
IN the evening, to procure the neces-
sary materials Another time she,
who possessed the most beautiful spec
linens of ceramic art that France could
afford, was seized with violent desire
for "poticAomanic," and this again
must be satisfied Immediately Read
| ing aloud was proposed. But what
book could be chosen fot such an as
sembly? Some one proposed JaRe
EYrc, the well-kuoWn nOvei; the EN-
press was amused, but the Emperor
utterly wearied. Then they tried
Josephus and the Vars OF the JelOS.
Here the Emperor was intensely inter-
ested, but the Empress yawned, and the
attempt was given up.
The Emperor was in general more
popular in the imperial household
than the Empress; his languid gen tie
ness was in nobody's way, but the En-
press was often irritable and capri
cious. She was certainly intelligent,
| but her education had been neglected,
and she cared for no intellectual en-
| ployment or artistic occupation. She
hated music; she had no taste for the
fine arts even well-wrtteu play at
the Theatre Francois did not amnse
her. She would have liked the small
theatres - anything, in short, that
could make her laugh; but this I'M
! dignified kind of pleasure could not
often be enjoyed. Her life had been
one of constant amusement, the empty
existence of watering-places, and nov
she was in fact prisoner She gave
state balls, but they were filled with
'Uch a motley crowd that she could
only dance the opening quadrille and
walk through the rooms. Then she
gave select private balls, but the alb
'enCc of the French aris.ocracv obliged
ncr to invite large proportion of
wealthy Observation-Disclosures, Wal
lachians, and also Americans. These
were unknown in French society, and
spieudor of dress seemed the only
means Of being remarked. To attain
this end no extravaganza seemed TOO
excessive, and the Empress was blamed
as hav ng originated the love Of dress,
which spread in all classes and became
4 complete mania.
SO far as she herself was concerned,
tie accusation has been greatly exag-
Igerated. She certainly liked dress,
and preferred fragile clouds Of tulle
and eauze to the heavy but durable
maguIlicence OF valuable lace and
brocaded sun's worn by the Bourbon
Ipriucesses But the light clouds in
W hch the fair Empress appeared Ike
an undine or sylph were expensive,
aud could only be worn once. Every
one wished to be like the Empress, and
ut every bali filmy dresses costing fab
Iulous prices were torn to pieces, and
had to be replaced Husbands grum-
bIcd, aud the Empress was accused of
running families by setting the example
ia ERper'S Magazine.
Armenian Women ut Home.