St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-15
LADIES OF FRANCE.
lime. Carnot and Her Fine
Complexion and Dark
TreSSeS.
Embonpoint a Characteristic
of the Ladies of the
Elysee.
The Duchess de Magent, Whose
Military Manners Affected
Her Position.
Fine. Gravy Was Too Plain
and Thin, However, to
Please.
I, 1onis POST nisnatch.

81. Louis Post Dispatch.
The French President and Nine.
Carnot have begun their series OF regu-
lar entertainments for the winter by a
dancing party for which some 800 invi-
tations were issued. The handsome
wife of the chief of state was elegantly
arrayed in toilette Of white brocade,
the skirt made with long train and
frontage in gold embroidery, and she
wore diamonds and white plumes I'D her
dark hair. She has very white SKIN,
which contrasts we'll with her large,
brilliant black eyes and dusky tresses.
Her figure is fine, though slightly in
clined to embonpOint. and she is tall
and graceful and very distinguished
looking. Altogether she is much the
best looking of the ladies who have pre-
sided over the Elysee since the founda-
ton of the Republic i'll France.
The first hostess of the Elysee under
the Republican regime was the Princess
Mathllde, who was called upon to fulfill
that function when her cousin, Prince
Louis Napoleon, was elected president
in 1S49. As he was then unmarried IL
was natural that he should summon his
nearest female relative to assume that
responsible position. She was very
popular during the short time that she
held it, before the republic was changed
to an empire and the ruler OF France
emigrated from the Elysee to the
Tuileries. Her gracious gentle man
ners, and those of the prince president
ing over adherents to the i'm
perial cause. Once prominent
Republican statesman came to one
of the princess weekly receptions, and
was asked to take a cup of tea, an offer
which he accepted. The princess
brought him his tea, Nj. de Persigny
followed her with the cream-Jug. and
the president brought up the rear carry
ing the sugar bowl. The old man left
the reception thoroughly converted to
imperialism. On the marriage OF Louis
Napoleon to the beautiful Eugene, his
cousin gracefully resigned the position
she had filled so ably, and retired to her
post as the second lady of the imperial
family without revolt and without
murmur. She never was handsome,
being stout and coarse-featured and red
compleXioned, her only attraction con-
sisting in the winning grace OF her
manners.
Neither had
MADAME THEIRS
any pretentions to good looks in the
days that she was the lady of the Elysee.
Elderly French women. even those who
have been great beauties in their
youth, are apt to subside after middle
age into embonpOint and plainness.
This was the case even with some of the
loveliest French actresses, such as
Mines. Nathalie and Ricquier, and
Arnould Plessy, and Nine. Theirs was
no exception to the general rule. Also
she had perverse penehant for wear
ing the most youthful of colors and the
jauntiest and most girlish-lookiDg of
smart little hats. She never was a very
admirable hostess, as her whole soul
and all her ideas were absorbed in
watching over her illustrious husband,
in listening to what he said, and in
ducing" her guests to listen. and
in taking care that nobody
aroused him from the after
dinner nap that he invariably took, no
matter who might be present. SO the
Elysee was not, socially speaking,
very delightful place of resort under
the presidency of M. Theirs. His de-
voted wife literally died of a broken
heart when she found that France had
forgotten him, fact that was demon
strated by the sparse attendance at the
Inauguration of his statue at st. Ger
main only year or two after his death.
Nine. Theirs was present at the cere-
monial and could not conceal her char
grin at the smallneSS of the assemblage
was gloomy and rainy, and her heavy
mourning draperies were saturated with
wet before the ceremonies were termi-
mated. She went home, took to her bed
and never knew an hours health after
wards.
Probably never was there woman
less fitted to be the wife of president
of republic than was
NINE. DE IMAGINATION,
do Che 1,tyhi r+l,
Demoiselle de Castries, daughter of
the duke of that name, and her political
convictions were intensely royalst and
anti-republican. Moreover, though
thus born in the purple, her manners
had neither the grace nor the polish
that are supposed Ito stamp the caste
of We're de Vere." 1twas reported that
her long experience of military society,
during the earlier years of her hus-
bands career. had impaired to her
manners the bruSqueneSS and rough
ness for which. as lady of the Elysee,
she became unpleasantly noted. She
was no more elegant in appear
ance than in address. being short,
broad, thick-wasted elderly lady with
very pronounced dark mustache. She
dressed very superbly and wore very
magnificent jewels, but she was fond of
pale delicate colors and aerial floating
udttIldlS, WlllC1 WcIc very uIDccOUllUS
to her, as well as unSulted to her age.
She was one of the rudest hostesses at
the grand balls of the Elysee that could
well be imagined. 1t is the etiquette
for every guest on entering to bow to
the president and his wife, and then to
pass on without speaking. Nine. de
MacMahon had way of turning her
back OH the incoming throng and
of talking to the members of
the presidents suite, who were
stationed behind her, thus pre-
senting the view of broad red back
to her arriving guests. The president
was always markedly and anXiously po-
lite. in strong contrast to his recaici-
trant wife. But he very unwisely suf-
fered his strong minded better half to
interfere in political matters, to such an
extent that she came near causing a
revolution by her anti-Republican pro-
clivities. She was devout Catholic,
and the Radicals used to say that her
confessor was the virtual ruler Of
France during the presidency of her
husband, One of the advanced Repub-
lican papers, after the crisis of the 10th
of May, demanded if, after having had
A woMAN's WAR
in 1870, France was doomed to have a
second woman's war in 1877. Yet, des-
pite her rude ways to her husbands
fellow citizens, the marshal's term of