St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-22
QUEER MRS. WESTINGHOUSE.
The Rich Inventors Wife and II err
Dresses, Which Made All LenoX

A-SAOA A4NttSL " NL4NNSt -NNhS.
All last summer Mrs. Westinghouse,
wife of the rich air-brake inventor, sat
alone in her gorgeous house and not a
woman in the place crossed the thresh-
hold or sent her single square of paste
board intimating the owners desire to
feed her or to amuse her IN any way.
But they talked about her. They talked
about very little else. She was the
standing topic of conversation, and not
dinner party of the whole season eS-
capped at least one anecdOte about the
woman whom all reiterated should
never be allowed TO share their high
bred festivities. And she gave them
something to talk about, toO-preciOuS
food for goSSipS for which they were
profoundly grateful. Perhaps no other
aSpiTant for social honOrs ever dared be
so eccentric before.
Personally she is rather a handsome
woman, but she dresses in so remark
able manner that one loses sight of
her face and can only regard her
clothes in daZZled establishment. Upon
head she wears the weirdeSt of brass
cOlcred wigs; not 'front.'" nor a
wave" nor any of those bits of addi-
tional nair with which women conceal
the ravageS of time, but whole, entire
wig of the theatrical sort, and with not
the smallest attempt to conceal its az
greSSive wiggiShneSS or making any
artfui effort to cause it to seem other
than it is-a very cheap-lOoking yellow
wig. Her friends say that is worn by
the physicians advice for the cure of
neuralgia: that her own hair has been
almost destroyed by the remedies used
to allay the pain; that the slightest
touch of cold brings on cruel tWingeS,
and that since she must wear this head
covering she is determined to make no
effort TO deceive others as to its exact
nature. Her ideas of the fitness of
things kept the New York woman
whose one desire in life is absolute and
faultless correctness in dress-in a
chronic state Of speeches. astOniSh-
ment.
Mrs. Westinghouse is clever horse
woman and rides frequently beautiful
blooded mare, whose pedigree rivals the
PlantagenetS. Whenever she took her
rides abroad last summer she got herself
up in the most perfect of LOndOn-cut,
QuOrn-clOth habits. with silk hat and
dogskin gloves of the approved type,
but she invariably hooked into the belt
of her habit skirt a large silver chatel-
aine with twenty or more belongings,
so that she tintinnabulated upon the
way much after the fashion of the cele-
brated lady who wore rings on her
fingers and bells on her toes. To COM
plete the picture, she carried over her
head an expensive and expansive white
lace parasol, whose carved ivory handle
fluttered with white satin ribbons.
When she appeared with these
little additions to her toilet upon
the favOrite drives the LenOX cottagers
did not hesitate to openly stare and COM
ment, aDd girls in correct driving cos
tunes who were going about in their
own chapel carts would even go so far
as to draw rein and stand still in the
road as this queer figure went by. Her
toilet on the drive, when she appeared
in her own handsome, LondOn-built
equipage for an afternoon airing, was
equally peculiar. Her dress might be
the most perfect creation of Partisan
cOuturiereS, and yet with it she would
wear a large white knitted hood tied
under her chin, with long pink ostrich
feather thrust into its meshes, with the
end waving in the wind. Some aston
ishing eccentricity of the sort made
every costume noticeable. and her ap-
pearance was always anticipated with
interest, for it was known that she
would not disappOint the public Of some
novelty impossible to forecast.
Her costumes, however, were trifies
compared with the anecdotes that were
related at the LenOX dinner tables of
her management of her household. She
had French chef. and was particular
that he should always present for her
inspection every day, whether she dined
alone or not, a carefully thought out
If tbiS mot nor yiaxVS Shn SiunaH
her name at the bottom. and the dinner
was served according to the programme,
but if it did not appeal to her magma
ton she drew cross mark down the
list, and the whole dinner had to be
composed again from the very begin
ming.
She always dined with butler in
evening dress in attendance, and many
lackeys in plush to aid him. Even if
she sat down to the meal quite alone the
whole place was lit with wax candles,
the tables loaded with flowers, and all
the plush clad lackeyS with knee
brooches and powdered hair ranged
around the room. Every time she
passed to or from her carriage all the
fOOtmen we're in attendance, ranged
along in double row from the front
door down to the carriage. They
all CAME out duu DONeu SOlemnly
as she passed between them, until the
last fOOtman shut the door of the vehi-
Gle; and as soon as she was sighted re-
turning the lackeys were summoned,
and she gained the threshold again be-
tween an avenue of plush coats and
breaches. But the central figure of the
Westinghouse household is the boy
George, who is eight years old. There
is a daughter, too: but she does not
seem to count for much, all the Splendor
of the household being layished on the
son and heir, who is, by the way, an
Italian marquis, as well as the prospect
i've owner of millions Of money. The
small marquis evidently finds the title
such 4 bore that he is only required to
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