Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-04-14
You Marry a Count and Get Penniiess
Organ Grinder.

You Marry Count and Get Penniiess
Organ Grinder.
New YORK, April 13th.-The Countess
Montercole has given an interview to 8
paper here, as she says, just as a warning
to American girls against foreign noble
men. Montercole caught upon the re-
bound of her affections the prettiest girl
that Pittsburg knew. Miss Virginia Knox
had then and has still an abundance OF
auburn hair, eyes of sapphire blue, peachy
complexion and delicately graceful form
She met the diminutive Count Montercole
and she married him.
His name was known to reach backward
for generations, and his wealth was sup
posed to be in keeping with the fame OF
his family. Miss Knox had circulating in
her veins the bluest blood of western Penn
sylvania. She had been educated in Paris,
had crossed the ocean number of times,
and spoke Italian like a native
This is what she says: "The man re-
vealed his character the second day of the
voyage across the ocean, which was the
bridal tour. Then he came to me and
asked me to give him sufficient money to
pay the barber who had shaved him.
II did not dream even then that he was
an adventurer and pauper. He made some
laughing excuse and invited me into our
stateroom, and when joined him there he
picked up hair brush, beat me as though
l were dog and demanded that l should
give him what money | had in my posses
sion. He thea said: I am an Italian
nobleman, and you are nothing but an
American woman whom | have honored
by marrying, and if you possessed millions
upon millions you could never make the
bargain equal
His treatment of me upon the vessel was
SO brutal that the Captain interfered. He
took me to Paris where he coerced me into
giving him more money. He beat me so
that the landlord of the hotel interfered.
Then he carried me to his home in
Italy, and there it was he made me an abso-
lutte prisoner, the windows of the house be-
ing barred to prevent my escape. He de-
manded that | should make drafts on my
relatives for large amounts, and when l
refused he attempted to starve me to death.
Il had some money remaining, which
concealed beneath the mattress of my bed,
and that he discovered and stole. The
people of the town knew him as a villain,
and believing that he had murdered his
first wife, became alarmed at my non-ap-
pearance. To satisfy their clamor be man u
faclured a tale to the effect that | refused
to appear in public until my horses and
carriages arrived from America. This
naturally was sufficient reason for my not
appearing in public.
while | was being actually starved, my
husband came to me and with hendish de-
light told me the story he had circulated,
and unless | gave him sufficient money to
purchase horses and carriages l could not
leave the house. gave him every penny
l had in my possession, but even then he
would not release me from my confine-
ment. Through the United States Consul
at Fossacesia my relatives learned of my
imprisonment and rescued me.
Meanwhile my husbands brutality had
reached a stage beyond belief. When he
found that l could give him no more
money he took poker and beat me across
the back so severely that four months
afterward the welts were still visible a
man never treated dog as that beast
treated me. | was prisoner. | could not
escape. Every time he struck me, and
that punishment was daily, he told me that
he was nobleman and | was only an
American, and | must confess that that
suggestion of difference made my blood
boil even more than his cowardly blows.
:" He first made an offer to cease his per-
secutions upon payment of ST 600, and has
since lowered his demand to the pitiable
sum OF Sl00. have insisted that he should
not receive one penny. He is living now
upon the charity of the Italian colony in
Philadelphia, and the only method of an
noyance left to him is to gain publicity in
the American press for his infamous circu-
lars concerning me. am sure, however,
that when my story is known nonewspaper
in this land will aid an Italian scoundrel in
his scheme to rob and annoy an American
girl who has quickly regained her senses
and knows now what estimate to set upon
a EurODean nobleman"