St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-20
BEAUTEOUS LEpER.
The Horrible Secret of Stately Rus
sian Belle.
FLYING FROM ADORATION.
Dying in Disguise, Her Dread Sc
cret Is at Last Re-
vealed.
Paris Special.

vealed.
Paris Special.
A mystery which has for years en-
veloped the life of a singularly beauti-
full woman was cleared up last week by
her suicide. The woman was Nine.
Ruloff, Russian by birth, who made a
sensation on her first appearance in
Paris three years ago, and whose name
has been much associated with we'll
known Italian nObleman, who proved
the most persistent of her many ad-
mirers. Nine. Rulotf has always been
considered among her acquaintance as
person whose past might possibly
have contained some terrible secret. Her
countenance, though always beautiful,
had IN moments OF repoSe tragic
east that seemed to be the reflection OF
some overshadowing sorrow which was
SLOWLY consuming her life. She was Il
mere girl in years, though woman in
development when she first appeared in
Paris, from no one knew where, except
that they supposed Russia. and even
that it was her home they only premise
from her acquaintance with the Russian
capital, just how she managed to get
into society no one knew. She appeared
one night at the opera in stage box,
her person scintillating with diamonds
and her beauty the cynosure of all eyes.
Before the week was over the Russian
beauty
WAS THE TALK OF PARIS.
1t was ayerred respectively that she
was the daughter of a high official,
Struggled out of the country on account
of her nihiIistic principles; that she was
the runaway wife of some old monster,
whom she had been compelled to marry
forhis wealth, and dozen other theo-
rieS lust as baSelesS. Nine. RulOff said
nothing, but gracefully evaded all i'm
pertinent inquiries, and showed no de-
sire to become on intimate terms with
any one. Of course, she was peStered
with suitors. There were dozens Of
| love-sick males ready to dog her foot
steps at every turn, and the little re-
| ception room of her modest apartment
| in the Rue st. Honore was like a con-
servatory, filled as it was with the b0u-
DUETS ShOwered upon her by anxious adj
mirers. She had an equipage and couple
| of servants, and appeOred to need moth
| ing that money could supply. She was
| Yeritable mystery. Toward her male
| admirers Nine. Ruloff'S conduct was
| cold and reserved. 1t was said by some
| of these that her heart was ball of ice
| in form of marble. This proved to be
wrong Judgment, however. The right
man came at last. He was like the hero
of romance. He was young Italian
noble named Orla, with title almost as
old as Rome itself, and plentiful
! fortune. 1t soon became appar emit that
| Count Orla was not to be treated as the
other suitors had been. The marble
turned to flesh, the ball of ice vibrated
to the music of a fancy, perhaps pas
sion. The naughty Slav beauty bowed
| her head to the whispered batteries Of
her Southern lover. and blushed like
virgin There was no doubt that
| NINE. RULOFF HAD MET HER FATE,
| Yet one day when the courtship was
at its height, the famous beauty disap-
peared as suddenly as she had come,
and it was evident that to her friend,
! Count Oria, her disappearance was just
as much of a mystery as it was to the
rest of the public. He was bitterly
chagrined and only stayed long enough
to ascertain definitely that Nine. Ruloff
had left Paris before starting out to
hunt her up. 1t was six months before
he accomplished his purpose. She was
| in Switzerland, living in a small chalet
beside the Lake st. Constance. beauti-
full as ever. alluring as ever. and un-
doubtedly pleased, if alarmed, to see
the count put in an appearance.
What transpired between the lovers
was never known, but it is believed
Nine. Ruloff confded enough of her
mystery to him to satisfy him why they
could never be married. Still the count
persisted, he became her shadow and
remarked that if she objected to mar
rage nothing should debar him her
friendship. She begged him to leave
her, to seek other faces, to turn from
her as he would from from poison that
would corrode his life. Finally she
drove him from her presence with
threats, and went, it is said, to America,
where she travelled about for twelve
months. She returne to Paris, only to
encounter her admirer again. He had
not consoled himself with another
face, but was almost madly per-
sistent in his effort to shake
her resolve not to marry him.
the explanation which she gave of this
refusal was, tits believed, that she al
ready had husband and therefore
dared not marry. Finally she prom
separation from him through, if posi-
BILE, the influence of her friends. That
was the last Count Orla heard of Nine.
Ruloff, but the vetl of mystery has been
lifted from her life at last. A woman
passing under the name of Tuegevin
committed suicide by shooting herself
recently in her apartment situated in a
retired part of Vienna. The iDveStiga-
ton of the police unearthed the fact
that the woman was leper, the lower
part of the body being almost eaten
away by the loathsome disease.
l A SEARCH OF HER PAPERS
disclosed the fact that Tuegevin was
not her real name and ended in show
ing her to he no other than the famous
Nine Ruloff. An old nurse who had
oficiated as a kind of duenna to her
stated that Nine. Ruloff was born in
Siberia, her father being governor of
one of the northwestern provinces. He
had died, leaving his daughter the pos
SCISSOR of considerable wealth. but the
victim of the terrible disease. The girl
had insisted on seeing the world, and
had taken"her old nurse with her, the
only confidant Of her awful Sc
cret. Strangely enough the dis
ease had never manifested itself
on the girls face except in
such way that it could be concealed by
the use of cosmetics. A more beautiful
face or more perfectly outlined form
than Nine. Rulotf's could not be mag
ined, and it is wonder that she did not
long before put an end to an existense
so horribly accursed rather than submit
to the increasing ravages of tae disease.
To Count Orla the intelligence of this
awful discovery must be a terrible
blow, but he will know at last why he
was forbidden the boon he so vehe-
mently craved. What elimination
For a rnnannei HOW nnuttarahlv tragic