St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-16
BOTH HIGH AND Low.
Stories Of Women Whose Fate
Wins a Glance from the
World.
4 L
A Princess Reduced to Beg
gary Thinks Carnot Her
Enemy.
Che Girl With Strict Ideas
why Stephens Didn't
Marry.
Marie Antoinette Not So
Charming as History Gen
orally Paints Her. so 81

"When we first met her she was liv-
ing in the Hotel Bristol-a pretty, arts
tocratic little lady, trifle too fair, with
curly white hair. pale blue eyes, and a
beautiful, clear complexion. Some peo-
pie said she was Russian spy, but she
maintained that she was Russian
princess, and insisted on being adj
dressed as Your excellency. Thus
writes Paris correspondent of the Pail
Mall Gazette. 1--WE have a notion at
home that Russian princesses abound
like blackberries III the month of Sep
TENDER. 1t appears that Russians hold
a different opinion: but that is detail.
So our ariStocratic little lady had no diff
ficulty i'll getting herself addressed as
Your eXcelency,' and spoken OF Ser
OuSly as The Russian princess; yet
doubt if any of us believed in her higher
rank. We put it down aS one of the de-
lusions of a charming lady, whose man.
ners certainly justified her claims, if we
are to credit august persons with the
best manners. She was very eXtrava-
CANT and generous, had lady's maid,
man of affairs, and lady'S compan-
ion, and she occupied fiat on the first
floor. This means considerable IN
come.
Zone day she announced her inten-
ton of visiting st. Petersburg. 1t was
whispered that she was connected myS-
teriously with an august person in that
capital. This we accepted in the same
skeptical spirit as we did her rank of
princess and her limited assertion that
high quarters in st. Petersburg would
be f1uttered by her appearance. The
fact is that we had grown into the way
of dsbeiieving her pretty and romantic
fairy tales. wherein SovereignS and
courtiers and diplomats, courts and
palaces and embassies figured largely.
When she heard that my friend, who
writes for several fashionable maya
zines, was literary man to whom the
doors of the best society were open, she
cried: Comment done! Mails Oh he
recoit pas DIES gems de lettreS. &c ne
sont pas DIES gems CONNIE il fault
$50 we continued to wink, and smile,
and watt her wishes for bon voyage
and pleasant return as she drove away
from the Hotel Bristol with her COM
panion, her maid, and her homme d'a f-
fairies, followed by the very sincere re-
gret of all the menialS of that aristo-
cratic establishment. Judge, then. our
complete dismay to learn in couple of
months that our charming little Russian
lady had been flung into a madhouSe-
yes, madhOuSe, she and her poor
lady'S companion. She might have
had few harmless eccentricitieS and
delusions upon her birth. But if we
are all to suffer Imprisonment for the
sake of an innocent deuSion, good gra
ciouS! would the world hold together?
We made inquiries at the Russian en-
bassy, for we're honestly attached to the
pretty little creature. We were either
met by mysterious silence or by naughty
refusal to listen to us. At last we be-
thought ourselves of the English en-
bassy, remembering the English COM
panion. And here we learned that our
curly-headed princess was not SO much
astr3y as we had imagined. UnfOrtu-
nately for herself the claim was oblique.
She was the daughter Of a late august
person, during whose whole life she
had been brought up at court. hence her
glib mention of courtlers and embas-
sailors. Upon his death the next august
person allowed her a splendid pension
as sort of recognition of her as step
sister, but exlled her to Paris. Her
father, in the worlds eyes, was an illus
trious Russian general who had lately
died, leaving her large fortune.
''NOw. just at that moment the pow
sion was prematurely called away to a
land where pensions of different sort
are settled. His sudden withdrawal
caused sensation we all can yet recall.
1t had hardly subsidized when our poor
little princess placed her foot on her
native ground. to be at once captured
and flung into an asylum. They could
not, on the spur of the moment. cast her
into prison, so they decided she was
mad. AS a precautiOn they looked
up the the English companion, and
some months elapsed before she
was able to &c the ear of the English
embassy. The English ambassador res
cued her and paid her fare down to
Paris, and that was how he learned the
story. Through the English govern
ment, or, as my little princess will have
it, the personal friendly efforts of a
very illustrious parsonage, she was at
the end of nine awful months liberated,
enfeebled in health and deprived of her
pension. She was conducted to BruS-
sells, thence forcibly conveyed to Paris,
and, as a prevetlve against further vOy-
ages, the poor lady has been deprived
of her fathers fortune left to her, as
well as her pension.
''She is dressed in rags almost, is in
delicate health. unable in sickness to
have doctor to attend her because she
cannot afford the fee, to have food,
wines, or medicines, or any comforts.
She lives in cheap pension on the
fifth floor in most desolate circumstances
an inoffensive, gentle, well-born lady,
used all her life to luxury and unlim-
tied attendance. Hating Paris, she is
forced to remain here, and, not willing
to believe that it is her OWN country that
20
of her birth, she persists in believing
that the president Of the French repub-
lie receives her pension and pockets it
to keep the republic going"