The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-21
AN ECCENTRIC
COUNTESS.
The Peculiar Vagaries of Sar0lta
Way, a Titled Hungarian.
She Dons Mems Clothes and Gees Out Into the
World in Search of Adventure-Her
Marriage With Nine Women.

TAHE young Hungarian Countess Sar-
FIX olta Jay closed her mad career last
eJkSS January. Without money and With
out credit shattered by dissipation and dis
heartened by disappointment, restrained at
every turn by the infieXble hand of the
law. and notorious beyond any other Euro
pean woman of her generation, she then took
refuge from the sporting world in the
seclusion of friends house in Pesth.
She abjured drinking, betting and
gambling, fighting. dueling and debt
making. She continued to wear trousers
and getaways, but ceased to WOO and win
young women under such false pretenses.
Her retirement from the sporting world,
which she had helped to lead, caused the re-
viyal of many "reminiscences of her bizarre
record in the high life of Vienna, Pesth and
Prague. But the Countess and her family
and friends kept their mouths shut so tight
concerning her carouSals that only desultory
bits of her history could be picked up here
and there by the Continental dulles.
Recently, however, Professor Won X ratft-
Ebing got at the records of the Way family,
from the tenth century founder down to
Countess Sarolta, and collected from them
the facts for psychological and physiolog-
zeal study" which he has just published.
His book is far from being as heavy and alb
stract as its title might indicate. 1t contains
! a wealth of raw material for simon-pure Cos
| sip i'll the finer drawing rooms OF Emperor
| Franz Jaseph's subjects. and from it the
| New York Sun made the following cOndensa-
| ton:
Countess Sarolta Vay was born in 1866,
| just nine years after her mothers marriage.
| Her father was Count LadlSlas Way, Cen
| eral and an Imperial Chamberlain. He had
| waited so long and with so great an anxiety
| for the birth Of an heir that when Sar0ta
| came her mother feared TO tell him that his
| first born was only girl With the aid of
| the nurse she concealed from him the sex
| of the child, and. as time passed, took all
| the necessary precautions that occasion de-
mandcd to keep up the deception. Sarolta
| went into knickerbockerS and rOundabOutS
| at the age of .. played boys games, got the
| elements OF boys education, and when II
years of age could hunt, fish and fence as
could few boys of her age. In her fourteenth
year her father decided to send her to a
| military school. To prevent this her mother
was obliged to confess all. The Count
swallowed his anger and chagrin, and
tried at once to repair the topsy turvy
condition of his family affairs by putting
SaroIta into girls clothes. calling her
Sander, and sending her off to girls
school. In vain. SarUlta
REFUSED TO BE TRANSFORMED.
She stole into her trousers and jackets
| whenever she got a chance, and led her par
ents a sad life in her constant endeavors to
get rid of the pettic0ats they tried to keep
on her. She beSought her father 10 allow
her to enter the Honved HuSsar Regiment.
His refusal was the last straw, and she pro-
claimed her intention to tear up all Austria
with her pranks as soon as she became of
age.
She kept her word faithfully. On the
first day of her majority she swung out into
the world in a cutaway, tight trousers and
high hat and began a career of unprece-
denIed dissipation. She did everything
and did it with zest that made her the
most notorious person III the fastest circles
of Vienna. She got head over heels in
debt, and TO eXtricate herself forged, en-
bezzled and stole on grand scale. Still
her creditors were only half satisfied and
bounded her constantly. They finally
drove her to a step that caused her arrest
on a dozen different charges, and eventually
her retirement To eXtrlcate herself she
married Marie Engelhardt, beautiful
eighteen ear-old girl, whom she met at
summer hotel at Worthersee last fall.
Papa Engelhardt, an army contractor,
thought. of course, that his daughter
was marrying real Count Sander
Way, and was so delighted to have
her capture title that he gave her
dowry of $4,000 The marriage Was
celebrated with tremendous pomp, such
as only simple Continental citizen
who has corralled nobemau for his daugh-
ter knows how to exhibit with proper I'M
pressiyeness. The Countess and Marie went
on wedding journey. The Countess threw
away the dowry so rapidly that every one
she owed heard of her SNOWY extravaganza;
her creditors surrounded her, the victims OF
her dishonesty began TO call for indemnifi-
cation for their losses, and a general expos
ure followed. Despite all this. Marie chung
fast to the Countess, and left her only
when compelled TO do so by her parents.
Sar0lta, or Sander, was imprisoned in
Klangenfurth; was deprived of the right to
contract legal debts, and was threatened
with the insane asylum She was released
after two weeks of incarceration, and sought
directly the quiet OF the house OF her friend,
FTauleln Czeky, in Paris.
The idios, ncraceS CT the Countess
Sarota, which are back OF all these curious
features in her career, are ascribed by
Professor Krafft-Ebing to heredity A sis
ter of her grandmother, he has discovered,
was hyste!ical. somuambulistc. aud lay sew
enteen years in bed, merely because she
imagined she had hip disease. Another
gtandannt passed seven years in bed be-
cause she imagined herself to be suffering
from
AN INCURABLE DISEASE.
Her grandmother suffered from delusion
that a certain table in her drawing-room
was cursed. Whenever person lad an
article on this table she cried 1T is cursed.
it is cursed" and hurried with the article
into adjoining room, which she called
the ''Blaek Chamber" The key to this
chamber she carried in her girdle in
the, daytime. =, aud at night kept it
under her pillow After her death
notes and gold pieces were found in this
back room. A fourth grandaunt did not
allow the servants to sweep or dust her room
for four years, and neither washed herself
nor combed her hair. All these women
were, however, clever, well-edncated and
amiable. Sarolta's mother was nervous,
and fell i'll whenever she was outdoors in
the moonlight. One branch of the mothers
family was given over entirely 10 spiritual
ism. -Four cousins on the mothers side shot
themselves.
The majority of the members of the Way
family have been persons of unusual talents
Sarolta's father occupied for a long time
posts under the Austrian. Government, was
military man of considerable genius, and
was favorite at the VienneSe court. He
lost his high position, however, on account
of his growing eccentricity of behavior and
his inclination 10 throw away all money
that came to his hands. In three years
he squandered a million, and then
fell out of public Lille. Sarolta's
aunt on the Way side, who lives in
Dresden, partakes OF the common eccen-
trcty of the family. While Sarolta, in her
thirteenth year, was at her grandmother's
house. she was encouraged to play all sorts
OF high links in her masculine disguise, to
make love to an English girl of l6, and
finally TO el0pe with her, although the grand
mother knew from the first of the deception.
The desire OF Sarolta TO appear to be a
man has always amounted to a partial mem
tai arrangement Professor Krafft-Ebing
says she fought six duels during the mad
dest part of her career with VienneSe Off
GERS and students who reproached her with
her sex. She insulted several more, who dis
creetly declined to challenge the proves of
her arm. She has been married" by
priests and civil officers to no fewer than
nine women besides MariesEngelhardt. All
of these women have seemed TO catch the
contagion of her own hallucination Six
of them still live in Vienna as divorced
Countesses Way. Two have tried to bring
suits for alimony, and one is trying hard to
get Sarolta back to live with her. Sarolta,
however sui tries, she says, to remain
faithful to her last wife.
BEAUTIFUL MARIE!"
She exclaimed, recently, 81 dream of you
every night" 81 hate everything that re-
minds me of my womanhood," she said to a
friend of the professor. 81 would for
m q N h.,