Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-12-17
BRAYE, But EooENTRIG
Princess Metternich Elected an Honorary
Member of a Fire Brigade.
Ero,,i Nau, yorl Raoordar

IEiuctbk mttLtfuiGit EtbcLbu All honorary
Member of a Fire Brigade.
From New York Recorder.
Princess Metternich has just been
elected an honorary member of the I'm
perial Austrian Fire Brigade in recog-
milton of the presence Of mind and the
remarkable courage and personal
bravery which she recently displayed
on the occasion of the great fire at
Banja, in Hungary. 1t was entirely
owing to her efforts that the loss Of life
was not greater than it really was. She
rescued three lives with her own hands,
two of which were those OF children,
while the enthusiasm with which she
inspired the firemen, both by word and
example, stimulated them to altogether
extraordinary exertions.
Princess Metternich s,without excep-
ton, one of the most popular women in
Austria, and, indeed, in the whole Of
Europe. The stories and anecdotes
which are told of her are innumerable,
and scarcely day passes without some
new freak of etceatricity on her part,
furnishing q theme for discussion both
to the aristocracy and to the people, by
whom she is equally beloved ,and,l may
add, respected.
Nc matter how insane her pranks,
they are never counted to her as mis-
conduct. Indeed she seems to exist for
the special purpose Of demonstrating
the fact lhat woman of high
lineage, fortune and rank, can do any
thing short of actual felony without
losing either caste or public considers
tion. Although her love affairs haze
been of the most profuse character--and
they furnish material not alone sufficient
to fill one page or even one chapter, but
| several thick volumes of the ChroR59HGs
iScanddieuSes of the 10Th century-her
position in society and at court is abso-
lutely unimpaired, and there is no moro
honored guest at the imperial Austrian
court than Pauline Metternlch.
Even the empress, always so strict
| about the conduct of her encourage,
overlooks all her nlisdeeds, and when
some new instance of Madame de Met
ternich's legerete is reported to her
majesty, she only shrugs her shoulders
and says that 1T has always been thus
| with Pauline"
There is one thing about Princess
Metternicli which has probably greatly
| contributed to her immunity from any
kind of public reproach or reprobation.
Ii is her sparkling whit and her abso-
Lutte freedom from even the slightest
suspicion Of vulgarity, no matter how
low she stopped in her eternal research
for new sensations and amuscments.
Even in the will lest Of her doings-and
they have included her dancing can
can in public at Mabille while ambassa-
| dress at Paris, and an appearance in
male costume at the Fiaker ball in
Vienna, and pronounced flirtations
with all kinds of men, ranking from
prime ministers to circus riders-she has
always remained grand dame to the tips
of her equisitely shaped fingers.
She is the most curious mixture of a
gamin and great lady which is possible
to conceive. There is nothing repre-
hensible in her originality, nor is thore
anything calculated or premedtated in
the audacity of her ways of talking and
acting. Her influence has contributed
to a marked degree in the liberation Of
French society from the trammels oi
that bourgeois decorum inaugurated by
the Oreanist dynasty, and TO free thu
Austrians grand monde from the bur
densome chains of Vionnese etiquette.
If Vienna and Paris are to-day noted
as the headquarters of pleasure anc
gaycty, it is due to Pauline Metternich
who has contributed more than any ont
else to make these two charming CAPT
tails what they are. Princess Metternicl
has, however, later become rather NOR
quoted down, owing to the sad anC
sudden death of her favorite daughter
the young Countess Waldstein, unde
very mysterious circumstances. Indeed
the mystery concerning the young
countess death is attributed in Vienne!
society to suicide.
1t is rumored that she took poison ii
order to avoid the exposure OF her III
timacy with her husbands land steward
an exceedingly handsome young noble
man and cx-cavalary officer. Color i
lent to this rumor by the fact that wher
her husband died few weeks later III
avoided any mcntionof either the Prime,
or Princess Metternich in his will, an(
that they abstained from attending hi.
obsequies.
The young Countess Waldstein wa
almost as clever an amateur actress a
her mother, who was, without dispute
the prima donna of that gay troupe o
amateur historians who contributed 81
much to the gayety Of life ut the Tuil
leries.