Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-12-27
nlme. DE Lcsscn. Censnred.

dc Lcsseps TO popular sympathy in the
last week have proved a failure Her
description Of Castle Ia Chanaye as a
bare barn insufficiently heated and fur
nished is contradicted by hundreds OF
Parisians who have visited the De Les
seps family in the last two years. The
fact is, as everybody in Partisan high
life knows. the aged president of the
Panama Canal Company has surround
ed himself with all the luxury that his
social station required. and has prided
himself especially upon the richness of
the comfort which he has been able to
afford all visitors at his present resi-
dence
Mme. de Lesseps has been especially
anxious to shine as an entertainer, and
has spent, as she still spends, the old
mans money with lavish hand. She
is, therefore, hated cordially by the
poor people in France who have lost
heavily by investment n tie Panama
canal enterprise. At the same time she
gets little sympathy in Paris from
friends of the De Lesseps family, who
have spread industriously in the last
few days some astonishing statements as
to her influence in breaking down the
aged engineers mental and physical
strength.
They say that for the last u years,
years, or ever since the inception of
the canal enterprise, De Lesseps has
been so harrassed and betrayed by his
young wife that he has been hardly ac-
countable for his words or actions.
She was 16 years old when De Lesseps
married her and he had passed co.
For the first seven or eight years their
life was happily spent. Then she be-
gan q career of reckless unfaithfulness
under her husbands own roof At her
instance she entertained lavishly at
Castle la Chenaye. Under the preteXt
of exceptional hospitality she made ex-
cursions with the guests which always
resulted in small scandal within the
household.
Once, friend of Charles de Lesseps
says she ran away with a French SEN
ator 10 Nice, and did not return until
Charles de Lesseps, who hastened after
the couple, had driven away her COM
panion at the point of a revolver, and
had given her the choice between di-
vorce and immediate departure for
home. Charles de Lesseps, it is said,
has already fought duels with men who
had cast doubts upon his relationship
to the youngest three children of
his stepmother. Iu fact, in re-
cent years, everybody in Paris society
has understood that it was perilous
Lesseps in the stepson's presence.
That her husband was tormented day
and night by her conduct was general
ly known, and it was equally apparent
that he failed mentally and physically
under his domestic burden. Several
times he was driven almost to the
point Of suing for divorce, but every
time desisted in the interest of the Ca
nal Company, which he believed would
suffer from the stigma placed by the
scandal upon his name. Before his ar
rest Charles de Lesseps said significant
ly that his father had been too much
occupied with private matters to OBJ
serve the methods of the company. He
referred undoubtedly to the painful dis
traction afforded by the necessity Of
guarding Madame de Lesseps.
At present Madame de Lesseps poses
as heroine at her disgraced husbands
bedside for several reasons. She is
anxious to get as much as possible Of
his money when he dies, and she wishes
to conciliate Charles and Victor de Les
seps, so that they will leave her in
peaceful possession.