Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-05-15
In THE EMPIRE CITY.
The Latest News aud Gossip from
The Great Metropolis.
A BARONESS WITH A RECORD.
The Brilliant Woman Who Now Figures
In . Divorce suit--why the World
Abandoned Hilrs Candidacy.
Correspondence O, tho Richmond Dispatch,

Correspondence Of tho Richmond Dlspstch.l
NEW York, May H--Baroness Blanc,
or Mrs. Frederick N. Blanc. formerly Mrs.
Alfred b. Riegel, and before that Miss
"Libbie" Nicholson, is just the kind OF
woman Dumas delighted to write about
Had she lived under q monarchy she'd
have been Q court favorite. and would
have figured in diamond-necklace novels
and in chronicles of the salon and boudoir.
Our republican society IL not glittering
and ornate enough to afford their natural
scope to such women as she. She family
reminds one of Mrs. Langtry and
Mrs. Potter. She Is cleverer than
either OF those women, and knows quite
as much as they do about life on and of
and under the stage. The " Baroness, as
she IS called, whether for the reason that
her husbands frat name is Baron instead
! OF John or not. is very tall square
shouldered. blonde and emDressee. She IS
nervy all the way through and can interest
ANYBODY she chooses to concentrate upon.
She's one of our contemporaries who
would have found q filter arena a couple
OF hundred years ago; hlstory-rDaker
she'd have been, too. The husband IL
| of his handsome wife well enough at
Delmonico table and sometimes on the
east drive in Central Park.
Without Baron Blanc and his magnifi-
| cent partner at one table and the Marquis
and Marquise de Croisic at another Del
nonico's at the dinner hour is more rest
| full to the WATERS II these interesting
and agreeable people could have been
matched against each other in q CASTRO
nomic contest without doing violence to
their armour propre OF the amenities OF
social life, what lesson there would have
been for degenerate feeders
| Miss Nicholsons father. Major Francis
p. Nicholson, of north Fifth street, Phila-
| delphia, was retired stove merchant,
living On modest competency. when she
married the dry-goods merchant, rich and
vulgar MIR. Riegel. The husband used to
have $4,000 bills to pay for silk stockings
| clerkIng in Baron Blsnc's boiler banting
establishment here. They are all good.
| clever bomgeoise together. But Madame
can make you believe she is q duchesse. at
| least if she chooses. IL is too bad she
| has another divorce suit on her hands
now. Mr.. Riegel and Mr.. Blanc might
once have consoled each other. When Mrs.
RIegel made her first and only operate
debut in THE Mystic Isle" Mr.. Riegels
respectable Quaker friends were shocked.
! Doubtless one of the greatest pleasures
| brilliant woman, scintillant, full
blooded daughter of Eve has in
this world is shocking people. The
Baroness Blancs toilets and turnouts
have been admired from Long Branch to
Caremont. She and Mrs. Lily Langtry
used to be great friends, for Baron Blanc
and Freddie Gebhard are cousins. The
world hasn't heard the last of Mrs. Blanc.
She does nothing by halves.
M'cALLIsTEg AS A REPORTER.
/ no, b, ~
| of New York thinks now of Ward McAllis-
ter since he has come down to printing sas-
siety" notes in newspaper for weekly
| stipend. In journalistic circles here IL is a
well-known fact that Mr.. McAllister IS
| now the recognized society reporter for
one of the 1ashy Sunday newspapers
which. while striving for recognition as
social organ, is largely read on the east
and west sides Of the city and in the
portland beans" districts. II is said
| that for this service. and for keep
| ing himself on tap for interview
| ing purposes, whenever q new baby
| - born, a prince dies, or lady of high
| social rank Is caught IN an intrigue with
| coachman, Mr. McAliister receives $50
| Per week. There was time when the
| wealthy tallow-chandlers and retired
| oakum- pickers of the hdm monde assumed
| TO look upon newspaper society reporters
of ordering reporters of their front
stoops when they came to write about
their dinners and their weddings, and
then sending butler around to take them
in al the side door; l have actually known
this done. Now, society must realize that
its chief director. arblter. and fugle-
man here in New York is only
mercenary scribbler for sensa-
tIonal newspaper. and that at any mo-
ment this man. whom they pay for ar
ranging their parties and telling them the
latest style IN butter dishes, is liable to be
peddling their family affairs in Printing
House Square. How shocking this must
all appear 10 the swell nobodies OK the st.
Nicholas Club. who once threatened to
discipline member for proposing to give
n dinner in the clubhouse to some news
naper friends. With his newspaper in
come and his Newport .pic-nics, MIR: Nc
Allister will doubtless be able TO keep
in with the smart set.' even
though his new occupation brings
reproach upon him. 1t is said that
Mr.. McAllister has an income OF about
S25 900 from the rent OF an old steam
ship pier on the west side Of the city. 1t
is for this reason, presume, that he re-
CARDS himself as q member OF our local
"pierege." People who rub up against
the periphery OF society here in New York
tell me that what with his newspaper scrib-
bling. his interviews. his attempts to put
people in society by contract, and has pro-
position TO reinstate and rehabilitate Mrs.
Coleman Drayton. MIR. McAlister Is losing
some of his proves. 1t is his Literary
work, think, which is denuding him OF
his Jackdaw feathers. If man with
| limited amount of gray matter and feeble
cerebral development wishes to demon
strate his general disability, let him take
TO print.
A STORY OF THE FRENCH EMBASSY.
The Baron Mohrenheim. for some years
Russian Ambassador at Paris. is of He
brew extraction, as are most people whose
names begin with "Mohr." This fact
about the Baron was brought TO my atten-
ton lust after | had heard what Is now
| said to be the true explanation OF the
Worlds abandonment of the presidential
candidacy of Senator David b. Hill. The
S,,n Is now and has been the Hill organ for
several months. A friend of Hill SAYS the
Senator found that he had to make a
choice. and thought the matter over
| on a business basis. He couldn't have
| both, so he chose the Sun as being most
useful to him with that wing of the party
which is nearest to HIM. The owner OF
| tho World was in Washington good deal
| lust before Mr.. Hills choice WAS made,
and. il il now generally believed. offered
AIR Hill the thick -and-thin advocacy OF
| the Words editorial and news columns on
condition that Hill would agree, If elected
President which the Worlds owner didn't
doubt he must be, with the Worlds
support-to appoint Mr.. Pulitzer Ameri-
can Minister to Paris. Mr.. Hill declined,
and soon afterward, III time If not
m logical sequence, the don't" warnings
which amused Hill and his friends i'm
mensely. began IN double leads In the
Worlds editorial columns. Nobody be-
l,eyss Mr.. Pulitzer himself made this de:
mand: he is too shrewd to commit himself
IRA poce or in writing. The Mohrenheim
case lad proved that race issues would not
be held up as barrier to his ambition for
social recognition. He was pretty well as
sured that he would be persona grdtd to
the republican government OF France. A
salaried employee, who wasmuch IN wash
inoton at the time, is thought to have been
the Ambassador between Hill and Pulitzer.
HAPPY MINSTREL.
familiar figure on Broadway these
pleasant afternoons and at all gatherings
~ y 4 musical or artistic character Is ltalo
Campanini. Although no. longer an
oneratic star, he Is heard frequently IN
$780,. ha.a opd hia voice Ia now SAID TO