Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-26
HOME LIFE OF COUNT DE LEssEPs
Scandal to Which He Was Subjected by
His Wife.

Scandal to Which He Was Subjected by
His Wife.
Appeals Of Madame de Lesseps to popular
sympathy in France last week have proved a
failure. Her description Of Castle La Chenaye
as a bare barn, insuficiently heated and fur
nished, is contradicted by hundreds Of Paris
ians who have visited the Lesseps family seat in
the last two years. The fact is, az every body in
Partisan life knows, the aged president Of the
Panama Canal Company has surrounded him
self 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
residence.
Madame de Lesseps has been especially anx-
ious 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 in the Panama canal
enterprise.
At the same time she gets little sympathy in
Paris from friends of the 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 twelve years, or
ever since the inception of the canal enterprise,
Lesseps has been 80 harassed and betrayed by
his young wife that he has been hardly account
able for his words or actions. She was sixteen
years old when Lesseps married her and he had
passed sixty. For the first seven or eight years
their life was happily spent. Then she began
a career Of reckless unfaithfulness under her
husbands own roof. At her instance he enter
tanned lavishly at Castle la Chenaye. Under
the pretext Of exceptional hospitality she made
excursions with the guests which always re-
suited in a small scandal within the household.
SCANDAL IN THE FAMILY.
Once. friend of Charles de Lesseps says,
she ran away with French senator to Nice
and did not return until Charles de Lesseps,
who fastened after the couple, had driven away
her companion at the point of a revolver and
had given her the choice of divorce and imme-
date departure for hc;rs. Charles de Lesseps,
it is said, has already fought duels with men
who cast doubts upon his relationship with his
stepmother. In fact in recent years everybody
in Paris society has understood that it
was perilous matter to mention Mime.
Ferdinand de Lesseps in her stepson's
presence. That her husband was tormented
day and night by her conduct was generally
known, and it was equally apparent that he
failed mentally and physically under his domes-
tic burden. Several times he was driven al
most to the point of suing for q divorce but
every time desisted for the sake of the canal
company. which he believed would suffer from
the stigma placed by the scandal upon his
name.
Before his arrest Charles de Lesseps said.
significantly. that his father had been too much
occupied with private matters to observe the
methods Of the company. He referred I'M
doubleday to the painful distraction afforded
by the necessity Of guarding Madame de Les
seps.
At present Madame de Lesseps poses as a
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 pos
session.