The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-11-12
WAGNER--VON BULOW.
HoutyrIC HISTORY or wAGSER's
WfpoW NON III Nv BAYREUIH.
Her Queer Ancestry and Tickle Heart-A
Strange story which Reveals the Iccen-
tricities OF Two Great Masters.
Ccopyrighted for The Times. 1881

copyrighted for Inc iA'e'' '
p,yre,,,b tIsra in this queer, quaint
old town there has been lying at the point
Of death a woman who, in her way has
been not only the most clever in her own
coutry. but for that matter. one OF the
most gifted in all Europe, whose career
has been more remarkable than that Of
most heroines Of fctions. Indeed the
average heroine OF fiction would shine in
a very dull way beside this woman who Is
now not so many strides from the door Of
death.
Yhe woman refer Ia IS Madame Coslaa
WAGNER. the wife Of the great composer,
the person who. though but "a woman"
had more Insecurity in her mental make
nm than most men, and the one Who 50
yoked the genius OF her last ia ~
solid business methods, thal 80
when even his immense talen, ouIu
NOT have given him that pOs-uJn wnich
ne won in the musical world
Moreover. this woman was. prior 10
her marriage to Wagner, t3e ~Ne OF tianS
Won BtlOw, the famous pianist anu haP1I
meister to the King OF Bavaria BuloW
also owed. much Of his success 10 ule
genius for affairs ana haId coiiiiiiel Si~i
sense Of this woman. ~,
An odd character is or rather was FRAU
Costy,a WAGNER. who nov lies here sorely
broken. with her striking career oenind
her and her life near its close. rms old
town. which is Wagnerian to It's niger
tbs. Il the expression may be ahoWeo' y
verv proud of this relict Of the man, VINO
was it's chief citizen and genius ana
many stories YOU may hear OF the ways
of the remarkable woman from the Ups u
cosby fraus and frauleins
| saw this woman just before paralysis
attacked ner IN early ApYA' and wy one
impression could be gained even aIIer .
short interview with her, and that would
be that Wagner was right when ne sald
that she was the most intellectual woman
I'm Germany. You would also get the Inn
pression that she is one Of the homeliest
wovoen 70 be found anywhere. Tall' she
is diyinely tall as the poet puts it, but by
no means dfviney fair. She would stand
at least an inch taller than the last and
greatest OF her husbands, Wagner
In her old age she is spare and quaint OF
figure and dresses in way tnat accentu-
ates the effect of oddness, and, for that
matter, ugliness that is taken by superb
cial or cursory glances at her.
But these are but APPENDICES. You pass
and sallow face. and you meet the wo-
mans eyes with your own, and mentally
YOU say 10 yourself, here lies the secret
l Of this woman's power over even great
men"
Heavy shaggy eyebrows almost meet
below q forehead high, square aud mas
culine From its base prorudes n nose
| long and curved as a hawks beak, ana
somehow you come at once 10 the concur
] sion that this as wen as her phenomenal
! business instinct, came down TO her nom
estly from her German-Jewish Tore
fathers. the Bethmans, of Frank-fort-on~
! tbe-AIain. But it is her eyes that attract
vour attention. You look into the win
| dows of a woman's soul through them.
Deep-set. lie eyes aye bUt phenomenally
| bright and piercing. Even now, when wei
past three score years of age, those eyes
! Of Madame Wagner will leave deep I'M
! preesion up0n you. whether you VIII IL 80
| or not Not that they are fascinating ID
| the sense that dreamy or dove-like eyes
ave SAID by poets 70 be. Eoere Il power
| I'm them and there Is intellect SHINING out
/ through them. AS you observe them you
can understand why Wagner said enc was
! the most intellectual woman I'm an EUROPE
You may not understand. but YOU may
/ sbreWdIy guess from them the character
| of those underlying currents in TINS "a
I
nous womans moral and mental makeup
! mar have i'm a way controlled her in her
| eventful life.
We are ami IN these days 81 the Phlhs~
| tine 10 fout the theory that our lives are
largely governed by hereditary instincts
VIC nave come to hold sometimes that
/ the child Of vicious parents born IN the
/ atmosphere Of brOthel may become q
| great moral reformer, and so he or she
| NAV. But some of us viii perhaps con-
tinue to hold that hereditary traits IKE
| taints of the same kind may be trans
mitted. We may go further, and hold
mat hey may pe ext rserated in the third
| aud fourth generation. and produce the
very subject Of this sketch in ample evil
| dence to clinch the argument.
IN order 10 more clearly understand
the career Of this woman now passing
| the last days Of her life in the town that
| Wagner loved. Il. may be necessary 70
| take a brief blrds-eye view, as it were,
/ of her forebears.
In the first place she came OF race