The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-11-18
SECRET "a WOMAh,S BEAUTY.
A Sixteenth Century Dame Who Bathed In
tho Blood OF Mu rdered Maids.

Paris has just teen edited by a worl;
treating of the life and proceedings Oh
lady Of the sixteenth century, VINO car
rled her care for her beauty 10 the very
utmost limits. This is not fairy tale
according to a writer in the Philadelphia
Photography but Il sober, historical fact.
backed by many official documents OF
undoubted authenticity, and the LADY
amiable weakness is described with
wealth of detail and fOrcib.e simplicity
of description that IS apt 10 turn ;he
reader sick. The lady in question was
hamed Elizabeth. Bathory. Countess Mad
asdy, who married at the age Of Is, in
1895 COmte Francois Nadesdy who vas
not of too mild a nature himself, as, when
his wife complained one day that her mali
had teen impertirent, he ordered the
with honey and laid on Wasps nest,
from the effects OF which gentle admoni-
ticn she subsequently died. The Countess
Elizabeth was left a widow in 1904, and
began simply at first to try 10 keep W
the rigorous discipline enforced by her
late husband. UEbapplly, one day She
struck her waiting maid and so wounded
Ter that her mistress hands were cover
ed with blood. When they We're washed
the countess remarked that her hands
were whittier and the skin more supple
and firm, and thence forward her natural
ly cruel nature was spurred by the fran-
zied desire 10 retain her waning beauty at
any price
odd though it may seem In the present
day, she used as a cosmetic from that
time on a bath Of human blood, and the
tradition goes that anything 50 superb
in its brilliant fairness as her cOmpleNi1l
cannot be imagined. She murdered all
her waiting maids, one by one, aided by
three accomplices, her old nurse being one
Of them and when she could get no WO-
men to enter her service she coOlly sent
her emissaries 10 kidnap the peasant
girls of the neighborhoOd. n. last how
ever. the CHASTITY scandie rose TO such
pitch that even Hungary in the middle
ages could not afford to close is ears
to the wall Of bereaved families, and the
culprits first cousin, Governor OF the pro-
vince, entered the castle on Christmas eve
100. 10 inquire into the truth of these
horrible stories, and discovered his fair
and honored relative. her fair chin prop
ped by her exquisite hand calmly watch
irS the death agoneS of three girls while
her attendants were Milling bath with
the life blood that was to preserve her
beauty. The countess herself was too
great a parsonage TO incur capital punish
ment, but for thirty years she was shut
up In solitary confinement i'm the castle
Of Cseibhe, in Hungary. where she final
ly starved herself to death. AS for her
accomplices, they had their hands cut off
and were. subsequently burned at the
stake, as, being common people. there was
no reason for sparing their lives
1T Is said that this fair dame sacrl-
feed 600 girls TO her radiance of skin.
but her bograI her states soberly that
documentary evidence exists OF the rnur
der OF only 30 Whether in after Years
she considered thirty years of solitary
confinement too high price to pay for
six years of un'mpaired beauty, IL is hard
TO say, but the inference is that she did
since she Killed herself. -Commerciai
Advertiser.