The herald., 1895-03-17

court. after she had been the widow of ?.
Ives, of Providence. Rhode Island mil
lionaire for twenty years. Anita Murphy
smart New York girl and the daughter
OF the late Dan T. Murphy. the BANKER,
married into the Catholic nobility of Eng
land. and is now Lady Charles Wellesley,
famous for her charities.
Gwendoline Caldwell. one of the wealth.
lest of American heiresses. finding that
the title of Prince Murat, with all its in.
cumbrances. including the Prince himself
was on the market. made arrangements to
possess the same. Negotiations were about
concluded when the Prince suddenly de-
cided that he could command better
terms. Miss Caldwell refused to accede
to his demands. and the Prince accord
ingly withdrew himself from the market
until competition for him should become
more active. Looking around for another
titular investment, Miss Caldwell found
German baron who did not come quite so
high and accordingly purchased.
Apropos of this it may be remarked
that English titles are Of much greater
value and command much higher prices
in the matrimonial market than any
others. The real facts of the matter are
that English titles are the only ones that
have any real value or significance what
ever at the present day. An English title
belongs to one man only, and only one
man can wear it at time. For instance,
there can never be but one Duke of West
minister, or one Earl of Chatham, in ex-
istence ut the same time. If an English
man is an Earl, a Niscount, Baronet or
what not, his sons are not Earls, Wis
counts or Baronets, and when he dies it is
his eldest son alone who assumes his titles
All this is entirely different in all the
countries of continental Europe. In every
one of them if man is a Count, or an
Earl, or even a Prince, every one of his
sons no matter if he have a dozen, is
also Count. an Earl, or Prince. In
many of these continental countries the
marriage of the lowest commoner with
the daughter of nobleman gives him q
perfect right to assume her fathers title.
OF what value, then, can a title be which
dozen or more individuals are legally
entitled to bear at the same time, and
which marriage may give gardener or
teamster or the veriest blackleg perfect
ly legal right to assume and to transmit
TO his children? French titles are, OF all
others, the most utterly valueess, for
France has been republic for nearly
quarter Of century, and all the titles of
her nobility have been wiped out of exist
ence by legislative acts, so that a French
man who lays claim to Il title at the pres
ent day is an object of ridicule to an i'm
mense ma GRITTY of his countrymen, and
is just as much of an impostor as any
American would be who should see fit to
call lltllStIl II L TlHtt VI u Noull. LII view
of this fact it seems simply incredible
that the daughter of late New York
millionaire who began life peddling a
mousetrap which he had invented and
died an immensely wealthy railroad mag
nate. should have given herself and 3d.
900, 600 in hard cash, as one did recently
for that most supremacy ridiculous moth
ing-the French title of Prince.
striking instance of the valuelessness
of an Italian title and of the misery to
which silly American girls doom them
selves by marrying foreign titles of any
kind is afforded by the case of Virginia
Knox, a Pittsburg girl who married an
soon found out that he was Il gardener
who had married the romantic daughter
of the Count III whose service he had
been, and who by the laws of Italy was
thus transformed into Count himself.
He beat and iusulted his American wife
from the nuptal night until she left him
Il few weeks afterward, and then followed
her To this country and distributed upon
the street circulars OBTAINING her char |
acter
The Marquis de Talleyrand Perigord is |
an alleged French "nobleman '(?) who has !
been so fortunate as to bag the persons
and dollars of two American heiresses.
lie first married Bessie Curtis of Boston,
and after squeezing her purse pretty hard
he left her for Mrs Adele Lvigston Stew
ems, the wife of Frederick W. Stevens, a
well-known New York lawyer. A scan
dad resulted. Mrs. Stevens left her hus-
band and went on foreign tour with her
Marquis She was the daughter of an i'm
mensely wealthy Connecticut manufacture
er, and had inherited large fortune from
her father, SO that she coul d amply afford
the luxury of Il ii tied lover. After an alb
sence OF three years she paid a visit TO
her husbsand's home in New York on
ona uirbt in 1874 Ha bar /, 70
door, but for the sake of his children per-
mitted her to secure a divorce from him
on the ground of desertion, he making no
defense. Mrs Stevens then rejoined the
Marquis de Talleyrand Perigord in Eu-
rope, and married him in 1886, his first
tanned a divorce from him some time be-
fore.
When an Englishman has no title. of his
own, but is forty-fifth cousin to some
Lord or Duke or puke, he pretixes the
word honorable to his name. Now half !
a loaf is said to be better than no bread,
and on the same principle an approach !
to Il title or the shadow of title is better
than no title at all, at least in the esti-
nation of some American women |
Frances Work, the daughter of Frank |
Work, the well-known New York lawyer
and horseman, married a fellow calling |
himself 1.-THE Honorable James Burke |
him in Delaware a few years ago on the |
ground OF desertion and non-support.
Emily Won Scaumberg, the only native |
American professional beauty except Jen- !
ME Chamberlain and Mrs Brown Potter. |
that America has ever ptroduced, mar |
ried, after she had passed the meridian
of life, the Honorable Colonel Hughes |
Hallet, who was shortly afterward ordered |
out OF the country house of friend |
whom he and his wife were visiting, on
account of his scandalous conduct with !
an lS-year-old girl named Selwyn.
Besides the Prince de Castellane, who |
recently married Anna Gould, this country
has been able to boast of two other
Princes who have married American heir
esses The stepdaughter of John W.
Mackey the great bonanza king, married |
the Prince Collona, and recently separated |
from him, while C.P. Huntington, the rail |
way magnate, resolved not to be outdone |
by Mackey, and purchasd Prince for his |
adopted daughter, Clara.
Elizabeth Parker GUSTS.