The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1896-06-18
LIBEL ON THE EMPRESS TAOTL
Horrible History OF The Blood Countess"
Revived


Savage as the Abyssinians are, the
late Emperor John, in spite OF his
Christianity, having been accustomed
TO slice off the noses and lips of those
of his subjects whom he found max
ing use of either snuff or tobacco, there
is no truth in the story circulated in
the French and Italian press to the eff
feet that the EmpressTaoti is accus-
toned 10 battle in the blood of young
girls slaughtered for the purpose. the
object being to preserve her waning
beauty, says the New York Tribune.
This tale is utterly without foundation
and is so obviously derived from the
life of the Austrian Countess Nadasdy.
who lives in Austrian history and
poetry as Die Blut Grain" that il may
be worth while to relate briefly the
extraordinary crimes of the latter.
1t seems that in an evil moment the
countess, whose memory is commemo
rated in Vienna by the name of the
"Blut-Strasse,' given to a thoroughfare
crossing the site formerly occupied by
her palace, discovered, as she thought,
that human blood whitened and beauti-
fed the skin. From that time forth
she stopped at 10 crime in order to Sc
cure her horrible cosmetic More than
200 young and beautiful girls are known
to have been murdered. either by her
hands or by those of her aged maid,
Helen 10; her nurse, Catherine Beenet-
zky, or her dwarf, Fierko, at her Wen
nese palace alone, while at her castle
of Cseith, in Hungary. over 300 more
were put to death
The total number of her innocent vic
tins, according to absolutely official re-
ports, numbered $50 girls, and this
alarming figure would have been much
larger-as large, indeed, as that attri-
buted to her by legend-had not the
authorities at last interfered, the gov
ernor of the province in which her cas-
tie was situated-who, by the way, was
her first cOusin-being charged with
the duty of placing her under arrest.
1t seems that when he penetrated into
her apartments for the purpose he
y
maidens being bled to DEATH their
blood being carefully collected in a
large tub, into which the dreadful
countess was about to plunge.
Her two female accomplices were
burned at the stake and her dwarf
broken on the wheel, while the countess
herself, being of too lofty a birth and
ancient lineage to be subjected to ordi-
nary criminal procedure, was con-
demned to remain in close confinement
in her gloomy castle. According to ira
dition she was there starved to death.
Her portrait was shown at the castle
of Zay-Ugrooz in Hungary and is
that Of a singularly lovely wom-
an, dressed in the purest renaissance
style, with a dreamy, winning smile,
great black eyes and wealth of dusky
tresses, which Unframed the most deli
cate of snowy compilations. Count
Francis Nedasdy, her husband, far from
checking her crimes, rather encouraged
them than otherwise, for he was wont
to profess the opinion, rather common
in those days, that the lower classes
were merely meant to serve as pastimes
and instruments for the nobility. She
was barely Is when she married him
and was much devoted to him, although
his name is to this day eXecrated and
cursed throughout Hungary, thanks to
the absolute bestial ferocity and incred-
ible brutality which stained his other
wise brilliant military career.