Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-07-09

a few days before she attempted Y
her life. Though she has spent her :
n oney IavishIy, yet she has accumu- 7
lated 2 considerable fortune. and ii IS !
probably owing to this fact that some
OF the Paris papers have attributed her
desire 1or deatn to the fear she hal Of
some CT her INSCRIPTIONS assacjares,
who have recently been writing her
threatening letters demanding large
sums. She thought" says the Temps,
that she was doomed; that she lived
in a SORT of mysterious Venice, in which
assassins lUrked at every turn.
OF the women in PARIS whose beauty |
or wit have made chem famous, out |
whose private lives, like Lame de
Pougy's, might serve 20 point a moral, |
there. are not few. They are pat Of |
the brilliant show IN the R0is every !
pleasant afternoon, riding in regal
state in their splendid carriages, drawn
by horses whose equals cannot be
found outside the stables of princes.
/ Their pictures are in every shop win
dow along the bouleYards, and every
Partisan has a fund of gossip about
their personalities and careers. Most
of them have had, at one time or al
other, some connection with the stage,
either having graduated from it OF TO
it, and very few, like Nine. de Merode,
have achieved a real success as dancers
or singers at the opera.
All of them seem to have passion
that is quite oriental of accommodating as
great a store of jewels as possible, so
that they may blaze in gems from
top to toe. LANE de Pougy's pearls, for
instance, are famous throughout Eu-
rope and make her the envy of even
royalty itself.
In winter, unless they are fitting
some ambassador, prince, or million
aire, they generally may be found in
Paris, where they inhabit palaces so
splendid in their appointments that
only the high royalties who visit the
: French capital can afford to lodge as
, we'll. In summer they tread their
primrose paths of dalliance toward the
, mountains or the sea. Not a few Of the
! ancient chateaus of the Pyrenees and
; Auvergne once the homes of nobility
have passed into their hands and echo
through the long summer days with
I their revelries. Some have villas al
: Monte Carlo, Mentone and Nice, where
: they pass a few weeks each year so as
to be within easy reach of the gaming
, tables, across whose green cloth slips
much of their gold.
=. It is these women who set the fash
l ions of Paris, and so of the world. Be-
fore them the great milliners and dress
. makers of the French capital bow sub
missively. At the races at Longchamps
and Auteuil they are the most brilliant
part of the show.
The ruin that they work among fool
ish youth, and still more foolish age, is
= past computation. A faint echo of il
u creeps into the papers from time tt
. time in a tale of suicide or a scanda,
lous story that the divorce courts bring
" to light. But ofteneSt their whilOm
Z protectors, when they Rave squandereC
i their money and fnd themselves NJ
g longer welcome, gather up what re
Il mains of their wrecked fortunes AM
amid the feYer-haunted jungles O
+ Tonquin, the burning sands of Algeria
or along the pestilential lowlands O
> the Madagascar coast, paying fo1
e months of riotous dissipation witt
3 years of weary life.
II Four of the most famous and beauti
t full of these gay Parisiennes aside ron
II Lame de Pougy are perhaps Cleo Ok
Merode, Agnes Sorel, Yvonne Sautro
l. and Emilienne d'AIancon. Of thest
Il Mile. de Merode, she Of the saint-likt
) face, has been attracting the most no
t tice Of late.
: She is a dancer at the Paris opera
i and enjoys the distinction of having re
:. Gently been designated by popular vote
l, instituted by one of the newspapers a!
q being the most beautiful woman on the
u French stage. She has velvety darl
eyes, dazzling teeth, finely rounded
o figure and a languishing grace that has
:, no modern counterpart. It was these
d attractions that tempted King Leopold
d of Belgium from the path Of rectitude
S when he was in Paris a short time ago
y He went thither, it is said, for the
f furtherance of some ambitious pOliti-
# cal purposes, but before he had been q
e week III the French capital he was the
# abject slave Of Mile. de Merode, AMI al
l. thoughts save Of her seemed to be bali
e ished from his mind. So OPEN and OBJ.
e vious was his infatuatIon that Paris
e talked Of nothing else and nicknamed
e the object of his affections ''Merodo-
pold" For weeks this mature and
staiG monarch remained lettering N his
f inamorata's dressing room at the thea
t ter, leaving the cabinet at Brussels to
r have crises at it's own sweet will and
!, turning a deaf ear to the implacable
: anger Of his wife, as well as to the
storming of the politicians at his bad
8 morals and neglect of duty. He even
had the audacity, finally, to bring Mile.
! de Merode to Brussels, having secured
+ her an engagement at the opera there.
= She is back in Paris now and Leopold is
, striving desperately, but SO far without
success, to restore domestic peace.
Another thing which has drawn pub
lie attention to Mile. de Merode of late
is that a nude statue, LA Danseuse,"
: has been exhibited lately at the Paris
salon. She acknowledges that she was
the model for the head, which is an ex-
act and faithful likeness, even to he
BOtticelli Wav of wearing the hair