The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-15
GOULD MILLIONS saUANDEREp
How Count De CasteIIane Is Spend
ing His Wife's Fortune.

Anna Gould's husband Count BOniface de
Castellane, still continues to amaze the world
by his reckless expenditure of his wife's for
tune. There would seem to be few possibili-
ties left to the little pink count. II he
should, however, fail to continue finding ways
and means of disbursing the entire SIS, co.,
900 left by Jay Gould TO his daughter Anna
his life would be a bitter disappointment.
His efforts in the money spending line have
thus far not only been strenuous and unfail-
ing, but actually picturesque.
His latest unique fancy is to run for the
chamber against man of brains. The out
come will undoubtedly point moral, but in
any event De Castellane's great spendthrift
career will not have been retarded On the
contrary it may have gained fresh impetus.
1t is curious circumstance that in Paris
the hotbed of frivolity, the home of f1atterers
and sycophants, the school of reckless
squander, despite the money that De Castel-
lane filings all about him, despite the title
that is SO cringingly adored in republican
countries, despite his youth, good looks and
undoubted wit, he should be generally char
acterized as most unpopular fellow.
If De Castellane could be given credit for
any motive other that the desire to spend
the proposition might be considered that in
effort on his part to gain the esteem and
recognition of really good society. from
which he has thus far precluded himself by
his untoward course.
The alarm of George Gould for his sisters
future welfare led him, it is said, to visit
Paris for the sole purpose OF expostuating
with the count. The visit was not without
issue. Since then De Castellane has gam
bled unremittingiy, with the seeming pur-
pose of demonstrating how much it is pos
sible for one man to lose.
Periodically Paris produces world re
nowned spendthrift, but none in the past
has come up to De Castellane. He not only
sinks money in preposterous enterprises,
but he actually gives 1t away. No losing
scheme, however wildly facnciful is with
out its merits in the eyes of De Castellane.
All Paris was dazzled last year when he
celebrated the Fourth of July in burning
thousands of dollars in a grand pyrotech-
nical display. That well-remembered event
marked an epoch in the life of the young
count; it was the first indication of his
laudible desire to create stir in the whole
The millions of dollars so thriftiIy &C
cumulated and carefully boarded up by the
late Jay Gould are speedily being spun into
circulation by the little nobleman, whom the
French have playfully dubbed "Beni, the
Powder Puff" With an almost Midaslike
power of turning everything into gold, the
more Count Boniface eXpends in the idle
amusement of himself and his friends the
more he seems to have. Never has he been
known to lack the ready cash for any under
said that his debts are fabulous, yet he is
ever not only willing, but able to increase
them.
In his latest fancy, that Of a political ca
reer, an ambition to represent the town Of
his name in the chamber of deputies the
cost, as computed by reliable men holding
public positions and knowing the expense
involved in running a campaign as he Is
running this one, will be no less than $500 000
francs
His palace In the Bots de Boulogne. though
1t is not near its completion, has cost more
than any mansion that has ever been put I'D
in this country Our most extravagant con-
ceptions, including such follies as the
"Storey mansion" ETC.. are mere card
houses by the side of it. The building is
a reproduction of the Grand Trianon. The
actual cost of the palace has not vet been
estimated, but 1t is well understood that the
sum originally proposed for the project has
been enlarged threefold, and the fact that
the property alone. which has been chosen
Bots de Boulogne and the Avenue de Mala-
koff, cost 100000 francs, may suggest faint
idea of the ultimate price of the modest resi-
dence when complete.
An $4,000 lawn party, a 100000 yacht a
2,500, coo franc campaign, a palace involving
a fortune in itself, ETC., to be calmly
regarded by the American girl as trifling
expenditures incumbent upon the purchase
of that invaluable bit of property, for which
so many Gould millions were originally
given, the title of the little pink nobleman
Anna Gould herself does not hold a close
hand upon her purse strings. She began by
100000 that was in her own possession
And since then has unquestionably led
Paris in matter Of fashions, which cannot
be done for a song. Her entertainments
women Of her set have despaired of keeping
pace with her.
1t is one of the little pleasantries of fate
that woman who married avowedly for a
title should despite her ambition retain
her despised individuality an American
girl, and having achieved the proud insig-
MIA, find it all but ignored by the people Of
two continents. who think of her, not as the
Countess de Castellane. but who refer to
herself and Count Boniface in all serious
ness as anna Gould and her husband.