The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-04
(Chioago Times-Herald. }

London, November 21.-The Prince of
Sagan is dying in Paris. Helplessly and
hopelessly PROSTATE, his brain slowly
hardening, his once brilliant wit shattered,
his high elegancies of speech and man
ner fallen into the soil and latter of i'm,
becility, this descendant of Talleyrand.
this glass of fashion, this superb beau,
is ebbing out of the world vacant mad
man, who plays dominoes with his
nurses.
For more than twenty years the prince
and his wife have lived apart. 1t was
only the other day that the princess.
hearing that her husband had been strick-
en- down with incurable disease, sent for
him and had him conveyed to her house.
In this is found the much talked of 'rec-
onciliation'' between these two. In fact,
it can hardly be called by such name,
for the husband is as witIess as baby,
and his wife took him in because she
father of her son, Count Helle, die in a
clubroom. Indeed, the prince might have
been reconciled to his wife at any time
in the past score years bad he desired to
do so. But he treated her with that su-
preme contempt of which lie alone was
capable and never unbent to her. She
| is immensely rich and lives in mansion
in the Rue st. Dominique. De Sagan
was hopelessly i'll debt, but would listen
| to no offer of aid from his wife. When
the Prince and Princess of Wales visited
the Princess de Sagan in Paris the heir
to the throne of England hesitated about
taking his wife to the house of a woman
| separated from her husband The Prin-
| cess de Sagan sent to her husband and
made him an offer to pay all his debts if
he would preside for two hours over the
| establishment while the English royalty
was honoring it. But De Sagan simply
| ignored the proposition.
In point of family De Sagan is the
equal of any man in Europe. His name
and title are Bosom de Talleyrand-Pe
CORD, Prince de Sagan. The family goes
| back to the days of Hugh Capet. His
father was Duo do Talleyrand- Perigord,
Prince of Valencay and Sagan. His
mother was the last descendant of that
grand house of France, Nlontmorency
De Sagan is, or was, worthy descend
ant of the old Talleyrand. In his prime
nay, even until he was struck down with
disease, he was the grand seigneur. From
Talleyrand he got his satanic gestures
and his skeptical lip. He was above all
dandy-a finished type of the end of the
eighteenth century in the end of the nine
teenth; the anaohronistic remains of
social order that is rapidly passing
He was man to be talked about and
painted in portraits and preserved on
@ ina, and made prints of in books and
put away with the Brummels and the
Washes and the Brocades and the Aristip-
puses and left there. He did nothing of
any real value to anybody or anything.
But he was the soul of wit. He was
polished as fine as any human being can
be polished in this age of railroads and
telephones. His clothes were of modern
cut, but on him they looked like the
laces and the 1ong-skirted coats and the
shiny satin of 200 years ago. He was in
big demand in the drawing-room, and
even seriously minded men were curious
to meet him. De Sagan might have been
the French ideal of Austin Dobson's ar
chaic ballads. He was as interesting to
the cool observer as would be Roman
gentleman of the time of Augustus resur-
rected, perfumed and ornamented and
dropped in his toga into Paris. London,
Va,,ly
bit of papyrus Or the painted face on an
Egyptian mummy case.
This archaeological bit Of humanity did
other things than being elegant. He
fought duels. He took up insults from
stage plays which made material out of
his family and challenged one play wri-
ter, and even fought duel with him. in
which the bullets, after the usual flight
through the air, fell on the ground.
Honor was satiated.'' He was a savage
in a civilized or semi civilized communl.
ty, and he could not bear to see the
houses of .Montmorenoy and Talleyrand
made sport of and clapper-c lawed by the
sweaty palms of the vulgar. And, mar
velous to say, at this duel were present
twelve reporters for daily papers, with
the consent of the prince. One reporter
was put out because he was so inelegant
and undignified as to climb over the
fence
The descendant of Talleyrand married
the daughter of certain baron The
princess was Nile. Jeanne Anne Alexan-
drine Seiiliere. Her father had made q
tremendous fortune as sutler in the
French army. They found out that Mon
sieur lie Baron was supplying the soldiers
OF France with shoes the soles of which
were cardboard, and with clothing that
fell to pieces at the touch of a hand. They
found, too, that he had forged the govern
ment stamp. He was indicted and set
tied the case by merely blowing out what
brains he had. Now, De Sagan had
flung his money away in handfuls and
hfd even originated new ways OF squan
dering the wealth he had. Was he not
prince. And so he married Jeanne, and
the houses of Talleyrand and Montmoren-