The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-21
The Death of the Worlds Ris st And
Most Eccentric of Women

The cable dispatches the
death in Paris of Mrs. J. c. Aver. widow
of the famous patent medicine manufac-
turer, and one of the most remarkable
women in the world, says w. L. Curtis
in The Chicago Record. She was the
richest woman in Paris. had the costliest
diamonds. the largest number of gowns,
the finest horses and carriages and spent
more money than any woman in that
city. Her wealth was estimated at SO
co., COO; her income at 81, 900 coo, and she
spent every dollar of il. Although she
was a liberal contributor TO charities and
assisted many poor American young men
and women who appealed to her for aid,
most OF her expenditures were for the
qualification of her love of display. She
purchased one of the largest and most
magnificent private palaces in Paris. To-
Gated in the ariStocratic ain German
quarter, and furnished 1t at a fabulous
expense, and about ten years ago, soon
after she took possession, gave a series
OF entertainments that aStOniShed the
most e~Xtravagant princes of Europe.
OF late years she has been in the habit
of giving her entertainments elsewhere
for a peculiar reason. 1t is said that
she never appeared in public twice in the
same gown; that she purchased from 200
to 300 costly dresses every year and that
she never gave one away, but when it
was once worn it was placed upon a wire
mummy and set up in one of the rooms of
her house, where she could look at it and
enjoy its beauties herself. Her collection
of gowns increased so rapidly that it fill
ed her great house from cellar to gar
ret.
Mrs. Aver was the best known woman
in the American colony. She was one Of
the best known women in Paris. She was
as familiar to the public as Sarah Bern
hardt. Her appearance was as peculiar
as her eccentricities. In her desperate
hight against death and age she employed
a small army of attendants. She had a
skillful physician employed whom she is
said to have paid %, 900 franc a year for
his exclusive services. He examined her
carefully every morning and evening and
gave her remedies for the slightest symp-
toms Of an ailment that he could per-
ceive. She had a messeur from Sweden,
said to be the most skillful in Europe,
who rubbed her twice a day: she had a
maid who did nothing but paint her face
and her eyebrows. Like the wife Of Nero
she bathed in milk, and there was not a
trick known to the art Of beauty that she
did net C1act1ce in order to give her a
youthful appearance. Although she was
oven 20, ct a distance she looked like a
woman of 30, but when one observed her
closely her face was so completely made
up that she seemed to wear a mask.
So rich a woman could not, of course,
escape ad~venturers, but Mrs. Aver was a
Shrewd woman ana was ~impervious to
their Establishments. AT one time it was
reported thai she was engaged to Don
Carlos, the pretender to the Spanish
throne, and intended to marry him and
fun nish him the means to recover owe
1t is probable tnat there were negotia-
tons between his representatives and the
American millionaire, but how far they
advanced will never be known.
Mrs. Aver was a genuine Yankee. She
was born and bred in Lo we'll, Mass, and
married Dr.. Aver while he was a drug
clerk in that city. She came of good fam
lily, and at one time was a school teach
er. DR.. Ayers first medicine was a cough
remedy, which proved so profitable that
he abandoned the general drug business
, and went tc compromising patent medi-
cines exclusively until he became the
largest manufacturer in that line in the
world.