The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-10-14
ACTRESS
HAD TO GO.
Mrs. Ogden GOelet Drives Lame
de POugy From Hotel.
American Woman Creates a
Sensation at HOmburg Resort.
BEST ROOMS.
Schemed Against Actress Oc-
cupant and Was Successful.
Idol of Paris Inundated and
Compelled to Retreat.

tract much attention in New York, but
Paris has talked much about it. The
fact that Mrs. Ogden Goelet should
have Lame de Pougy expelled from a
hotel in Hamburg may not seem re-
marbab BILE in America, but in the French
capital it is considered most extraor-
binary indeed.
Lame de Pougy is an important per-
sonage in Paris, and her fame extends
throughout all Europe. She is an
actress and celebrated as a beauty. For
years she has been a queen of that
brilliant world which makes laws unto
itself, and among her VOtarieS are men
of great wealth and position.
Mile. de Pougy is used to having her
own way. Had any of her friends in
Paris been told that an American wO-
man, no matter how high her social
position or great her wealth, could have
succeeded in having the actress eX-
PEELED from a summer hotel, particu-
larly in Homburg, they would have
secuted the suggestion.
OF course Mrs. GOelet has not dis
cussed the incident. Naturally she
would not be drawn into controversy
with Mile. Lame de Pougy. But the
Figaro, the GaulOis and other Paris
papers give many columns to the Incl
dent.
Mile. de Pougy says that Mrs. Goe-
let caused her to be most severely hui
inflated.
I had done nothing, mark you. moth
ing!" she writes. My conduct had
been more proper and reserved than
that of any other woman in HOmburg.
My reputation was alleged am an
actress and all that, of course.
But what of it? Are the guests of
hotel to be answerable for their past,
present and future? When ones ideas
are so easily bruised one does not go
roaming about in summer hotels and
bathing places and, of all spots of the
earth, not in Homburg, the recognized
rendezvous of the fastest set in the
European capitals
AT any rate, I had been. as I just
stated, behaving like an angel. 1 was
in poor health. 1 had gone to HOmburg
to get the benefit of the waters and not
with any intention of taking part in the
pleasures of the place.
L was accompanied only by a friend
of mine, the wife of a French officer.
Both of US dressed simply and kept ex-
ceedingly quiet. So much so, In fact,
that although 1 am, dare say, pretty
we'll known, went unnOtced, ana my
presence in HOmburg was ignored eX-
cept by the Duke of Cambridge, Lord
Carnovan, Lord OnslOw, Prince Henri
d'Orleans and few others Of my most
intimate friends, all of whom respected
nv desire not to mingle in the turmoil
of social festivities.
THE whole trouble between Mrs.
Goelet and myself came about IN TINS
way: When I first arrived in HOmburg
I went to the Ritter's Park hotel and
engaged the suite of rooms just vacated
by Mrs. Mackay of New York They
were the best in the hotel Mrs. Goelet,
who arrived shortly after I did, was
compelled to go into rather modest
quarters a floor or two above mine pc
cause of the scarcity of accommoda-
apparently she deemed it imperti-
nent of me to decline the Overtures she
made through the manager to exchange
apartments. She began campaign
a gainst me Her manner toward me
was openly offensive. She had tried to
get the Ritter's Park hotel manage
ment to invite me out, suggesting as
plausible pretext that she had engaged
Mrs Mackay's suit by telegraph, and
that it had been given me by mistake
I knew that was not true, and so re-
belled vigorously. My good chums, the
Duke of Cambridge, Lord OnsIow and
Prince Henri dOrleanS, protested so
sharply in my behalf that the hotel
people did not dare to press an open
war between Mrs. Goelet and several
American millionaires on one side and
myself supported by a little but pow
erful crowd of faithfuls. on the other
At this point Mile. de Pougy writes
few things which are not nice-venom-
GUS feminine stings. The actress has
so long lived in an atmosphere where
she has had to depend upon her nlmble
wit for defense and attack that she is
past mistress of the art of saying I'M
pleasant things.
1.-THE climax of Mrs. Goelet's rage was
reached I am told" Mile. de POugy
continues. when her son actually sum-
moned up enough courage to speak in
defense of my position and finally to
declare that he thought l was the most
beautiful woman in Homburg, the most
elegantly simple.
THAT young man knows thing or
two don't you think?"
Then Mile. de Pougy became fully con-
scious OF dramatic possibilities of
the situation, says that Mrs. GOelet
finally prevailed upon the manager of
the hotel to suggest to Mile. de Pougy
that she find shelter elsewhere. The
actress declares that the American wo-
man threatened to ruin the hotel by
withdrawing her own patronage and
that of American travellers. And Mile.
de Pougy wants to know if this is the
much-vaunted American spirit of fair