The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-28
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 A FEUDAL COURT IN PARIS.
The Curious Hobby of Count Roselly
 De Lorgues.

The Curious Hobby of Count Roselly
 De Lorgues.
 Cab1egrams from France announce the death at the age of ninety-three years of Count Roselly de Lorgues, the head of one of the oldest and most famous families of France, who re- membered distinctly the events of the early part of the century, who was a page of Napoleon the Great, and pre- served more than any other noble in France the formalities and pretensions of the imperial court Count Roselly lived in an ancient and stately mansion man, in Paris, where he maintained a court similar to those of the feudal dukes of the last century He was surrounded by small and diminishing coterie of admirers, who attended his receptions which snuff ff-boxes in their hands and kissed his withered fingers with as much reverence as good Catholics show when they salute the Pope On stated days the Count re- ceived the public, seated upon Q gild- ed throne under a. canopy of crimson velvet, at the end of magnificent audience chamber. Beside him stood his chamberlain, who also performed the duties of a steward and manager of his estates, and, although other wise a sensible man, of modern ideas, he was sufficiently devoted to his venerable master to play an humble part in the preposterous performances that occasioned so much criticism and rdicule among the people of modern Paris.
 Most of those who attended the Counts receptions were actuated by curiosity. They put on their dress suits or their military uniforms in the middle of the day, drove to his resi- dence, climbed two or three flights of marble stairs, which lined on either side by footmen with powdered hair and gorgeous livery, inscribed their names and residence in the great visi- tors book, which bore the family crest in gold repouse and was bound with heavy clasps of the same metal. They waited in the anteroom until the doors of the audience chamber were thrown open, when they saw the dimi- nutive figure of a weaZen-faced old man, as brown and as bloodless as a mummy, wrapped in a robe of ermine and crimson velvet, sitting like king to receive the obeisance of his subjects. As they approached the throne each
 man bowed as low as the courtiers of the Empire used to do, and the women made the elaborate courtesy that has not been outside of illustrated novels since the fall of the Bonapartes. Then, as they came nearer, the chamberlain, who was arrayed in the costume of the sixteenth century, would announce their names. As he did So the bows and courtesies were repeated
 and the gracious Count extended his palsied hand to be kissed.
 Some years ago, when I was making | the collection of relics of Columbus | that was exhibited in the convent of La Rabida at the Worlds Fair, l par ticipated in one of these performances i for Count Roselly de Lorgues was the most ardent and devoted admirer ot Columbus then living and was believed | to control lot of precious manuscripts | which Columbus is supposed to have 
 | left with the monks in the convent o1
 Las Cuevas, near the city of Seville where he died. He was also regarded
 as the highest authority concerning al things that related to the discoverer | and was the author of a biography
 more fulsome and fiattering than any
 other that has been published. Fol | forty-three years he has devoted mos
 of his time and a large amount of mon | ey to induce the Pope to canonize Co., lumbus, and secured petitions signed
 by millions of people all over the world
 asking the holy father to place the dis | coverer of America upon the list O.
 saints. It was the one absorbing am bition of his life. He made many pill
 grimages to Rome, contributed vas
 sums of money to the church, endeav
 ored to interest the sovereigns of Flu
 rope in his mission, and nothing tha
 human power could do was left un