Arizona republican., 1898-12-29

Sir Edward and Lady Colebrooke, the latter a sister of Almerfc Paget, (who married tho daughter of eX-Secretary Whitney) and of Arthur Paget (hus- 1 band of the daughter of the late Mrs Paran Stevens, of New Yock,) have had nothing but misfOrtunes since their re-
 turn from he United States, few
 weeks ago. They had hardly got back before their beautiful country seat in Scotland was burnt Q the ground. their children narrowly escaping with their lives, while all it's beautiful contents, comprising paip.ings and other art treasures as well as the greater part of Lady Colebrooke's jewelry, were lost ill the flames.
 And now they have had a fire in their town house in London, which has re- suited in the destruction of the entire basement, ground floor and first floor.
 This has been the second misfortune since their return, and superstitious people are now spaculating as to what will be the next one, since it is held that accidents of this kind always go by threes.
 That money goes far to oblIerate stormy antecedents in the eyes of at any rate 9 part of the titled closses of Great Britain is once mere demonstrat- ed by the announcemeat Of the engage mont of the widowed countess Of Egg mont to a younger brother of Sir Mus grave Frisco, of Crofton Hall, Cum
 -erland, one of the oldest houses of the Lakes district, having been established in the county since the time Cf the Norman conquest.
 Mir. Frisco, like Sir Albert Rollit, who married the widowed duchess or Sutherland, is probably of the opinion that no matter how notorious the past of the lady, money a;ones for it.
 Lucy Lady Egmont was in her day one of the most notorious de1ni-mon- daines in Lcndon, woman who was the friend and associate of Mabel Grey, who died as Princess Troubetzkoi; O. Hattie BIackford of Philadelphia, who, as Fanny Lear" ruined the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas, a close prisoner since his disgrace a quarter of Q cel tury ago, and of Kate Walsh, who is now countess Of Euston, and who will on the death of her husbands S father become duchess of Grafton. Indeed, il is asserted in London that the widowed countess of EgmOnt is a sister Of Lady Huston, and, like her, the daughter or 9 well known usurer in London.
 Lady Egmont was q very beautiful woman, and Ihe late earl married her before he succeeded to the Deerage. Many years afterwaTd, when he thought that people had forgotten her origin and her career, he made ar at tempt to introduce her to society, driv- ing in great state from his magnificent country seat, Cowdray Park, to the GCodwood races, his equipage being a magnificent affair, with posillions and outriders. while the countess was gCrg- cOusly dressed.
 All this spiendor. however, only serv- ed to make still more marked the ab- sOlutely crushing maner in which she was ignored by royal pe-sonage5. and by the aristocracy gathered beneath the grand old tree a. Goodwood. It was the first and last attempt of the earl to fOist his wife onto society, and ut terly crushed by the failure he lived from that time forth with her in com plete retirement. bsqueathirg to her at his death every vestige of his property that was not entailed, including Cow dray Hall
 The late earl having been childless, the peerage has now passed o his cou- sin. who has had a most adventurous career as 3 sailor before the mast, as a fireman, and as a janitor. He is mar ried to a barmaid, from whom, how ever, he separated.
 As in the case of many Of the houses of the British aristocr2cy, there is an hereditary curse upon the lords of Egg mont. The story goes that the fifth earl of Egmont was appealed to by a widow on his estates in the south of Ireland to postpone her eviction, owing to the fact that her only son was dan gerOusly i'll.
 But the earl was relentless, and had the widow and her son thrown out on- to the roadside, the sick man dying in q couple Of hours afterward from the result of exposure and the rough treat ment to which he had been subjected.
 The widow in her bitter anguish went down upon her knees by the corpse Of her boy, and cursed the earl 3s only an Irish peasant woman can curse, praying God that neither he nor any Of his succe ssOrs would ever have q son given to them to inherit the peer age.
 It would seem as if her prayer had been heard. For the fifth earl died without issue, and was succeeded by his cousin, the sixth earl. The latter died childless, and was succeeded by a cOu- sin, the late earl. The latter in turn had no children, and was succeeded by his cousin, the present earl, who, being from his wife, but not di- vorced, has no offspring, and has as next heir to his peerage his younger brother; now doing duty as a police man at Johannesburg
 Moreover this is not the only curse connected with the Egmonts. For Cowdray Park has a curse all of it's own. originating, it is said, with the nisdeeds and crimes of it's former own CTS, the lords of Montague.
 The last Viscount Montague of the CoWdray line perished in going down the falls Of the Rhine at Schafausen in a boat, feat which no one has ever at- tempted before CT since.
 His only si; ter and hairass. who mar ried Mir. PoTntz, saw with her own eyes the death by drowning of her two cnly sons at the neighboring seaside Village Of Aldwick
 Let ne add that by a strange cofnci- T~-0 tN