, 1899-03-29

CIV
sions For Their own Use Ever Live
to Occupy Them-If Not Death Then
Disaster bars the Doors.
An instance has recently occurred of
a well known man refusing for super
s~titious reasons to live in a beautiful
house he had built until some one else.
a perfect stranger. had occupied it for
some little time.
If ever there has been a superstition
that appears justified by solid fact and
precedent. II is that which prevails
about the binding of a house. Few
who erect costly mansions for their
own use ever live to occupy them. An
i'll fate seems to bar the doors of these
abodes upon which has been lavished so
much thought and money and hope.
| Sometimes it is death and sometimes it
is ruin that overtakes the owner.
So widespread and so powerful is this
| strange superstition that one finds ever
an intellectual mar like Lord Salisbury
insisting on leasing to strangers for sew
eral months the beautiful home which
he has had erected for himself at Beau
| lieu. on the Riviera. before he will con
| sent to occupy it himself or to permit
any member of his family to cross its
threshold.
Lord Salisbury. however, has only to
look round him in London to find ample
grounds for the adoption of such *
| traordinary and at first sight unneces-
sary prrcautions. The completion of
Lord Revelstoke's palace in Charles
street conceded with the bankruptcy of
the great firm of Barring Bros. of
which he was the principal. and it has
remained even since an exquisite monu-
ment to the futility of human hopes and
ambition.
Mr.. Sanford had hardly finished re-
building the exterior of his magnificent
mansion in Carlton House terrace when
the collapse of Argentine securities &C.
Cured. involving him in ruin and COM
polling him to dispose of it to Mrs.
Mackay. of bonanza" fame.
The Marquis de Santurce, having
purchased the neighboring house from
Lady Granville, spent u fortune upon
the reconstruction and adornment of
the interior. But before the work was
completed he in turn was overtaken by
the terrible disaster which befell the
well known Anglo-Spanish banking
house of Murrieta. of which he was the
; chief director. and he had no alterna-
tive but to sell the house to Mr.. w. w
Astor.
The downfall of Hudson, the railway
king, occurred at the same time as the
completion Of the great house he was
having built for himself at the Albert
gate entrance to Hyde park, while in
the same manner Baron Albert Grant
witnessed the piecemeal sale of the gor-
geous palace he had erected at Kensing-
ton, but was never destined to occupy
This is why there are, comparatively.
SO few new mansions of a palatial char
acter either in London or the country.
Persons possessed of adequate mean
and in need of either a town or country
residence prefer as II rule to purchase
homes that have been lived in to build
ing new ones. If they do any building
at all they, In general, cause it to take
the form of additions to or alterations
of editices no longer new.
Even then the owners endeavor to
safeguard themselves from the POSSIBLE
ity of danger by letting their residences
for the express purpose. as they say in
France. of ''wiping the dust from off
the plastered walls.
Nowhere is this superstition more
powerful than in Bavaria, where many
of the most picturesque spots, especial
ly in the mountainous districts. are
adorned with fairylike palaces. None Of
them has been entirely completed, for
insanity and violent death overlook the
brilliant and accomplished King Lud-
wig. who conceived their design, but
unfortunately persisted before their
completion.
Nor even have the builders of many
of the splendid structures that adorn
the French metropolis been more fortu-
nate. Thus NJ. Jules Grevy had scarce
ly completed the construction of his
lordly mansion in the Avenue d'Iena
when the scandalous behavior of his
son-in-law, Daniel Wilson. overwhelm-
ed him with disgrace and compelled
him to resign the presidency of the re-
public amid a perfect hurricane of pub
lie obloquy.
The Empress Eugenie's only sister,
the late Duchess of Alba, had not occu-
pied the lovely palace erected for her
in the Champs Elysees more than a few
months before she was seized with a
sudden illness and died there in a man
ner so mysterious as to give rise to ru-
mors of foul play. The building was
subsequently pulled down.
Another equally unlucky house is
that now owned by the widow Of the
late Baron Hirsch Situated at the cor
ner of the Rue de l'Elysee and of the
Avenue Gabriel. it was erected by the
Due de Mouchy. He had not occupied
the house more than a few weeks before
it was the scene of a daring burglary
that covered its noble owner with ridi-
cule. Two months after. his daughter
died there so suddenly and under such
strange circumstances that the duchess
would not consent to remain longer in
such an i'll omened house. London
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