The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-09
her. she was a glorious woman to look

her' she was glorious woman 70 looA
at.
She wore the head dress of The imper-
ial court of Russia and the long train.
She seemed almost unconcious then CT
the extraordinary charm of her half
awakened feminine personality.
She was small, so well propo-tioneti,
she seemed slender.
Her hair was a great mass Of tawuy
red.
Her teeth were small and even, with lips
thin but mobile.
Her deep brown eyes glowed with ex-
pressiNe Intensity.
The nose, a trifle too retrousse to be
beautiful, was in strict Ike 'rirg with the
DiqIIan; eivacity that was the key ucte
of her character.
Her skin possessed that marvellous
transparency that frequently that fire.
quetnly accompanies red hair.
Eugene Noroff. the skilled cavalier, for
got her physical attractions in the won
der her strange magnetic influence ex-
erted upon him.
Her personality was vibrant, vivacious,
almost wierd in IT'S barbaric passion.
She drove men mad with love OF her.
1t was her amusement
AT last the red gold Siren, as she was
called in st. Petersburg. did fall in love.
1t was a fierce mad passion, and she
married the only man who was ever able
to kindle one responsive spark in her
sphinx-Hke heart.
He was not Eugene oroff, he was a
great prince.
And she the Princess Marie Narcisse
Fedorowski Engiitzchef.
Society and the imperial court watched
the flame and the moth.
Women whose hopeless low had been
given to Eugene NoroH wept that their
idol should suffer so.
The men, the husbands whose wives
had fiirted with his ''beaux yeux" laugh-
ingly. said scornfully: His turn? About
t'mew
The empress gave Eugene Norof con-
sulship in far away Oran, Algeria
During fifteen years the consul returned
to Russia several times.
Each time ne saw her only aggravated
his mad infatuation for the princess.
She grew more dazzlingly beautiful as
she developed to the rlpeness Of near
perfection BaIzas says no woman ever ac-
quires under thirty.
Eugene Noroff, his heart full Of sentI-
ment and passion pleaded for his love,
The finished coquette Haunted her cap
tive before the social whirl OF all Rus
sia
THE helpless lover, no longer youthful
for Russian, grew worn and gray.
II ed IA
would plunge in mad ,dissfpat ion-for a
moments respite for thee aching OF his
heart, for a rest for his weary brain,
that kept repeating, II love her." 20
He became a slave to. the insiduous OBJ
livion cocaine produces to lure victims to
the end.
He drank the hot liquors the children
of the great white czar love. The result
was often long spells of illness.
At last the enormities became 30 ser
ious a scandal the emperor was obliged
to revoke the consVlship.
He sank lower and lower. He was
midway on the downward path.
Only at long intervals did his former
manhood assert itself.
Occasionally he would assume the gar5
of well-groomed man and call on the
only woman he ever loved.
When he limited at suicide she would
laughinly say:
"You cannot die. our soul Is mine. How
could you die unless allowed your spir-
It freedom?''
The emperor faced q scandal almost at
the foot Of the throne. The easoiest way
to end the matter was to Danish the
renegade.
Eugene croft was ordered to leave Rus
STA. His father gave him a sum Of money
Of many thousands. yet small to 4 liber~
tine who had squandered millions.
Facilis descensus Averni.
With ambition dead and a heart full Of
blighted hopes, Eugene oroff reached
New York.
Old, broken in health. almost penniless,
the man who once possessed everything
men strive for struggled with the horrible
effort to gain a livelihood in America
He spoke French and German Sc we'll
he managed for a while to get EMPLOY
ment without a fluent knowledge OF En-
glish.
More than once starving during these
years. he was obliged to apply for aid TO
the Russian consul-general.
The recollection OF his former opul,nc4
was like dead sea apples.
The fading away of ambition left his
life Without an object
All that remained Of his past roseete
life was a bundle Of faded letters. writ
ten in a delicate feminine hand, and the
photograph OF a beautiful woman wilt g
sensuous cameo-like profile might have
belonged TO Sappho or a great society
queen.
To these mementos Of happier days he
chung with the tenaoity OF despair.
At last he lad no Itrrei the cOu. 'ee 20
see the beautiful mock ne lips that had
tauntingly said You shall not die" sLa',e
tempungly from the photograph.
He read the lines he had written he
sphinx-like Heire:
with her horrible taions she wounisd
me.
While she thrilled my soul with a kiss"
He packed the souvenirs OF his love
and mailed them 10 a friend in this city.
Eugene NoroT. with despair in his soul.
walked through the shady labarynths os
Central Park until he found a quiet Sc
Guided nook
Then he shot himself twice. Once
through the head-to end his agony-and
again through the heart for the great
love in that NE seemed 10 exist after the
cold OF death was creeping over the clay
Of Eugene Noron
SAST0RHA.
ssantAs HhM Yu Rss nssE sszEs |
S EANI+@