Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-06-12
clothes and went to find his boyar.

! you small sums. Then with your con
, sent sold small lots of land, and duly
gave you the purchase money. After
| ward. also with your consent, 1 sold
larger lots and then whole farms and
domains. These l bought myself
made fortunate investments, and the
result is that today l am the owner OF
everything here, and if you had only
J what remains to you, you would not
/ be able to pay for the fete you are 10
give tomorrow
THE boyar burst into furious pas
sion, and the steward, after calmly
| listening to him, remarked:
".All can yet be arranged if you
sacrifice your pride. My son, Cap
tain Poltavtzef, whom you know and
are fond of. is here. He loves Mile.
| Pachkoff, and if you will proclaim his
betrothal with your daughter, will
give you back all your former prop
erty.'
can hour afterward the steward re-
joined his son and said to him:
Go to the castle and embrace
your fancee'
Mile. Pachkoff married Captain Pol
tavtZeff. She had six children. One of
her daughters married General Skobe-
left, brother of the famous General
Skobelef, brother of that fascinating
Tina Skobeleff, Duchess de Leuchten-
berg. This story is related at length
because it is interviewer with the life
of Princess Catherine Radziwill.
General Skobeleff met Princess
Catherine Radziwill and fell madly in
love with her The princess refused
to elope with him. Skobeleff declared
that her refusal was his death SEN
tence. The princess did not take the
Skobeleff died in the midst fan orgy
that he had organized for that very
purpose. 1t is asserted now that Sko-
beliefs death, which was at the time
surrounded with great mystery, was
due to chloroform having been admin
earnest request. Skobeleff's death
plunged Princess Catherine Radziwill
into a sort of nervous prostration.
She loved him, and her remorse was
terrible. For two years she retired
from society. She afterward reap
peared in st. Petersburg, where she
entertained lavishly, and afterward
went to London, where, at dinner
given in her honor, she became ac-
quainted with Cecil Rhodes. She had
already been attracted by the halo of
renOwn that surrounded the 'Napo-
leon of the cape and had firmly per-
suaded herself that she loved him.
Russian medal that he had admired.
Cecil Rhodes accepted the gift and
they met frequently.
p CAS- is we'll known, Cecil Rhodes
was an inveterate woman hater. He
was fond of repeating that woman
was barrier to mans noblest and
highest career He often declared
that no woman could ever penetrate
his existence and dominate his facul-
ties. On the other hand. Princess
Catherine Radziwill, whose charms no
man had yet been able to withstand,
Rhodes, and she certainly had cause
to believe that she had succeeded in
exercising over him an unlimited
sway. When this occurred Cecil
Rhodes was obliged to start for south
Africa.
Princess Catherine Radziwill
seemed absolutely devoted to him
she left London for St. Petersburg.
having in her possession quantity of
shares of the chartered company. She
negotiated these shares in Russia
after some little difficult, and lived for
a while most sumptuously, but she
was always haunted by the recolIec-
ton of the man who had consoled her
for the loss of Skobeleff Skobeleff's
death weighed heavily on her con-
science. She imagined that Cecil
Rhodes was as passionately in love
with her as Skobeleff had been. She
feared that if Cecil Rhodes felt him
self abandoned by her he might COM
nit some desperate act that would
cause her renewed remorse. She
came to Paris, where she sold for $780,
900 some of her jewels that were real
ly worth $4,000. She then had her
portrait painted by Benjamin Constant
and started for south Africa. She
there found Cecil Rhodes, who mean
while had recovered from his infatua-
ton and had regained his equillib-
rum. Rhodes was now anxious to
end a situation which he regarded as
an insurmountable obstacle to his
ambition.
Princess Radziwill, broken hearted,
agitted and deceived as to her hopes,
plunged into all sorts of enterprises,
guided solely by her restless spirit
and ambition. She travelled hither
and thither, and at last became in
volved in pecuniary embarrassments
from which Rhodes at first relieved
her. Among her ventures was the
publishing of a newspaper, which she
intended as means of aiding the re-
alization of Rhodes plans. The news
paper attained a measure of success,
but did not compensate for the sac
rifces that it imposed upon her. At
the moment when her pecuniary en-
barrassments were greatest Cecil
Rhodes managed to avoid meeting
her.
at was then that the world learned
with stupefaction that this woman. al
lied to the Pachkoffs, to the Dach-
koffs, to the Rostcpchines, to the
RZewuskis, to the Tachkoffs, to the