The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-18
N MAJORITY of men. I suppose. are U of the opinion that they are con-
 ,,nisan,,rs nf rronnen. hut fhev are

noisseurs of women; but they are mistaken l met yesterday a connoisseur of women. She is Madame Charlotte de Goliere Davenport, a woman well known in the exclusive circles of Boston, New York, Baltimore, and who is certainly one of the most remarkable women who has ever visited this country.
 This Is Madame Davenports first visit to the south, but she should be no strang- CT to people who keep in touch with the leading thinkers of the world. Madame Davenport was born in Paris of Russian parents. She is brilliant, scin- tilating and magnetic. and is 72 years old. She is the mother of eighteen boys, and could pass for the sweetheart of her youngest son, so youthful is her appear ance, so well preserved are the contours of her face and figure, so girlish is her laughter so irresistible is her entire per- sonality
 She owes this to her system of thought and physical habits.
 'You will not have a contour left in ten years" said Madame Davenport to
  woman who said that she took hot baths every night to reduce her flesh, and who admitted that she ate the richest of din- ners. A
 Madame Davenport believes that spir- itual perfection is the outgrowth of physi- cal development. She believes in the sub conscious mind which must be awakened
 
 She believes in mental suggestion, but her system Is in no degree allied with the principles of Mrs Eddy. Madame Daven- port believes, however, that the teachings advanced by Madame Blavatsky, Prentice Mulford and others are helpful but in phy which she teaches, she does not over- look the physical development of the body in striving to reach the spiritual.
 Physical retrogression leads to mental retrogression," said Madame Davenport, "and our daily religion should be to study the cure and improvement of physical self which always leads to spiritual growth.
 ITO bring about the best results h my work I have studied hygiene, physical culture. dietetics, the power of repose and suggestive therapeutics. 2.
 Madame Davenport is a vegetarian She believes that women should be very care full of what they eat and drink. Gossip and malice are enemies to good looks, and women too frequently resign themselves to conditions they believe are inevitable as they grow old. Madame Davenport says that women should refrain from thinking of age Her system of thought makes them grow young. It lifts them to higher plane that is. if they are receptive. if they are comprehensive.
 Edward Everett Hale has said that Madame Davenports philosophy will be a world-accepted theory fifty years from now. Cardinal Gibbons once remarked that her work was the first step to nor ality. sf
 Madame Davenport is graduate of the Libault school in Paris, where she studied metaphysics under Dr. Bernheim She was a pupil of Dr. La Fontaine of St. Petersburg, who considered her a magnificent exponent of physical training. In addition to diplomas from these schools, Madame Davenport is the only woman who holds diploma from the famous fencing master Chelhin. She was also pupil of Count de Chambard. At 72 she Is the most skilled fencer in this country. In New York at one of her fencing lessons three hundred men were exhausted while her own marvellous skill and vitality showed no evidence of the mornings work. Madame Davenport had the physical training of Nordica, Bern hardt and Lady Randolph Churchill Mrs Potter Palmer, Mrs. George Gould and numerous well known Americans are her pupils
 Madame Davenport is stopping at the Hillman with her husband MT. Daven- port is a southerner and is distinguish ed journalist He is a special correspond ent of the London Times.
 Madame Davenport received a number of callers in her apartments yesterday.
 While she is so brilliant in conversa- ton and discusses so concisely the prin- ciples of her work, and all that it in- wolves, 1t is rather difficult to give in an interview the theories she advances It is like describing a subtle harmony to some one who has never heard it.