The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-06

I0ANNN ANoPOAtOii, Wdb ct OF. lgtitlid, Vh Il
thilde, daughter of bigamous desertior
and Wurtembourg princess. was mar
| rted in 1910. while still young girl to tho
eccentric and immensely rich Prince An
| atole Demidoff. He who was to become
Napoleon III was at the time a esdy
adventurer living as policeman in Lon
don or lodging his boarding house bill at
Bordcntown, N. J. where he was not able
to pay the value of a farmers pig shot
by him in error when out cunning for
rabbits.
| When Mathide was not set 20 years old
she thus became Demidoff, but the mar
riago with a Catholic offended the Gear
Nicholas, who cut off Domidoff from all
connection with the Empire He and
Mathilde managed to live together for five
years, after which time there was a sep
aration of persons and property. but IL
divorce.
| Mathildc was now free, I'm sense. She
had already a fortune of her own from
the Wurtembourg princess, her mother,
and Demidoff allowed her a handsome ALI
mony.' She" established Paris salon that
became a center Of Napoleonic plotting.
and it is certain that her heart and soul
were given up to seating her poor adven-
turer cousin on the throne of resurre It.
led Empire. In 1919, when all her plans
succeeded so wonderfully and the Revoiu-
tion made Louis Napoleon "Prince-Presi-
dent" she went to preside over his house.
hold, he a bachelor. And she continued
to preside thus during the figst years of
his Empire.
But how could Mathilde have married
NapoleoL III? She herself was not d.
vorced, but only separated from her Dem
idoff, who Sied only in 1879. And Napo-
leon III would never have dared to have
had her divorce for the sake of marrying
her. because TO have so braved the senti-
ment of the French masses at that epoch
would have been fatal to him.
Then came 'the Spanish Girr'-Eugenie.
| Something less than 100 years before.
! when Louis XVI came to the throne of
France, he set there beside him the beau
tiful Austrian princess whom the world
pities as Marie Antoinette. At once for
| the French people she became 1.-THE Aus
trian Girl" Doubtless If some bachelor
President of the United States should
send to Russia or Italy for a bride we
ourselves would call her for a while THE
Russian Girl or THE italian Girl"
That Mathilde got on badly with EuGe-
mic is notorious. Tho beautiful golden
haired young Empress with her wonderful
dark Spanish eyes triumphed without ef-
fort over the Emperor's plain little cousin.
This other quilted the palace, and until
the fall of the Second Empire the party
that. she gathe-e round her was noto-
riously in opposition to 1.-THE party of the
Empress
In character, as In antecedents, the two
young women were very different. Math-
Tide, who was not afraid to say laughing
ly: IF it had not been for the French
Revolution I should be selling oranges
along the Corsican docks.'' was not only
the daughter of a German princess. but
also the grandniece of Frederick the Great
| and of George III of England the terrible
Gar Nicholas protected her as his cousin:
she was the girl companion of a Queen OF
Holland, and related in some way or 9th.
err to half the German princelings and
nearly all the reigninS houses of Europe.
Eugenes origin has already been given.
Yet you might have thought Eugene the
born princess.
Her lovely golden hair was the begin
ming of the appreciation of what is now
called Titianesque beauty; but her dark.
liquid eyes, so kindly and pleasant, were
all Spanish. The profile of her face had
the purity of line of cameo. And the
combination of types made something
rare and charming.
Eugene organized the most brilliant
Court IN Europe of modern times. She
led the fashions. She created Worth.
with his exotic taste, which has not held
the sobcrer French clientele.
A Memory of the Past
The government of her husband. Napo-
leon III, by rebuilding Paris, gave plenty
of work, and there was great material
prosperity III the country. which has left
"A certain popularity among the people for
the Emperor and Empress in spite of the