The Indianapolis journal., 1904-04-17
NECKLACE OF PRINCESS
ALICE DID NOT BELONG
TO MARIE ANTOINETTE
Ignorance of the Bourbons as to
French Court Customs Exposed
by Emily Crawford.
DON JAMES DECEPTION
Wanted to Borrow 700, 900 Francs
on Jewels of No Real His
toric Value.
WORTH ABOUT $4,000
SwindleS and TheftS Which Have
Made the Necklace Notorious
in Europe.
WORTH ABOUT $4,000

Special Correspondence Of the Journal.
PARIS, April 5.-The Bourbons must be
ignorant of family history and of the Gus
toms of the old French court to speak of
the diamond necklace of Princess Alice as
having belonged to Marie Antoinette. The
Princess Alice is the divorced wife of Count
Schonborn, daughter of Don Carlos ard
sister of Don Jamie. She has offered her
self to the Red Cross Society of Russia TO
serve as a hospital nurse in the far East.
Jamie. who spent many years as a Rus
sian cavalry officer in Poland on the vol
unteer footing, also wants to serve at the
seat of war, but as a cavalry officer. Be-
fore he and Alice went to st. Petersburg he
took her diamond necklace to the great
gold and silver smith, Froment Meurice. to
obtain an advance of money on it and TO
leave it to be sold at any price between
10000 and 100000 francs as a historical relic
of great interest. The intrinsic value is
now proclaimed by Floment Meurice TO be
but 10000 francs.
The story is that a plausible Belgian,
looking the man of style, heard Don Jamie
speak of the necklace, and thinking, as he
said, TO do better for the princess than the
Partisan firm in question, asked him for a
hands of FrOment Meurice, first, of course,
paying the advance that had been made.
On the necklace being handed over to
Despa, the alleged swindler, he disappeared,
and though the necklace has been discov-
cred, no trace of Despa has been found as
yet
NOT HISTORIC RELIC.
AS to the necklace being an historical
relic it can be nothing of the kind alleged
by the Princess Alice. Once Marie Antoin-
cite mounted the throne she ceased to have
private property in jewelry. This rule, from
an early time, applied both to French kings
and queens, and no doubt had been made
to prevent boarding and TO create a reserve
easy to lquidate or to pawn in times OF
national emergency.
Marie Antoinette may have concealed
purchases she made of jewelry when Queen
of France, for she had the tastes and light
ways of Vienna coffee girl. But after the
crown jewels stolen in 1872 had been recov-
cred the finance minister caused full in
ventory to be drawn up and all the articles
set down therein TO be lodged In place OF
safety.
rese Charlotte, known in history as the
Duchesse d'Angouleme, and after her
father-in-law became King, under the title
of Charles Y, the dauphiness, started IN
life with a handsomely furnished jewel
casket. From the cradle she had custodi-
an of jewels in her household, which in
cluded eighty officials and servants. At the
time of the revolution her jewels must have
accumulated considerably, and she inherited
those of her aunt the Princess Elizabeth,
whose head fell under the knife of the gull
lotine in the reign of terror.
In the year of her liberation, at the in
stance of her uncle, the Emperor Francis
of Austria, her caSkets We're so we'll filled
Brittany. he thought her a good match for
his third son, Charles. She refused to mar
ry him and became the wife of her first
cousin on the Bourbon side.
After the restoration important additions
were made TO her jewelry. AS a revolution
prevented her mounting the throne, she had
right to regard all the contents of her
caskets as personal property-a right never
disputed.
/ SOME TREASURES SOLD.
In her last period of exile this princess
had to create an income by selling some OF
her treasures. She died in 1916 and left all
her real and other estate to the Comte de
Chambord, whom the legitimists styled
Henri ". He married princess of great
fortune of the Modena d Este branch of the
Austrian imperial family. Extremely de-
vout and never going into society, her jew
els remained unused. She invariably dressed
in plain black silk gown with linen cuffs
and collar, and she belonged to the Order
of St. Francis.
The Confess de Chambord survived her
husband, who died nineteen years ago. and
left her fortune to Don Carlos and his
brother. He had bequeathed the diamonds
of his aunt. Marie Therese Charlotte, and
other considerable wealth to the three chill
dren of the Duchess of Parma, one OF
whom Margaret the wife of Carlos, had
four daughters. the youngest of whom is
the Princess Alice, and the eldest the Prin-
cess Elvira, who ran away to Washington
some years ago with a painter with whom
she is now living at Milan. Each of the four
had an even share of a third of the Cham
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