New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-21

For years after the her salon was the
gathering ground of the best that remained IN
French literature and art To her last days an
election at the Palais Mazarin aroused All her
Old specially If one of her friends was
a candidate When / had the honor of being
elected TO the Institute, the aectlonate interest
taken by the Princess Mathilde gave to my cleo
ton q sympathetic touch which is usually want
ing when a foreigner Is admitted to that grave
company. At the Mason election TO the Acad-
enlie Francaise. which has caused the most eX-
element of recent years NJ Mason was the
her influence suficed to make the election or the
popular dramatist very near thing, the chron-
icler Of the Bonapartes being beaten by only
short head, and being elected when the next
vacancy took place NJ. Rostands literary
Bonapartism displayed in the "Aiglon," did
not please her. The idea that people whose ilVes
had Overlapped hers should be put on the stage
offended her. AS she said TO me. 'Je ne vols pas
le vieux. Metternch parler en- poesle. and the
spectacle Of her pathetic young knSman, the
King of Rome, represented by woman seemed
to her an objectionable travesty.
The aged princess, though fond Of old frlenos
who could talk to her of the past, such as Inc
great painters BOnnat and Hebert, was OF ex-
treme kindness TO the young. With children she
seemed to realize that they might regard her DIS
q unique monument of the past TO remember
when they were old. To my own little children
she was of a most engaging beneVolence, and
they never passed through Paris without spend
ing day with her among the historical treas
Ures OF the Rue de Berri or in the park ana
orchards OF St. Gratien, She liked TO feel that
they knew that she the niece of the great
Napoleon. born in his lifetime, and. more than
that. had been brought up by Nine Mere, the
mother OF the Bonapartes. All her pride was
I centred in her paternal kinship, though she was
devoted to the memory of her more highly born
mother, Frederica Catherine of Wurtemberg. In
a work which published last year brought out
the little known fact that after the death or
Princess Charlotte of Wales and until the tardy
marriages of George Ills SONS had produced
issue the mother of the Princess Mathilde, being
great-granddau ghter Of Frederick, Prince or
Wales was one of the nearest heirs presumptive
TO the British crown. / wrote to the princess 10
ask her If her mother, in marrying jerome
Bonaparte, had not become Catholic. and had
thus disqualified herself for our Protestant sue
cession.' In a most interesting letter the prln-
cess, though nominally "Concordatory" Cath
Ollie wrote TO tell NE that she was proud TO say
that her mother remained stanch TO her religion
and that when Napoleon wanted jerome TO go 10
Madrid. Entire lie tr0ne d'Espagne ct sa re-
ligiOn, ma mere choisit la derniere."
Although the princess was well aware or her
menb ership Of the royal couSinhoOd of Europe,
it was her connection with the revolutionary
crown Of 1904 which gave her most satisfac-
ton. When her kinship with reigning dynastes
mentioned she would reply, QUAINT a celia,
lie Premier Consul me Sufit." She was, indeed,
almost the last connecting link between the
twentieth century and the French Revolution
Her childhood had been passed among survivors
Of the great change of things who had seen all
its vicissitudes such as "Oncle Fesch," now
and then one OF her bOutades. for which she was
famous, had a sound Of the armies Of the Con-
yention. Thus one day, when a friend had enun-
ciated 4 somewhat reactionary opinion as we sat
at her table, the princess raped him on his
shoulder with her fan, eXclaiming, 'Nous etes un
vieuX arsto, vous." Perhaps the most remark
! able feature in the existence OF the most re
markable French woman of the latter part Of
the nineteenth century that she had not a
drop of French blood in her veins.