The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-22
The American Aunt ;of an Empress.


 The American Aunt of an Empress.
 The American wife in Europe to come in closest contact with those who sit on thrones. perhaps, was New York girl, Mary Esther Lee, the daughter of David Lee. She was first married to an Austrian nobleman, and though the aristocracy of Austria Is so very stln and exclusive that few American girls have dared to marry noblemen of that created so satisfao tory place for herself at the Austrian court that she was made the Princess von Noer in her own right. After the death of her Austrian husband she was wooed, won and wed by the Count von Waldersee. whose name for many years was one or he brightest in all Germany, because of his personal services to the empire as well as because bis line was long and honorable.
 By her union with von Waldersee this American girl became aunt by mar riage to Augusta Victoria, who married William, then grandson of the German Emperor and now regnant as William, Emperor, and of the same class among those who sit in the seats of the mighty as our own Roosevelt. They say of the Countess von Waldersee that she has been a mother to the Empress" for many years and that the advice of Aunt Mary has always been thought highly of by the members of the fmpe- rial family.
 Many lists of American princesses in- clude the name of the Princess Monaco, wife of a ruler as real in his power. though his territory Is limited, as any king or emperor. This is an error. though there is some excuse for it. The mother of the Princess of Monaco was Miss Mittenberger of New Orleans, German of descent. of course, but Of American parentage. She was an un- usually good-looking woman of one of the types which Europeans term Amer
 ican, and she married the rich Paris banker Heine.
 A son and daughter were born to them, and at IT the daughter. lowered vita all her mothers Americanism even
 more than her mothers beauty and
 Banker Heine's millions of francs. mar ried the Due de Richelieu. When she
 was 20 ke died, and eight years later at the end of a long and persistent courtship, she married the minor ruler whose principality's revenue is yielded by the worlds most famous gambling he'll, and who seems to seek to atone for the ignoble source of his income by spending millions in the cause of sci ence The Princess Is now woman of 45, still well preserved. and still spoken of as the remarkable American girl who at 17 had won the ancient title of the Duchesse de Richelieu and before 30 had become the Princess of Monaco. The Amazing Clafiin Sisters. On the whole 1t is admitted on both sides the Atlantic that Uncle Sam's daughters who have married titles on the other side are not discreditable to | their parentage in spite of the divorces which occasionally end international marriages. But America has sent a few rather queer feminine fish as brides to Europe. Not to mention May Yohe the chorus girl. who married Sir Francis Hope, and who. cast of by him took up with Colonel Bradlee Strong there are the Clafiin sisters, who, after most amazing careers in America, went to England and married not only into certain social standing but actually I married money. More surprising still these women were neither young nor pretty when they secured their British bridegrooms, though, of course, they were not altogether without comeli- ness.
 The story of the Clafiin girls" once | known almost by heart by practically | every newspaper reader in the land | tx,