New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-03
A PARIS SILHOUETTE.
TRIAL of the Countess Pan Horn on,
Charge of SuindIing.
Paris. August 20

Paris, August ~.
As long as the trial OF the Countess van Horn
now proceeding in Paris, requires the presence of
that lady. a very curious and well known type
will be missing from the boulevards
Nom dun CHEM said a Frenchman one day
as the countess came within his range of vision
whatever does that call itself?" Indeed, the
odd and freakfsh exterior was a truthful inter
probation Of the woman. Once SEEM she is not
easily forgotten. About thirty-two years old.
the countess is tall. OF a wilIowy build with
short. straight brown hair and full gray eyes
peeriug out of small. inscrutable face, through
the pince nez which is absent from her
nose. She always wears q plain tailormade
costume and wide brimmed sailor hat, and her
pockets are always crammed full of papers. She
is generally accompanied by a Chinese dog.
Of black. hairless breed, and there is a strange
resemblance between the animals little grim
face and that OF its mistress, who loves 1t
tenderly. She speaks English French, German
and Spanish equally fuently and equally badly.
and her speech is freely interlarded with out-of-
the-way swear words" translated apparently
from other tongue from that in which
she happens at the moment TO be speaking. Her
low pitched, deep voice, never rising or falling,
has won for her the sobriquet of the fog horn
for she has a large circle Of acquaintances and
clients has the Countess van Horn.
For the second time in the course OF year
the countess is trial for swindling, and the
strange and complicated issues which are being
imported into the would surprise those
who are unacquainted with the enterprising
lady. But yesterday it appeared that she was
Entrusted by the Russian government to re-
constitute its fleet; to-day she has mission to
buy horses from Venezuela; tomorrow. it will
be some new tale. On her Journeys to and fro.
between the law courts and the prison Of St
he visits
under police escort to her apartment to embrace
her dogs.
But the thirty-two years Of the countess's
life have been full of incident OF Russian birth.
she early married to a Russian officer of
noble family, whom she soon left, however, be
cause found he wanted to eat my money the
canaillet For a time she acted as private
governess in a Russian family, but that color
less. If respectable life was little suited TO her
audacious temperament and she fed from it TO
Vienna London and Paris, taking boldly a hand
in the game Of life, and endeavoring to jugg}e
the trI,rlps from her fellow players More than
once in Paris she has brought herself unfavora-
bly TO the notice of the police. but until last
autumn owing to some mysterious protecting
agency. she has always escaped the penalties OF
her acts. A bit Of mystic. and very super
stitious she probably owes her safety in the
mast less to the little china figures which she
wears as a charm around her neck than TO the
long arm Of secret diplomatic agency. I can
teu Won where Monsieur " went last Thursday,
and what time he returned" she would say IN
bloodcurdling tones with the air Of an arch
conspirator. Pray don't madame" one would
renIy in alarm at the prospect Of being dragged
into her fearsome plots.
This second prosecution OF the countess, how
ever looks though the authorities were los
ing patience with madame's little ways. The
word e1patriation was pronounced in Official
quarters in her trial last autumn, and she made
q rnelodramatic marriage to prevent the court
taking that step. She had taken into her service
a tramp whom she had encountered somewhere
on her rounds in the city, making OF him a sorl
of factotum. This individual. Louis eros by
name. madame recently led to the Malr1e ana
married, thus becoming French citizen II is
in Paris, and Paris only, that the ex-couhtesS
wishes TO live, and, indeed II is hard 10 imagine
her anywhere else. Her exploits require me
picturesque background provided by the Clty
OF Light. Her trial is being conducted on sucIl
leisurely lines that she has ample time 10 COM
rnunicate with her hackers in Russia II re-
mains to be seen whether she can again De saved
~ c. I B.