Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-02
.EX-EMPRESS EUGENE
Was Once the Leader of All
Paris Fashions.
Is NOW AN OLD LADY
A FEW ANECDOTES OF HER Ro-
MANTIC LIFE.
Real Estate in Marseille, Which She
Inherited, Greatly Increases Her
Income of Late.
Is NOW AN OLD LADY

Special Correspondence of The Star.
NICE, November IS, 1905.
When there recently passed through Paris
a slender sweet-faced lady, all in black and
leaning on a cane, the representative of
fifteen Paris papers went to describe how
she looked. She was thinner and paler than
last year, and complained snappiIy of rheu
matism.
Thus passed through Paris once again she
who had been once the leader of all Paris
fashions-the youthful, beautiful and bril-
liant empress of the French. and as she
took the train for the south, one Paris
paper threw it up to her that she had be-
gun life as the granddaughter of a bank
rupt British merchant of CadIz, while an
other claimed her cold severity and jcy
nagging had driven her son, the prince
imperial, from England to his death in Zu-
rutland.
The mother of the ex-Empress Eugene
was really poor girl, married for love by
Spanish grandee, the Count of Montiio
She was also, truly, daughter of a British
subject whose affairs did not exactly Dros-
per at Cadiz, but to the end he held an hon
orabe situation-and that from the United
states OF America. His name was Kirk
patrick, and he was for years American
VIE consul. He had married a Miss Pow
ers, and it is by this Powers ancestry that
Eugene is connected with the De Lessons
of Suez and Panama fame.
That as daughter of the Count of Mon
tijo Eugene was no poor girl when her
mother brought her to Paris in 1871 Is
shown by something recent. Even had she
spent all that Napoleon III left her in
stead of boarding it as she has done. she
would be rich again today through the great
rise i'll value Of q tract of Marsciue real
estate left her by her father and tenacious
ly held on to by Eugene during all these
years.
Made the Gypsy's Prophecy Come True
She had already refused brilliant offers
in Spain-first the Duke of Ossuna then
the Duke of Sesto. a gypsy bag had told
her: You will DE a queen" And here
was brand-new, unmarried emperor who
began at once making love to her She
had fallen in love with the dashing young
Duke of Alcanizes, who proposed to her
Why did she stife that love except to make
the gypsy hays prophecy come true?
Napoleon, as prince adventurer, had loved
and been loved by his cousin Mathlde and
the Duchess of Hamilton. AS prince-pr
dent the Prince of Wagram offered him his
daughter. And when he became emperor
the Prussians proposed to him sister of
the famous Hohenzollern prince, whose can
ddacy to the Spanish throne was to cause
Napoleon to object and so bring on the
Franco PrusSian war-and his own down
fall. Had he married her, he would not
have objected. Thus from the start, Eu-
genie was to cost him his throne.
He fell in love at once with the beautiful
girl in spite of Islander. He was told she
loved another Bluntly he asked her:
Have you had a serious attachment
Sire" she answered. Il would be de-
ceiying you to pretend that my heart has
never spoken; but of this be assured, am
always Mademoselle de MontijoE
The court ladies declared the marriage
impossible and ostentatousy kept Eugene
ont Of 10 circle. until daV While
a visit at Campiegne, they showed her such
open hostility that Mile. de Montijo,
wounded had to complain 10 Napoleon:
Napoleon listened, tranquil and smiling.
Then. when the beautiful girl had finished
speaking he tore few green tWlgs from
a bush, twisted them into a crown, and
placed it on her head. saying: wear inns
one for the moment!
1t was his announcement of their mar
riage. Not murmur arose from her enc
mics; and at once they fiocked round her
Came to Love Napoleon.
Stories have been told of her alleged fir
tations as empress; but 1t is certain that
she came to love Napoleon with rabid jeal-
ousy The father OF the present pretender,
Victor, always gueyed her slyly, so that Ma
poleon, who liked chatting and smoking
cigarettes with him, had to visit Plon-Plon
in secret. One day. year after his mar
rage, he slipped in by secret passage,
SAT down. and said: Prince, does your
wife make you scenes!
mo" answered the husband of Clotilde--
Clotilde, daughter of Victor Emmanuel.
Like Eugene, she still lives.
ut is strange" unused the emperor. You
are a hard citizen, chaser of petticoats,
everyone knows it, and Clotilde cannot be
ignorant of il"
Il am all that you say, replied Plon-
Plon, philosophcally: but why should Clo-
tide worry? Victor Emmanuel, her father.
was also a hard citizen and chaser Of
petticoats AS her husband resembles her
father she must think it is the way of
princes. That is all.''
.sThere is no living with Eugenie.' sighed
Napoleon. The moment l give audience
TO another woman l risk a violent quarrel
Don't you know a way to make her less
auarrelsome?"
Hand her down good crack ON the side