Fergus County argus., 1906-03-06


which Raou Duval. the wine import
er, gave him, he would have cut a
sorry figure.
A count without money is as badly
eff as any other man whose pockets
are empty. A count in society with.
out money is, indeed. hopeless case.
Count Boni would have been "impos
s'bie' and his heiress quest a failure
had it not been for the friendship of
NJ. Duval.
Would Have Wooed Miss Fair.
Naturally, Newport was Count Bonis
Mecca. and there, with the credit of
Duval behind him, he opened his cam
paien in the summer of 1894 This
was not long after Mrs. Hermann Oel-
richs came east. Mrs. Oelrchs' sis
ter. now Mrs. William X. Vanderbilt.
Jr., was then Miss Fair, and the young
man with a title made plans to lay
siege to her heart He got as far as
Mrs. Oelrichs' door one day and no
further. He left bunch of beautiful
La France roses behind him, and later
they We're seen scattered on the lawn.
1t was said then that Mrs. Oelrichs
wanted no title for her sister or any
one else in the Fair family.
Duval and Castellane were INSOFAR
able that summer, and together they
gave one entertainment after another
which attracted attention. 1t was al
ways Duval who paid the bills, and
this made those whose business it was
to provide dinners and dances assume
that it would be just as well not to
be too free in their dealings with the
count. Notable among Newport cater
ers was Carl Berger, VINO this season
undertook the management of the
Lakewood hotel. Berger would have
none of Castellane without Duval say
ing that it would be all right Berger
had had numerous experiences with
foreigners of title.
The most important entertainment
given by Duval and Castellane at New
port that summer was the now famous !
Renaissance dance 1t was held in the
Newport casino. 1t was Count Boni's |
idea, but it was Duval's money which |
paid the fiddler. This dance was
big step upward in social estimation
for Castellane. 1t brought him under
the eye of the late Mrs. Paran Stew
ems, and she did for him what the
! Duval purse could not-put him in
touch with the Goulds and circumstan-
Ces which eliminated in his winning
Anna Gould.
Mrs. Stevens was the strongest
champion among the matrons of the
four hundred that Castellane had dur
ing the days of his campaign. She
permitted the count to lead the CO.
tillion in which he introduced two or
three figures new in this country.
Boni's Bachelor Dinner.
AS time ran on Castellan's financial
condition got panicky, but the faith.
full Duval never failed him. 1t was he
who put him up at the Waldorf -Astor-
ia, where the count gave his farewell
bachelor dinner on the eve of his
wedding to Miss Gould Count Boni
had never heard of such a thing as
bachelor dinner until a reporter ask
ed him one day what sort of an af-
fair his was going to be.
Bachelor dinner?" repeated the
count in surprise, what is that?"
The newspaper man explained to
him that it was a feast that a man
spread for his bachelor friends in cell
ebration of his departure from the
state of singleness.
THAT is fine,' exclaimed Count Boni.
Il shall have a bachelor dinner" And
he did.
There was something particularly
naive about Castellane when he first
landed on these shores. He thought
the coming of foreigner here to mar
ry an American girl of wealth was a
matter of course. He discussed his
plans in that respect, and once he was
heard to remark that if things did not
so we'll with him he believed he could
do good business selling wine for his
fliend, M. Duval
A number of persons who knew that
Castellane was practically without
sou did not hesitate to say during the
progress of his suit for Miss Gould
that he was undoubtedly being backed
by others than Duval. They went so
far as to name Carl Berger, the cater
er, as his principal financier. Berger
told a reporter for the World yester-
day at Lakewood that he had never
advanced Boni de Castellane one dol
lar then nor since.
Nobleman's Matrimonial Club.
r Strength was given to the report of
7 Berger's interest in Castellane by an
attempt on the part of Rene Wohl-
: farth to interest the caterer in a mat
: rimonial club whose business it was
t planned should be the promotion of
1 marriages between noblemen and
: American women of unlimited means.
f A proposition was made to Berger that
: he lease to such club the house and
4 restaurant of No. 19 West Thirty-sec.
II L.