Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-12
oUIDA IN GREAT POVERTY.
Small Pension Granted to Famous
Woman Novelist.

LONDON, July 12.-There was general
surprise and curiosity when II was an
nounced that Miss Louise de la Rance.
the novelist Ouda- has had pension OF
$3.50 granted to her from the civil list. 1t
was known that she was formerly wealthy,
having made fortune from her writings.
1t is even a greater surprise now to learn
that the venerable author. she is seventy
eight has been latterly in such poverty
that sometimes she was compelled to go
without food.
The Florence correspondent of the Daily
Mail sends a. story of her recent life. He
says that until two years ago Miss de la
Rance occupied a splendid three-story villa
at Lucca. She was known as The Lady
of the Dogs" rs she invariably had thirty
and was always with number OF
them around her. Her intense fondness
for dogs. with certain megalomania.
caused her one occasion TO give meal
of milk, bread and meat to every cog in
Lucca. She paid the bill for this extraor-
binary banquet willingly. although heavy
debts were crowding upon her through her
utter ignorance of the value of money.
IL is stated that on several occasions at
about this time she went without food for
whole day. remarking that it was sufficient
if her dogs ate. Frequently her maid APP
pealed to the owner of the villa for supper
for her mistress. dispute with her land
lord about some furniture led to three law
suits which Ouida won, but the costs fur.
Their crippled her purse, and her landlord
then turned her out.
After staying at one or two places she
went to a frst-class hotel at Viareggio.
Again thoughtlesS expenditures exhausted
her resources, and her plight WAS such that
last September she passed night under the
trees on the'sea front The remaining few
of her large family of beloved dogs were
at her side When her maids mother found
her at o'clock in the morning on the
beach she took her to her humble cottage
at Monti and kept here there for several
months.
But that homeless night on the cold beach
caused OUda to lose the sight of her left
eye and also brought about deafness from
which she has never recovered. In Febru-
airy last she went to another Motel At
Viareggio. where she stayed until July u.
when, being again in financial straits, she
went with her ex-mads mother to the VII
lage Of Massarosa. five miles distant, where
she is now living In a milkmans squa!id
cottage
She rarely goes outdoors and has few
visitors Her health Is broken down. She
eats little. She wears white dresses OF SILK
muslin. win long trains and white gloves
extending far up the arms. Last winter
train. Her passion for dogs is not dimin-
ished. although now she mas only three,
Ruff, Goldoni and heroine.
She has been heard to say that life would
be hopeless misery without her dogs 1t
is her fear of endangering their lives by
change of climate that prevents her from
returning to England. In her happier lays.
when she was able 10 give away anu
spend money with impulsive generosity and
disregard Of arithmetic. she had. besides
thirty dogs, at least forty horses. II Is
known that once since her sufferings began
she went without food for four days
through sheer want.