Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24

Of her Jewels to Madame de smolenska
TO buy food for the poor but the
baron's suspicious were aroused and he
gave the visitor several broad hints to
the effect that she had stayed at 1agiew-
nika long enough. After many protests
from the baroness she eventually went
away. Then the baroness fell so I'll that
the doctors declared she must go to Italy
for the winter. 1t was impossible for the
baron to accompany her. so her mother,
the Dowager Countess Walewska, and her
youngest sister. Countess Jane, did so.
They had not been in Rome a week be-
fore Madame de Smolenska appeared on
the scene. The dowager countess held
seances with her help. Her married daugh-
ter fell daily more under the influence of
the hypnotizer. who. free from the baron's
interference. did her best to get the I'M
happy woman's Jewels and fortune into her
own hands. The baron placed a very large
sum at his wife's disposal, a sum large
enough to live in a very fine apartment and
dress as she had been in the habit OF doing.
But, influenced by Madame de Smolenska's
hypnotism- she gave all her money to that
woman, begging her to distribute It
amongst the poor; lived in an attic in a
back street of Rome, sold her dresses, gave
her Jewels to her friend and lived on a
franc a day.
Subsection Is Complete.
By this time the dowager countess and
her unmarried daughter had returned to
Poland and knew nothing Of this total
change in the baroness way of living.
Madame de Smolenska also influenced her
to give the address of one OF the best
Roman hotels when writing to her husband
30 that his suspicious might not be aroused.
Madame de Smolenska used to call for the
letters herself and, although she hypnotized
her victim to give all her money away, she
herself lived in the most comfortable way,
on the baroness money.
One day a friend of the baron's arrived
in Rome and on going to the hotel found
that no baroness lived there. He at once
wired to his friend. Madame de Smolenska,
on hearing Of this by accident, went to her
victim, put her into a trance and ordered
her to flee to Russia. Without knowing
why, the baroness obeyed and went to the
town of Kieff. while her mother and hus-
band searched first Rome, then all Italy
for her. The Russian police finally found
her in a miserable room in Kieff. She had
not one whole garment on her back. Her
dress was torn and thin, her boots in holes.
Her only luggage consisted of a small
IdIlODdB COultlllulB u6E passport ana one
change of linen. She had a dollars worth
o fsmall change in her purse and lived on
tea and black bread. Nothing whatever re-
manned of the jewels her husband had given
her since her marriage or the historical
stones inherited from her great-grand-
mother. Madame de Smolenska had taken
everything.
Rich Accused of God.
Nh, -,,,-4g,..l ~, e, - $1,000 o.
living as she did the countess answered that
rich people are cursed of God and only poor
ones can hope to be saved. At the mention
of Nine. de Smolenska's name she grew
very pale and began to tremble from head
to foot At first she refused to leave Kieff
and her husband stayed with her. One day
he returned home Unexpectedly to find his
wife taking money out of the drawer he
kept 1t in and addressing 1t to Nine. de
Smolenska in Rome.
The poor woman's nerves were in such
a state that her husbands one thought was
TO send her to a sanitarium in Berlin,
where such cases are treated, and where
one of the doctors had undertaken to put
her into a trance and then counteract Nine.
de Smolenska's influence. AS no doctor
would sign a certificate authorizing her to
be taken there against her will-for she Is
perfectly quiet and normal about every
thing except her dread and hatred of money
and luxury-it was a very long time before
her husband and friends could persuade
her to go to Berlin. She also refused to
return to her beautiful home and for some
weeks insisted upon living in the poorest
room in the worst Kieff hotel. She eats
next to nothing, and. whenever money is
left about, tries to post it to Nine de Smo-
lenska.
The baron. very much annoyed at the
way in which the medium has ruined his
wife's health, tried to bring an action
against her. But no law in Russia would fit
her crime, so he had to content himself
with appealing to the courts of Rome for
the recovery of his wife's jewels. Nine. de
Smolenska swears she never had them, but
people in Rome saw her wearing magnifi-
cent gems at the opera. 1t Is said that she
has since pawned or sold them for a song,
as she is very eXtravagant and has no pri-
vate means. KAJETAN DUNBAR.
Na1NU