The San Francisco call., 1910-02-10
RECALLS DAYS AT
OLD PALACE HOTEL
Baroness de Bazus, Formerly
Mrs. Frank Leslie, Returns
to Scene of Honeymoon
Woman Who Turned Failure
Into Fortune Praises Amer
ican Suffragists' Campaign

There is at the Palace hotel one of
world. one who has done really big
! things She is baroness de Bazus, or
Mrs. Frank Leslie, widow of the pub
| Usher, as she is probably better known
| in the United States.
| With a personality that has but few
| equals Mrs. Leslie chats entertain
| ingly of her affairs. When her hus-
| band died in 1880 Mrs. Leslie stepped
into his office and assumed the indebt-
edness of 100000, which he had con-
tracted in an effort to float his publi-
! cations She was beautiful, but mex
perienced in business.
| The creditors were eagerly awaiting
| the time when they would be able to
! take over the valuable plant, but they
were foiled by this same charming
| woman, who soon not only had the
company free of debt, but was amass-
| ing fortune for herself.
RECALLS WEDDING TOUR
| Mrs. Leslie will remain in California
! about a month She wanted to escape
| the rigors of the winter in New York
and so selected California instead of
! Florida This is her first visit to San
| Francisco in many years. Her arrival
at the new Palace awakens fond recol-
|
to live over again those days when she
was on her honeymoon with Leslie.
| They registered at the old Palace on
/ their honeymoon and the old caravan
sary was illuminated in his honor. Last
night in her apartments at the Palace
| she expressed her amazement at the
| wav San Francisco has recovered from
the fire.
| There are fewer conversationalists
| of greater briIliance than Mrs. Leslie
! Tutored by her father, noble Hugue-
not of New Orleans, she became prom
| cient in the languages. she speaks
| French Italian, Spanish and German
as fiuently as she does hhsl slis1'
sides. she has a good foundation IN
Latin.
HAS KEY OF KINGS COUNSELLOR
AS she chats of publishing, woman
| suffra ge or travelling, Mrs. Leslie loV-
inglv fondles a golden key which was
! once the property of the MARQUIS ol
| Camnallegre. counselor to the former
/ king of Spain After the death OF the
MARQUIS it developed that he was to
have married Mrs. Leslie. That she
cherishes the key is readily under
! stood.
1T has been many years" said Mrs.
Leslie 'since I have visited the coast,
but I am amazed at the sight of the
new San Francisco After my former
visit here I wrote my book Gotham
| to the Golden Gate The literature
of the coast has been very dear 10
me, inasmuch as I have written a book
| on the subject.
| VIEWS ON WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE
Mrs. Leslie has the happy faculty of
clearly stating her position on all
questions. In the course of an inter
view she took occasion to give her
| views on woman suffrage
II do not like the way the sufra-
gettes of London are acting" said she.
II do not approve of throwing vitriol,
but I do like the way the women are
acting in New York. Some of the best
| women socially are really taking a
very active part in the suffrage move
ment.
1T does seem hard that woman
owning property can not vote. OF the
| leaders Mrs Gait, although unfortu-
nate in her name, is conducting her
self with great dignity in New York.
She has taken the place of Susan b.
Anthony. I think that ultimately
women will gain suffrage rights
"Of course there will be bad women
| voting. but are there not bad men
i voting? l do not think weakness is
| confined to women. There will be bad
men who will sell their votes and there
| will be bad women who will sell
| theirs
PROSPECT FOR PRESIDENCY
do you think the time will come
i when a woman will be PRESIDENT"
/ Mrs. Leslie was asked.
sT hope not. unless woman can be
truer and better than man." was her
response.
! Because of her unusually active life,
Mrs. Leslie has met the worlds great
| people BY sad turn of affairs, Presi-
dent Garfield, who frequently dined at
her home was responsible for her first
great success after she had taken hold
of the Leslie publications. After the
magazine had gone to press news was
received that Garfield had been asas-
sinated
|, Mrs Leslie stopped her presses
caused her artists to get out new pages
for front and back and gave to the
world an illustrated account of the
great tragedy. From that day her
| work was successful The circulation
1 of the magazine jumped from 10000 to
100000 in four months
After Mrs. Leslie had amassed a for
tune out of the debts of her husband
she sold the weekly for 100000. be-
cause the dailies were cutting in so
seriously on the field of illustration.
She is now devoting her time to travel