St. Tammany farmer., 1910-10-15

~ aSHAS tossed away his share OF
SS kSHEA the threefold world, and
H1AaS5hSM If the Greek historians
aaaAsss1e<1zz08 are to be believed
Helen of Troy kept men fighting by
land and sea for ten long years. That
these women were beautiful the world
must believe. It has no better au
thority for the fact than that upon
which it bases the tradition that
julius Caesar had red hair and that
immortal Homer was blind.
But today, when beauty's secrets
can be learned out of a book with
almost the same precision as biscuit
making, when newspapers publish the
pictures of professional beauties in
every corner of the globe and every
country and every race has innumer'
able candidates for the prize, Lima
Cavalieri, the cafe singer Of dozen
years ago, the prima donna Of to-
day, can be called "the most beau
tiful woman In the world" with nc
voice raised against her title. The
career Of this extraordinary woman
whose beauty has dazzled two con.
tinents and whose conquests have
grown until she classifies them by
nationalities, would have a place in
mythology with Venus and Minerva
had she lived in the heroic age. Poets
would have sung her conquests and
kings would have bled and died (but
mostly vicariously) for her smile.
But La Cavalieri does not live in an
heroic age. She lives in an extreme
ly practical and business-like one
and instead of having kings for her
vassals, has more wisely chosen mil
lionaires. With these bound to her
chariot wheels by the kind of shackles
men will wear when pierced by loves
poison-sweet dart she has held a con
tinuous triumphant progress through
Europe for ten years, and the world
has become SO used to the spectacle
that not much notice is taken except
when one of her slaves falls on the
road and the chariot rolls over him,
and he is left behind with the dust
of it in his eyes and his broken ropes
of flowers and tinsel dangling round
his neck.
Such a one is the beautiful Lina's
latest fancy, her husband of few
months, Robert Winthrop Chanler
member of an aristocratic and
wealthy New York family, relative
of the Astors and one time sheriff
of Dutchess county,
A Flower Girls Fate.
Natalina Cavalieri was born in
Rome. the daughter OF janitor. Her
teens overlook her bare kneed, sell
ing flowers on the Piazza Colonna
Even then wild uncultu. ed Italian
beauty looked out Of her big black
eyes through tangle Of raven hair
a picturesque daughter of her race
ard calling. Even then Lima had a
voice, and it charmed many a trav.
eler who stopped to buy flower out
of her basket without exactly having
any present necessity for flowers
Lima had little convent breeding
and was not bit afraid of the world
and she found it but step from sell.
ing flowers on the Piazza to singing
nights to the gay crowds that
thronged the cafes. There were plen.
ty of admirers there to tell her she
had a voice, plenty more to tell her
she was beautiful. It Is a question:
perhaps, to which the budding beauty
gave the most ear, at any rate her tri-
umphs both as singer and beauty
have known no check from that hour
From Rome Cavalieri drifted to
Milan and Vienna, singing in the
cafes, in music halls and in vaudeville
theaters, and one morning Paris woke
up to find her the reigning sensation
at the Folies Bergere, where her sing.
ing and dancing opened new world
before her-a world which must have
been a revelation to the flower girl
of the Piazza Colonna, but Of which
she was not slow to take full advan.
tage. Rue de la Paix gowns, jewels
carriages and a fine house became
Cavalieri as naturally as her glossy
black hair. The dressmakers quickly
found their creations looked better
on her supple figure than in their
shop windows, and there Is no bet
ter advertisement for a Paris dress
maker than to have his gowns ad
mired from the boxes where enrap
tured audiences applaud a reigning
favorite.
Her First Step to Power.
1t was in Paris that Cavalieri made
had a far-reaching effect on her sub
sequent career Prince Alexander
Bariatinski, younger son Of noble
Russian house, fell victim to her
beauty and lent his rubles and his
influence to push her fortunes with