The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-07-01

ID asking for the meaning OF the
so-called sixteen quarterings"
mat are required at many OF the
smaller German courts, and more par.
ticularly at the court OF Vienna, as a
Qualification for presentation OF either
native born women or else CT foreign
women who have married members OF
the native nobility.
There seems to be a general impress
sion that the demand for sixteen quar-.
sion of sixteen ancestors of noble
more is exacted s.Thus. when a woman
is presented at the court OF Vienna. as
a young girl or as the wife of some
Austrian or Hungarian noble. It Is
necessary that she should furnish
proof betorehan1 that both her father
and mother were MOBILES that her
fathers parents and her mothers
parents also belonged to the aristoc
racy; that their parents in turn-that
Is to say, her own great era adparents
eight in number-were OF noble birth
and dnally, that all the parents Of her
great grandparents. namely. her own
Observation-Disclosures, sixteen in
number. We're of noble birth She has,
therefore, to dem onstrate that she has
not only sixteen, but thirty immediate
ANCESTORS OF noble birth.
Should any among these thirty for
bears of hers have had the misfortune
TO have been OF bourgeois percentage
she is thereby barred from court, and
excluded from what is known as the
court circle in Austrian society, that
Is to say. from the grand monde OF
Vienna.
American women who wed Austrian
mobiles, and who thereby become Aus.
TRAN subjects. are confronted as such
hy the same demands as native-born
Austrian women; and since none OF
them have managed to show the So
called sixteen quarterings" that is to
say, the thirty ancestors OF exclusively
blue blood--there is not one of them
that has ever been received at the
court Of Vienna, or in the grand
her marriage, no matter what the rank
and position at court of her husband
The possession, let me add, OF these
qualifications carries with II, ipso
Austrian by birth or by marriage, to
the title OF lady in waiting, or titular
dame du palais, and also to the highly
priced Order of the Star Cross, which
is. however. restricted to Roman Cath
olics. Similar genealogical qualifca-
tons are required in the case of most
Of the other Austrian and German
feminine orders of knighthood, of
which there are perhaps, all told, a
dozen.
AS that smart and amusing, though
not particularly exclusive. Partisan
club. popularly known as the "Epa'
tant," and the official title of which
the Club OF the gue Boissy d Anglas.
the Cercle des Mirlitons, and the Cercle
de l'Union Antique, has some score or
so of well-known Americans on Its
roster, 1t may be of interest to call
attention to the fact that it has Just
to say, the .fftieth anniversary OF It's
eXistence-by means of a I-ost sue.
cessful entertainment, at which al
the great world OF the French capital
prised species of Revue written
and composed as usual, by the pres-
dent of the club. the veteran Marquis
de Massa, and Russian ballet, COM
p persa Of which he himself
welded the baton. as conductor,
The club occupies one OF the finest
old palaces in the French capital, with
beautiful grounds that. look. out onto
lover portion of the Champs Elysees.
1t was built like so many other Of the
most stately seventeenth and telgh-
tenth century mansions in Paris, by
g farmer general ct Texas G;. Antoine antoine
man, who died at the dinner table from
the effects of eating too much pate de
foie gras, was famed as a gourmet, a
celebrity which was maintained by his
olution. Indeed. so bountiful and rich
was the fare which The Grimods I'M IN,
It used to be said in Paris that one
dined at the Grinods', but one did not
digest there Vo!taire was frequent
guest, and yatel occasionally presided
In 1876 the palace of the Grimods
was occupied by the great Duke Of
Wellington. and it was there that he
gave his memorable ball to celebrate
the marriage of that royal Duo Gle Ber
nv. who few years later was to sue
cumb to the knife OF the assassin
Louvel at tho opera, leaving several
children by his English morganatic
wife. Amy Brown. one of whom hecame
the Baroness de Charrette mother OF
old General Baron de Charlotte. while
subsequent to the murder Of the duke,