The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-08


 K XME. HELENA VON DoNNIGEs MI SCHEWITSCH, who was famous MI in Bohemian circles for her love affair with Ferdinand Lassalle nearly half century ago, committed suicide here to- day by drinking chloral During part of her life she was on the stage as a comic opera divette. She had some sue cess in Germany and Austria but none in New York when she tried her fortune at the old Thalia theatre.
 Mme Schewitsch was married three times. Her last husband, the Baron Schewitsch, was an exiled Russian nihi- list, who lived several years in New York with her
 Mime. Schewitsch was celebrated for her Titan hair and "sphinxlike beauty. .
 It is believed that she killed herself be- cause of financial difficulties.
 Helena von Donniges Rackowicza- Schewitsch was a figure of the romance period of the last century, and her twi- light set in not with the passing of her beauty and youth any more than with the end of the era in which such figure could live. She could no more have breathed the commonplace air of this gen. eration than Lola Montez. The lady ad- venturer of their type passed with the last quarter of the preceding century.
 She has told many of the experiences which gained notoriety for her. One of the frankest of her self-revelations deals with her love affair with Ferdinand Las sale. Meredith used the material in "The Tragic Comedians,' although there is less of Rackowicza in the novel than she may have liked. The daughter of the Prus- sian ambassador to the Court of Bavaria, her romances began before the German nation existed in it's present form. The grandmother invited the girl to be her guest in Berlin. She was 16. She then and there made the acquaintance at one of Hans von Buow's concerts of the famous Jew Lassalle, whose mental pow CTS opened the way for him to many houses which might have been closed to one less gifted She had already fasci- mated by the beauty which kept her fa- nous long after it had disappeared many of the men she met in Berlin, but Las salle was not interested in the young girl just yet.
 She determined to conquer him, and al- though two years passed before another opportunity came she finally carried her point by the direct means of driving up | to the Swiss hotel In which she heard | Lassalle was stopping and asking to see him. She says in an early volume of her memoirs that she was accompanied at Ali. f.io, salle could not for a while recall her. That they had met two years before had | escaped his mind Here the composer setting their lives to music would have sounded the death motive for the famous l sociologist Lassalle was devoted to Hell ena from that day until his death, but his death came soon and as a direct result of the intimacy with the girl of IS who had thrown herself at his head.
 | She won him, but not without strug- gle. He was at Wabern, near Bern. She | bombarded him with letters. In spite or | the declaration that for love of the man | she addresses as "Frend Satan' she was willing to throw all morality to the winds, | he was slow to respond. But her deVo- ton to the socialist, who represented ev- erything in the world opposed to the 'tra- ! ditions of Prussian family of title and | administrative record, became known to | the yon Donniges. Her brother and a cousin called on Lassale and demanded 1 that he refuse to see her again. He de- clined to make any such promise. The next day Helena went to his hotel. l She has described the visit with some evidences of pride. Lassalle was out. She went to his room. She was now Il little over IS. Lassalle entered. Before he could voice his indignation she said: q have come to stay
 You must leave my rooms at once,'
 he answered, "or your reputation will be ruined.' ,4
 q shall not go,' was her answer.
 What l want said he, 'is wife,
 not a mistress. You must so."
 Furious at his untlattering exhibition of propriety, Helena did leave the hotel.
 She was already more or less engaged
 to Janko von Rackowicza, As result
 of her visit and the talk that followed Ferdinand Lassallc felt himself called