The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-05-18

hE announcement that the
Count and Countess Laszlo
L - Szechenyi are going to live
permanently in London makes
another famous international mar.
riage look like q failure
When Gladys Vanderbilt became
Countess Szechenyi she was going
10 live like a princess OF fiction on
her husbands estates in Hungary.
She would divide her time between
fcudal dcmcSncs in the country and
picturesque palaces in the city. She
would enjoy the admiration of r
primitive but loyal peasantry. She
would add brilliance TO the court Of
an emperor. Now she has gladly
given UP the ancestral demesnes and
her magnificent palace in Budapest
and all the primitive feudal delights
of life in Hungary. She is going to
live i'll London, probably In flat,
where she will be in close touch
with up-to-date America.
The reasons for this collapse of a
romantic programme are partly finan-
cial and largely personal. Tho
Count had made enormous inroads
into his wife's large fortune and
then the feudal privileges Of her
position turned out to be very diff
terent from what fancy painted
them.
y The privileges for her consisted
mainly in handing out large checks.
When she reached the ancestral
estate she found il was without bath
tubs and drainage. She put in these
and all kinds of other American
ConVenlences at great expense.
the loyal peasantry proved an un-
mlugated nuisance. They swarmed
into the house at all times Of the
day, wearing top boots and long
knives and eXhaling very ancient
doors. They followed her wherever
she went. She was expected to-
take part in all sorts Of picturesque
but unpleasant ceremonies that
grated on the nerves of a highly re-
fined New York girl.
For instance, the peasants en-
pected her TO attend all the we'd
dings, 10 kiss the bride, to kiss the
babies (laterl!, and to taste the food
and drink served at these primitive
and highly hilarious gatherings.
Paprika and puszta soon became a
bore.
The Szechenyi family behaved as
II they had conferred very exalted
honor upon her in accepting her al
lance and her money. They bored
her to death with the greatness and
glories of the Szechepyis for the last
eight hundred years. Her friends
say that she had horrible dreams in
which dead and gone Szechenyis
and other patriots fought over their
battles above her PROSTATE form.
They told her she ought to learn
Hungarian. She made one attempt
and gave il up with a sore feeling
about the jaw. Now they say bit.
terry that She is the only Countess
SZechenyi who never spoke Hun
Earian.
On top OF all this she had the
humiliation of finding that she had
no position at the court Of Vienna.
that her husband kept up all his old
associations without regard to her,
that he spent her money lavishly
without giving her any adequate re.
turn for it, and in short that she
was nothing but the little Am ercan
cashier"
1t was shock TO her 10 find that
she could not be presented at the
court OF Vienna. because of the rigid
b'' III" NV bht may EMO. tndL
privilege who does not possess six
teen ouarterings OF nobility.
She would have preferred
palace in Vienna. but the Szechenyis
told her ii was the proper thing to
build one in Budapest, and the fact
that she was outside the pale in
Vienna reconciled her to this View.
For a time she was buoyed I'D
with the hope that she might be a
queen, for band OF patriots" un.
folded a glittering project TO make
Count Szechenyi King of Hungary
on the death Of the Austrian EN-
peror. The patriots" got about
million dollars and that was all it
meant to Gladys Vanderbilt.
Now the Szechcnyis arc exceed.
ingly indignant that the Countess
should think of abandoning Buda-
pest for London. They are actually
making the puszta ring with their
outcries.
"One has to know the Szechenyi
history 10 appreciate what the pres
ent situation means TO that family
said an intimate friend OF the illus
trIous house. The Szechenyis be-
long to one of the few families OF