The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-16

the recipient OF an annuity from her
German estates. for there was nothing
left of the Talleyrand fortune.
AS husband of SO wealthy a woman,
Helie may have settled down for good,
but l cannot say that even then he
showed any good sense. He is, of course,
Duke Talleyrand. as the son of his
father; but as his mother was a German
princess of the highest lineage and ex-
ceedingly wealthy in her own right until
her rake of a husband impoverished her
vast estates, it would seem that Helie.
instead of persisting to call himself a
Talleyrand as the offspring of father
whose name was OF anything but good
odor in the social world should have
taken residence on his German estate
and become known as the Prince Won
Sagan, an enviable position and one open
10 any diplomatic career he might have
fancied under the Kaiser.
But apparently he prefers to live upon
the bounty of his wife and her American
millions. Perhaps he has to, after the
snobbishness which he, the prodigal,
manifested toward his sovereign, the
German Kaiser (as King of Prussia)
when the latter descended the throne
and the Prince Won Sagan was asked to
peer of the realm. He refused to go to
Berlin. saying that Paris and France
were good enough for him.
To fully understand this foolish and
contemplate action, let ii be said that,
under the Prussian law of entail, who
ever lends the owner of the entailed
estates any money does so upon his
own risk, and never can collect from
the income nor attach the property.
This a paternal government, in its
wisdom, has done to save the estates
from parcellation or utter ruin, and
the families of the owners, if the lat
ter are spendthrifts. from becoming
paupers. This exactly was the case
with the princely estates of Sagan, a
small city in the Prussian province of
Silesia.
After the late Duke de Talleyrand,
Helie's father. had wasted his wife's
fortune, he proceeded to cucumber the
great domain with mortgages in favor
of Partisan money sharks, who knew
little of the Prussian law of entail.
Now, while, under the law, this money
would have been lost to the trusting
Frenchmen, the ''paternaf' government,
while refusing to let the estates be
sold, sees to it that the creditors get
their money back. This is done by
means of placing the property in the
control of a Prussian official, who acts
as administrator until all obligations
are liquidated, when the government
again turns the property over to its
rightful owner. How far this pater..
nalism is carried, which is SO ridf-
culed in America, is evinced by the
fact that the government pays the ad-
ministrator as well as all other cost
Of the proceedings for years, besides
allowing the owner an annual income
to enable him to live according to his
station until freed again from har-
assing debt.
All this was done for Helie de Sa-
gan. But when he, as hereditary
member of the Prussian House Of
Lords, was asked to go to Berlin and
pay homage to the sovereign who had
saved his estate for him and handed
il over to him intact, he declined. But.
of course, he went after all, and went
mighty quickly at that. For the
Kaiser sent word that he didn't care
a rap whether such a man as he ever
set foot upon Prussian soil; that. In
fact, he preferred to see him keep
away, but that, in the circumstances.
he would conf1scate his princely es-
tates at Sagan, for he did not propose
to play father and caretaker Tor an
migrate.
Well, Helie quickly went to Berlin
and bent his knee to the Emperor.
FLANEUR.
Downright 1913. by Court Gossip Syndicste)