The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-06-05

II woman of Lightweight Painfully she
NJ n hobbies from cot to cot, giving
" flower here, a pat and word OF
2 n couragement there. In appearance
MNSH she is no different from any old lady
EoH~3 Of Lightweight, unless the keen OBJ
server may that she has suffered great and
enduring sorrow.
The aged woman is Eugene de Montijo, for
seventeen years, 1853-187O, empress of the
French wife of the Emperor Napoleon III and
mother of the tllfated prince imperial who was
killed in the English war against the Zulus in
1879.
The old of sorrows has been an en-
press of romance well of France Grand
daughter of an Irishman named Kirkpatrick and
Spanish lady, with her mother and sister she
roVed the cities of Europe for seven years. look
ing for great marriage. Scarce of noble birth
though her father known as the count of
Ieba IN Spain, a petty title at best, her chances
for grand union seemed vague indeed At the
age OF twenty-five she achieved notable if not
a grand marriage No doubt it is a very erea+
thing to be empress of the French and renute5
one of the most beautiful and charming 1Tor,o,,
in the world and to set the fashions of the nni
verse For 1t was to Eugene that the world
owed the terrible crinolfne or hoopskirts and a.
dreadful chignon of the sixties Previous tn tbo
birth of the prince imperial, Eugene very vain
of her figure, assumed the hoopskirt The world
OF women followed suit to the great amusement
and derisiOn of their daughters and eranddoroL
ters- Yet Napoleon III was far from being a
grand man, though he emperor of the
FRENCH IN the early mites the countess nj rabo
and her two daughters the elder dark Spaniard>
the other type of northern beauty chestnrt
hair, violet eyes, perfect complexion and lovely
oval features, appeared at various EIronean
capitals. The mother lived semibohemian life
at hotels, something which not approved of
those days, when grand ladies believed that a
lady should live at home and visit only at the
houses of her friends. The girls were of an age
when they should have been in a convent So
attractive they were, and popular, it was
noted that many more than women called
upon the Spanish countess and her daughters
Women viewed the attractive Spaniards with
lifted eyebrows of question and suspician The
daughters of the countess of Teba were beautiful
rarely so. They not of great accomplish
ments and it cannot be said that they were re-
spected in the fullest sense of the word. They
interesting they were lovely, but in the
early fifties it held that ladies Of rank should
not live at hotels or be seen at public dining
However, both girls made brilliant marriages
The elder married the duke of AIva, owner of
historic title. This marriage was regarded a
triumph for the managing mother wit said
that the duke unfortunate in that she did
not choose to marry both daughters to him by
papal dispensation, the implication being that not
the pope could Withstand the Establishments
of the countess. No one, however, imagined
that the lady would be successful beyond her
widest dreams and her younger daughter
an empress, received with honor by the courts
of Europe, especially by the intensely proper Vic
toria of England
Eugene had been it was SAID good deal of a
femme gallante, very forward lady in love
affairs. She had thrown herself at the heads of
two young nobemen. At time she had a
violent fancy for the Spanish count df Galva
and tried to commit suicide by swallowing shoe
backing when he made it plain that he did not
desire her Women gagged her wild and IN
disciplined girl, a sort of Lydia Languish, Becky
Sharp and Lady Teazle combined, a girl calcu-
lated to fl the mind of ardent suitors with
misgivings to her conduct as a wife She
was always Spanish and never understood the
French. She had great personal courage and
feared nothing. She a meddlesome match
maker and in after years earned the unenviab1e
distinction of having married the famous song
STRESS Adelina Patti to the marquis of Caux a
marriage which turned out most unhappily. She
was superstitious, dealt with mediums would
firt audaciously, yet always cold and emo
tioness within.
This was the young lady of twenty-five, who
appeared in Paris in 1851, just after Louis NapO-
leon, president OF the republic had accomplished
the bloody coup d'etat in which his troops shot
down hundreds of innocent persons along the
boulevards of Paris. But Napoleon caused him.
self to be reelected president for term OF ten
years and later in 1851, had himself declared
emperor of the French.
The previous life of the new emperor had been
rather discreditable one He had been con-
stable in London, a .penniless exile in Hoboken,
N j. he had made several futile and ridiculous
attempts to restore the empire. his reputation
was that of silly, impracticable dreamer. He
had had many disreputable love affairs and it
was known that English woman who was
enamored of him had financed his successful
effort in that direction Soon afterward he
caused her to be deported by the police
Though he bore the magical of Bona
parte. it was doubtful that he had drop Of Ma
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