The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-06-05

MNH sue Is no QlueTenJ from any Ola iaQy
@0 of lightweight, unless the keen OBJ
server may see that she has suffered great and
enduring sorrow.
The aged woman is Eugene de Montijo, for
seventeen years, 1~S5S-1S70, empress of the
French, wife of the Emperor Napoleon III and
mother of the Inflated prince imperial, who was
killed in the English war against the Zulus in
1879.
The old woman of sorrows has been an en-
press OF romance as well as of France. Grand
daughter of an Irishman named Kirkpatrick and
a Spanish lady, with her mother and sister sbe
roved the cities of Europe for seven years, look.
ing Tor a great marriage. Scarce Of noble birth
though her father was known as the count ,f
Teba In Spain, a petty title at best, her chances
for a grand union seemed vague indeed. At tho
age of twenty-five she achieved a notable n NOT
a grand marriage. No doubt 1t is a very great
thing to be empress of the French and reputed
one OF the most beautiful and charming women
In the world and to set the fashions of the mi
verse. For 1t was to Eugene that the vols
owed the terrible crinoline or hoopskfrts and A.
dreadful chignon of the sixties. Previous m 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 eranddanaL
tiers. Yet Napoleon III was far from heinz ,
grand man, though he was emperor of The
French. In the early ffties the countess NJ Toho
and her two daughters, the elder a dark SpaniarJ
the other a type of northern beauty, chestnut
hair, violet eyes, a perfect complexion and lovely
oval features, appeared at various Euronean
capitals. The mother lived a semibohemian life
at hotels, something which was 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 as they were, and popular, it was
noted that many more men 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 we're beautiful,
rarely so. They were not of great ~compl
ments and it cannot be said that they were re-
spected in the fullest sense of the word. They
we're interesting, they were lovely, but in the
early ffties it was held that ladies of rank should
not live at hotels or be seen at public dining
rooms.
However, both girls made brilliant marria<s.
The elder married the duke of Alva, ownerbt a
historic title. This marriage was regarde/as a
triumph for the managing mother. Ah SAID
that the duke was unfortunate in ttatsne uld
not choose to marry both daughteY 10 him by
papal dispensation, the implication Elng that not
even the pope could withstand establishments
of the countess. No one, hoover imagined
that the lady would be succgsIui beyond her
widest dreams and see he1Sounger daughter
an empress, received with Jnor by the courts
of Europe, especially by hSntenseiy proper Vic
toria of England.
\ Eugene had been, tt%} said a good deal of a
Nsemme galIante on yerj forward lady in love
asairs. she aad throw|herself at the heads OF
two ~Sang noblemen. AT one time she had a
Violent fancy for h SSpanish count di Galva
and tried to commit hicide by swallowing shoe
backing when he mde it plain that he did not
desire her. Women Sauged her as a wild and I'M
disciplined girl, a Srt of Lydia Languish. Becky
Sharp and Lady Fazle combined, a girl calcu-
lated to fill the mid of even ardent suitors with
misgivings as tqher conduct as a wife. She
was always SpSish and never understood the
French. She hd great personal courage and
feared nothing She was a meddlesome match
maker and irIafter years earned the unenviable
distinction II having married the famous song
stress, Ads1na Patti, to the marquis of Caux, a
marriage Which turned out most unhappily. She
was superstitious, dealt with mediums, would
hirt aufaciously, yet was always cold and emo
tionless within.
Thb 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 a 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 a discreditable one. HI had been a 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 a silly. impracticable dreamer. He
had had many disreputable love affairs and it
was known that an 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 ne bore the magical name of Bona
parte. it was doubtful that he had a drop OF Ma