The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-29
EUGENE 90 YEARS YOUNG,
 IS WAR STUDENT
Scans the Maps Daily and
 Has Sanatorium for Off cers in Her Home.

Has Sanatorium for Off,
 cers in Her Home.
 London, Aug. 29.-The Empress Eu- full woman in France, is to-day the most wonderful old lady in the world, says a writer in The London Daily Chronicle. Not long since she cele- brated her ninetieth birthday. She was. born in 1926. eleven years before Queen Victoria came to the throne Quite recently she made two appear ances in London, when many saw her for the first time since her arrival in England as a fugitive from France forty-six years ago.
 At the age of fourscore years and ten the vitality of the Empress is ex- traordinary. Since the war began she has, of course, discontinued her trav- els; but up to her eighty-seventh year she took an annual trip in her yacht or on a steamer. Queen Victoria was not fonder of the open air; and as in her youth she delighted to be on horse in old age she has found her chief back, to ride swiftly. and to hunt, so pleasure at sea, which is never too rough for her. All the coasts of the Mcoiterranean are known to the Em- press. when past 80 she returned to Egypt. end the Indies, of which she has beheld but the fringe. she still hope to visit.
 The Empress must always be occu- pied. She has the royal mania for building, and has wrought great changes at her lovely Hampshire home, Farnborough.
 Watches Every Detail.
 "If she did not assiduously watch the building works which she orders to be carried out they would not in- terest her." says one person of her Nothing is left to chance. She oc- cupies herself with everything, even the slightest details. and attaches as much importance to the harmony of a building as to the shape of door. the exact place for piece of furniture, the color of carpet. When a new idea occurs to her it must be executed inn mediately. She explains and discusses everything, is eager to see the work begun. asks the advice of this one and that one, remains standing for hours together. is untiring, holds out against fatigue longer than any one, and will not leave the place until she is satis- fled with what is being done."
 Farnborough, which the Empress purchased from the late Thomas Long man. the publisher, has grown to be one of the fairest residences in Eng land, and a museum, too, of imperial relics. The Napoleonic museum is among the latest achievements. Here are assembled all the objects which came come to the Empress through the Bonaparte family. including the great wash-hand basin which Napo. leon I, took on his campaigns, and everything is in perfect condition.
 The principal rooms of the house the drawing room, the library. the Empress study, &c., are of notable proportions, and from the ter race there is grand view of wood land and meadow. There are si, acres of lawn and pleasure garden nearly seventy acres of park. and z cinder cycle track 5000 yards 1T length. The estate comprises in al some 800 acres, with a farm and an ex tensive range of farm buildings.
 Studies War Maps.
 Every morning sees the Empress fl her study, with her large-scale map before her. following the course of th' war. It has been said that she ha long lived altogether in the past, bu this is not the case. She does no shrink from recalling it but has won derful power of detaching herself iron Fit, and this she can do even when sh, | visits Paris and walks in the garden of the Tuileries. Since the war com menced she has followed the who'll course of it with characteristic menta energy. As early as the Autumn o 1914 (after having in the Spring am early Summer visited Cap Martin Paris, Milan, Venice. and the King am l ageD her Majesty converted . wing o Queen of Spain at Madrid-S8 years o 1 her house into sanatorium for wound ed officers; and no day, save whel prevented by indisposition. has sh | failed to pay a call in each of tn eight rooms and chat with all the pa tients "Soldier talk" it is said come naturally to her. and for many year her dinner guests have included ofn cers stationed at Aldershot. One da in September. 1914. the Empress ha visit from Lord Portsmouth, for mer Under Secretary for War.
 | The lord, 1t is said, found her in tently studying the mapss and remain | ed to dine with the Empress, who when they had seated themselves a table, said apologetically to her guest
 T can offer you only diner de guerrs you know, as my cooks have left t join the army in France"
 From Edward Legge, who has jus published a volume on this sub1ec
 it might be inferred that. if the Elm press Eugenie had no other occupation
 her correspondence alone would pro vide very fair days work.
 | ''It is the sole work of one perso
 to examine this correspondence befor submitting it to the Empress, who her self verifies the accuracy of the state
 ments,"
 Begging Letters Received.
 Begging letters are received froI
 every country in the world. and appa rently there are persons in France wh
 think that Eugenie is still their Elm
 press, for she is occasionally asked t
 set some petitioner up a bureau d
 tabac." Neither in France nor
 England has the Empress ever scatter | ed ecIy1essly whot ia helievod to he