Evening star., 1937-01-31
By R0mulus.

i daughter, Is about to come 10
America. The people and the coun-
try, 1t was said. interest her, and she
wants to study them at close range.
Those familiar with the tempera-
nnent and character OF the countess
needed no such announcement. They
lust knew that her visit was inevitable.
Her curiosity, her love of adventure,
the inquiring spirit of youth, with its
instructive sympathies for the New
World-all these things were sure TO
charm and tempt her. Though the
counties is a mother, it is far too early
to speak of her as a young matron.
She is not one to have her life dulled
or fiattened by routine. The COM
monplaces and the conventions OF
society have always bored her. To
such q type. America was bound to be
q magnet of great power.
Probably more than by any other
woman in Italian history, the countess
has upset venerable precedents and
hallowed traditions. For centuries
italy has been land revolving slow
ly in the well-settled grooves OF
millennial civilization. Swift and pro-
found changes in the social scale
were unknown and thought to be i'm
possible. In a few years the countess
has torn this notion up by the roots.
Her sensational experiences have kept
pace with those of her father. HOW
many and stunning have been the
contrasts in her young life! Like her
father, she was born in rickety, tum-
ble-down tenement, with never enough
heat or light. The only fairy god
mother that stood beside her cradle
was Lady Poverty. Then-presto!
change. Behold her as the most pow
erful woman in italy. Recently she
was the brilliant central figure at q
great diplomatic event followed by a
feast in the imperial banqueting hall
at Schoenbrunn, the handsomeSt PAL
ace in Europe, where generations OF
the Hapsburg dynasty lived in splen-
dor and luxury. Well do the old play
mates of the countess in the child
hood days of Forli remember her when
she sang and danced with them in a
ring around perambulating merry-go-
rounds in the streets of st. Peters
parish, the poorest and most neglected
section Of the town. Today she is
welcome visitor in the salons of the
Roman aristocracy, the proudest and
most exclusive in the Western World.
What has startled not only Rome
but also Downing Street, the Quai
d'Orsay and the WilhelmstraSse is the
unique role Father MuSSOlini has as
signed to his daughter in the world
of international politics and diplo-
macy. Paternal affection had little to
do with the missions that have been
intrusted to her. They were all mis-
sions whose import and purpose were
a secret between father and daugh-
ter. Nor has he chosen her to win
laurels in a field heretofore closed to
women merely to tickle her vanity. It
is all very serious business. The Ital-
ian foreign Office sends the same dis
patches and the same information to
the head Of the government and to
his daughter. Toward the end of the
Abyssinian War the countess was in a
hotel at Capri, and more than once
with the important news three days
before the rest of the world heard
anything about 1t. The real cause
for that selection of the countess as
valued partner in his foreign policy
was deeper.
Like her father, Edda was pre-
cocious child. At an incredibly early
age she understood her father better
than any one else. Even then she was
filled with the brave, sacrificial 10y
atty that is often found in the family
life of the people of the i2omagna.
'the country of MuSsolini." Folk in
this rugged section are not as voluble
and volatile as in parts of Italy more
favored by nature. They express them
selves more readily in deeds than in
words.
AS the girl grew up, the father saw
In her the plain reflection Of his own
image, in body and In mind. Her
silent but intense devotion moved him
profoundly. Even then, in his early
career, he was gruf1, harsh and abrupt
to all he knew and to whom he spoke.
He was shaping the forbidding mask
he has thought fit to wear ever since.
Only at the sight Of Edda the mask
vanished. Even before she was old
enough to 60 to school, Edda welded
something of an influence over her
parent.
THE following story was told me by
Augusta Guidi, Edda's maternal
aunt, who lives in New Predappio,
where her husband since has been
appointed the chief Of the local fascio:
After Mussolini had moved from Forli
to Milan to fill the editorial chair of
the Socialist daily Avanti, his material
prospects improved little. One Sum-
mer day in 1918 Donna Rachele, the
mother Of the child, and Mussolini,
anxious to escape the heat and the
smoke of the city, had gone for an
outing to Luino, a pretty little town
on the shores Of Lake Garda, near the
Swiss border. It is easily reached in
an hours ride on the electric out of
Milan. Luino was popular resort.
The boardwalk was lined with amuSe-
ments, restaurants, shooting galleries,
and, Of course, Photographic studios
of the cheaper sort. Donna Rachele
had often pleaded with Mussolini to
have his picture taken with her and
the child. Mussonni had always ex-
pressed vague acquiescence, but put
If of to some other time. Donna
Rachele had wanted such q photo
syro rt, fo eopd hoy,ao for oroopO tho
people Of the poorer classes in the
Romagna such a picture had spe-
cial meaning. It conveyed the idea
that there had been "sistemazione"
or q quasi-legal sanction OF the
menage. Mussolini was preoccupied
and would scarcely listen until Edda
urged him to do what mother wanted.
It was the first favor she had ever
asked and the father consented. The
air Of uneasiness never left the father.