Lulu La Lopez— Wrecker of Men

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

Lulu La Lopez— Wrecker of Men

Being a “spoof” review of a "spoof” autobiography by that prince of humorists—Mr. D. B. Wyndham-Lewis . . . 'i •. . “MY LIFE," by Sir . William Boulge. 2 v01a.,, Illustrated, with 3 maps. London, 8010 and Co., 18s net. (Published to-day.) /PHIS is the* simple' record of a closely-packed life. From 1835 .V to 1904 'Sir William Boulge moved iv 'through 'cosmopolitan society frith inimitable 1 gracey,;mingling, in the gay, ‘‘life of every' capital in the civilised >■world,.and of ten visiting New York. V He has long been known as the Grand ..OId ; Mari ’qf Cosmopolis; to his hosts of friends, more familiarly as “Nasty.” He. was. perhaps ‘ the last of the . bucks, '.and remembers, as a youth,.con versing with George IV. at ! Brighton. The story may be told in his own words:— His’Majesty,Toklng.very.bronzed and fit,, though stout,'was ’chatting witt Sir Harry Plunger, ‘‘Sambo’’ - Gibbs, Nase- ” more, and’ otters. On seeing mo he stopped at once and very graciously • , inquired,. **Ahd who is this • d d fel- * * low?” • Plunger, I think, said: “Oh, some d d fellow or otter, Sir."- • . “Well.” • said his Majesty, laughing S, heartily "I’m d dif I ever saw such ’’ a d——d looking fellow before, damme.” V- . “Damme, Sir,” said Nasemore, “you’re right. Even at. Brighton, damme.” M His Majesty again laughed heartily and, saying, “D—-—d good!” stabbed at t,y me abstractedly with his walking-cane . and; passed- on. . A few ; years later Sir William, V passoing through Calais, saw Beau Brammell in the* last stages of his poverty and decay, and enjoyed a chat ■with him. . ~ v. \i -I entered the room briskly’and saluted BrummeU, who was reclining in a chair ■ Witt Closed eyes. I told him ray name. Ho opened: his eyes at once. “Did you say Boulge?” he said. “X did.” I said. / ;• “Weil,” said BrummeU, with a faint , flash of his old-time grace, "get out.” ■ I then left the room, and Calais. It was a dozen years after this that Sir. William, being appointed First ,' Secretary at Paris through the influ-v-ence of Mrs. Henry Swinger, met the ”, woman, who-was to-sweep through his life like a storm, and leave him, as he himself\3£iys; boako. Who does not remember Lulu La Lopez, the Snake Dancer? Brilliant, fearless, lovely, C heartless,) she' careered through the gay life of Europe, leaving behind her ■' delirium and devastation. Her Titianr : red hair,;'; her lithe .form, her strange oval jade-green eyes, the almost cruel abandon'd her whirlwind dancing, - 1 conquered the 'beau monde wherev ever 'she appeared. By the courtesy i, of Messrs. 8010 I am enabled to repro- . , . ; ■ ’ duce a photo-. * graph of Lulu in the blaze of her youth and beauty, performing her Snake Dance, in the daring Oriental costume she affected. The greater part of the first volume of these : memoirs is jdevoted to Lulu La Lor'- pez. v When .Sir William met her at ■; the Alcazar she was just twenty, and had already a Tong, string of ■ desp.e rate lovers. Her hi a r rie d name was .Widdups—so called after her first husband, Elmer. P. Widdups, a handsome traveller in linseed, of A 1 ciba d es Ga. Of him Lulu would often say, “He .was a tiger. And she would frequently add, “So was - Fred Person Wigley. I was a butterfly, and Fred Person Wigley tamed me. The Maharajah of Puttipur was a tigeri ; tdo. But it is not enough to 1 be a tiger; one must be in tune with Life, seoldng its rhythm, expressing it in terms pf one’s Art, and one’s Art ' in terms of it,”

Baron - von Mosen once asked lier, “Lulu,, is not the harmonious control o£ Art by Art the j essential activity of true criticism?” She added, biting her, li]s. I have no space to recount all/the adventures of this femme fatale: how she once left a Crowned Head planted in Posen' and travelled all day and night to Venice, having heard; that there was a gentleman named Thompson, or Timpson, staying at Danieli’s, who was in -rhythm with the Great Supernal Life-Song. How she roamed hither and thither, eternally dissatisfied, eternally seeking, a twin soul and leaving people to pay for cabs and meals, would require a volume to de-: scribe, and does. , \ ; ' Boulge, the last of the Regency bucks, was her toy. , She would send him a telegram from London or Paris and bring him all the way over from Lima or Helsingfors simply to be trampled on, while she. laughed . likesilver bells. The same night, she would send him all the way back again. “V think,” he writes, “Lulu was temperamental; but she was womanly ailfond, , and liked Ruskin —Jacky/ as -she called him;” : / The . international scandals in which Lulu La Lo- > pez was in- . . . ■ volved, the _ 1 i; Blum Derg' Diamonds case, tile'" Chancellery box, the Villa villaVilla v i 1 lii suicides, the : Ho Cha n g a£Ea ir, the Waterloo | Cup ... but they are end-,-, less, like her list of lovers. - S i r "William remained her slave, and only onc/ef succeeded in wounding the proud, cruel, lovely creature. T h-i s was when he refused to. introduce her; I to his people. . She flung fa lamp at him and flounced off to* New York, where six weeks later: Homer G. Van Ploop shot himself on her account in .interesting cir : c u instances. His first shot merely wounded him, , As- he lay groaningfon the floor his broker rang up and suggested bulling Plazas for a rise, to which-. Homer G. Van Ploop instantly agreed, thus swinging across the Five Point Group and smashing the Hooey combine; after which he fired his second shot, wnlch proved fatal; and so died a martyr to love and holding the market. Our photograph of Miss Annie Givins is from Vol. 11., which is full of the othei; European celebrities and notorieties . whom Sir William knew intimately, and is the, only one ex * tant of that beautiful society adventuress in action. There is a printer’s error on page 67. .For “Lord Edward was very much ashamed"-of his pieface,” read “ashamed of his preface.”