RICHEST GIRL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23157, 1 October 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

RICHEST GIRL

By C. A. LYON—(Copyright)

Her Search for Happi| Makes a Cwums GENEROUS GIFTS TO MANY POOR PEOPLE

I' N the Outer- Circle of Regent's Park, London, behind a vast red brick facade that is approached ' by a long drive behind iron rails and 'guarded "by detectives, there lives a voung, slow-spoken mother of 25. She'is so rich that she has only to "turn on the tap" and wealth enough to buy almost anything in the world will, gush out. She lives in a palace said to havo cost more than £300,000 with the con- ' tents and set in a miniature estate which would bo the biggest in London if it were not for Buckingham Palace. She is the American-born Countess Haugwitz-Reventlow, formerly Barbara 7 Hutton, Wool worth heiress. Hers is a curious, an interesting, a human story. For the first 18 years of her life she was hardly heard of so far as the newspapers of the world were concerned.. Pitiless Limelight And then, quite suddenly, the -'richest girl" story was born and for the last seven years, without having sought it, she has been subjected' to a pitiless beam of limelight. The limelight shone, yes, but she had no training as an actress. I should think this girl has had as difficult an

of serfs jn Tsarist Georgia when yours were digging turnips, and lie has the nianner of that mode of life. You, 20, who have been used to the rather self-conscious ostentations of the dollar kings, are absorbed by him. Father is strongly-against this prince, but you behave like (ill the other girls who have so intertwined their lives with a man that for the time being they look forward to nothing else ex • sept seeing him. In brief, you feel you will never find ,anv one so fascinating as this Prince Alexis Mdivani. So you get your way. Three years out of the schoolroom you are married with a £IOOO trdujsseau in the Mairio of Paxsy, the Mavfair bf Paris. It is your'22nd birthday. *lt is not easy to be moderate at that age when you have endless wealth. You are in Paris and you are giving a party. £7OOO Party It is at the Ritz—of course. The band, comes specially from London. There are 120 guests. Some have flown from Naples, London, even Madrid. The music cost £2OOO. There was every kind of rare fopd and wine. Thero was dancing, flirting, drinking, gambling, and it cost £7OOO. Of course, it was air rather young and silly. Perhaps these vast crowded parties were rather pointlesß. But you felt it was not fair that all the world

upbringing an anybody living, from the .point of view of achieving happiness. , Try to imagine yourself in her place. { ; You are born in November, 1912, the jjjlaughter of a nqh.Jbnsinegs_mg,n^ Karo an only child and you grow up sdelicate and lonely in the care ofya governess. . ~ v v - - s • . People pity you, which you hate. As' you grow a little older papa, the tgoverness, the servants, tell you that Cyou are the granddaughter of old F. W. Woolworth, who is fabulously rich. | Five Cent Stores , • f■ Sou hear "that your great-grand- ' father was-of farming stock, and that 'about 50 years.ago his son, F. W., had .put up a gaudy red calico-covered stall .of odds and ends in a small town near I New Ycrk. The goods were marked ""Any article 5 cents." ; , - U It appears that grandfather now : has .-;£n enormous chain of these stores, selling things at 5 and 10 cents, and that ■ he has even got them abroad, including "diome in England, which were started in '1909, three year's before you were

should judge you by this and similar parties. They did not know that you had given away £3,000,000 of the £8,000,000 -in.'the .space of . a, They did 'not kn'Ow fortune to the old newspaper seller at Venice,i his. stock.-of papers and paid his rent. Help for Old Nurse They did not know that you had sent your whole pocket money to help an old nurse when you were a girl and were giving her a liberal pension now. They did not know-of the chambermaid's daughter you were keeping in; a sanatorium, of the family -of friends .you had sent on . a cruise .to China, of the Paris manicurist? whoso hospital bills you weire paying. They . have • forgotten your love, for the culture of China, the poejns 'you, loved to write, the vast number-- of, books you had read. * \ A year of the "grand" life passed for you and thare were rumours abroad that your husband 'and you were not happy. They were' true. rumours. Papa comes over from Paris to find out what it is all about", but he does not heal the breach. One more year-and' the divorce is accomplished. A little wisdom has penetrated to you through the thickly-padded doors of the suites you live in, and you say bitterly:—■ ' - ' - • "I think the trouble is that many young people are in too much of a hurry, and don't know each other enough." 1 Second Husband You seek happiness again. On the same day as your 11-minute divorce takes-place yon have a five-minute marriage. The bridegroom is a Danish aristocrat who is almost . double your own age. The place is Reno. You are .22, and your husband, Count HaugwitzReventlow, is 39. A month later you say blithely. "1 am now perfectly happy with the husband whom I love, and who loves me. He is a fine sportsman,' but he thinks' about his,wife,first s ,"vetc., etc; ' - ■ ; The.old round of luxury travel begins again. . Southampton, New York, Riviera, Denmark, St. Moritz. The inevitable cavalcade of big shiny cars, big i shiny wagons-lits, toarrive 'at big. shiny hotels. Birth of Son A baby is born-r-in a blaze of publicity, of course. For long-afterwards you hover between life and death. It is your biggest encounter with the realities of life. ... There is a little respite, and then—your name is figuring in big type on the front pqgps. of the. world's newspapers once again. , The world gapes at you, but your father just comments:—• \ ; ''lt's too badf Thfese young people are just "a couple' of kids. They've had a little fuss, just a little flare-up." So the story will go on. Endless wealth, endless publicity, endless pursuit of the will-o'-the-wisp happiness. Seven chequered years Countess Barbara has passed -in the role of' the world's richest girl. She has a lot to contend -with. Will she, I wonder, succeed in constructing a tolerable, life out of it'all ? Count and Countess HaugwitzReventlow recentlv signed a deed of separation at a solicitor's office in London. "It may not be generally known," a statement said at the time, "that their son Lance is heir-presumptive to the family estate of Hardenberg'. onp of the largest estates in Denmark. I" that capacity he may one day, be hea-1 of a well-known Danish noble familv." A ccordingly, a settlement was reachcl * under Danish law. under which the count retains parental rights covering; his .son's education, religion and professional career. The countess is granted care of the child for the greater part of the year while in his tender years.- 'i ' " v T Other settlements concern Lance's ' f'nancial future. The statement added I that the parties separated on terms of " complete mutual understanding.

•born. if When you are seven, grandfather, j'the very old gentleman who owns all shops and tells such tales about his early days.-as a salesman on stalls, "dies. 0 He leaves all- his money to his

"iwife. • v /, .-- • . ,•v. •' V; Four years pass, during which 'your mother, who was born Ldna : Wool worth, dies, leaving you to rather $ lonely life, unheard of by the world at large, in California. Then when you ■are 12 grandmother dies. I "Very Perplexing"

They te" you that you have inherited y inilliotiß (but what exactly are millions?) of dollars from her. Papa is, of course, going to look after it until you are big, hut, then you will be able to have anything you want. _ But you iiust be careful whom you give it to, because many people who say nice things to you, will , not be good. It is all very, perplexing, i. " : : V . - A big change . comes when you are 18. You "come out." There i'b a tremendous party at father's house in « Fifth Avenue. The next day there are columns about it in-the papers, You learn what you did not know before, that the cost of the party was £I2,(KM). /■You read that you are one of the richest heiresses in the world. Life Assumes a new complexion at once. : | The blare of publicity, the blare that is never to stop, has started. Details of everything you do, or don't do, are detailed daily. Some of it is rather tinkind, and assumes from the start that you are an empty-headed moneytrarning minx. v This hurts you, because yrfu are very joung and you' pan only be expected to lead the kind of' life that father naa' set you afloat'in, and -besides even rtfiiph poorer girls than you seem to Want to enjoy life. Ninateen. You go on a world tour. |f' is the beginning of endless restless jOiirneyings you will make in- tbe : years • «hat are to come. ■h You enter the world of the de luxe tourist. It is an unsettling world. A »or!d where tall french windows are ®Vayg opening out on to a balcony °'"erlooliing thd boulevards. She Meets a Prince i'. £ A world where the long dark blue fyternational sleeping-car, with its : faocolate-clad attendants, seems to be we only possible mode of travel. A where a good many of the people to work on the principle that Nothing is wrong that is done foi Ipwmey. ' Is A world where the French maid is Sfrays nacking things into tlio rawsuitcases to go somewhere else, i C&iWorld where it' is very difficult to : oMrtoain unsophisticated or to keep one s fj® of values and character. in this kind of atmosphere that meet a prince—Prince Alexis Ml'lipani (pronounced Mm-di-yan-ny). :VSjju' s flattering', lie is athletic,^hei plajft forefathers had their troops (