TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11377, 21 March 1899, Page 7

TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.

" Fannie Lear," the most notorious woman America ever contributed to Europe, lias been succeeded by her daughter. It is one of the most extraordinary cases ever recorded of the influence of heredity. " Fannie Lear," says Edgar Saltus, in the New York Journal, " was born in Philadelphia. Her father the Rev. Ezra, Stiles Ely. was pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, and fine of the most prominent clergymen (if the. day. Her mother, a 1 Virginian, was as strict as he was austere. Fanny they christened.Hattie. When she was older she rechristened herself. Mean.while, through one of those miracles which may be attributed to the climate, the child of tolerably angular parents developed into nn abominably pretty girl. People turned to look at her in the street. Not to be ouldono in politeness, she always looked back. In the course of time she married a Mi' Blackford, and in a year she was a Vi i(lrj\i\ Mrs Blackford's mourning whs not protracted. . " Partly for diversion, partly with an eye to business, she went about, an angel by day, wrecking homes at night. When the homes resisted, she took the matter into court. The suits which she instituted are legendary. Finally she sued her own attorney. That was the bouquet. Blackford and blackmail became synonymous, and Philadelphia ;i trifle hot. It was at this juncture that the recliristening occurred, and Fannie Lear undertook a per-sonally-conducted tour abroad. Her first stopping place was England, her first vie-

tint an carl. Germany followed; and inoitlentiiUy a geu.'v:tl. The name of the latter was- Kehocnbnni ISuehemi,, stationed in Lower Franeonili; be was there commandant (if the troops. Of the Englishman she. made one bite and finished him. Then she tackled the Uernian. "The meal concluded, the capture nf . Paris ensued. Fannie Lear was one. of (he ; earliest on the Elysian fields. At home there at once, .she made others at home with her too. Among her guests were playwrights and princes. There wiis McilhaoV for instance, and there was Constau- J tine. The one was brave, the other bold, j In proof of which the first put'her on the j stage, the second in a train. Women admin- the brave, but prefer the audacious. " Constantino, though bold;- was dull, but he was also Grand Ducal. There is a made in that which makes stupidity Jus'irons. Hut Constantino was not merely Urand Ducal. The Autocrat of all the, Russia* was his undo. In the bombs of I the Nihilists whs the chance that he might j be Czar himself. The.attentions of a gentle- ! man 'so august were enough to Hatter any j mere Philadelphia!! to death. It is history j that they went to this lady's head. .When j the train stopped and she alighted on the | Ncvski Prospect, she felt tolerably unto- j era tie herself. Tile palace in which she j ivas lodged,'the red .of the imperial' liveries j thft1; stood about, did not diminish the good j opinion which she' had acquired on the ! ■ - '"But it occurred in her t,hat it might be j heightened. Where there arc royals and } red" there sliould be regalias also. The , palace was sufficiently sumptuous, yet in; it to her mind, she was insufficiently adorned. Add these -things, togothcr and it will seem only natural that she should have wanted the Crown jewels. It will ] not. seem extraordinary that she should ! ■Juiv- got them, either, nor yet, in view of | the enterprise, that. Constantino should hfve been ■ hurried: into exile and she bundled out of the place—minus the jewels, though, and, parenthetically, very nearly j minus everything else. ' j '• In a neighbouring convent, -meanwhile, | a girl was occupied in what wOjtlunk we '; have seen somewhere described as budding j into womanhood. One ; day "the door j opened. Under the. chaperoniige :of a dra- ; o,",ii she went to Lausaraie. Just here the ; 'plot thickens. Through Lausanne there j happened to be strolling a young, licutc- | mint. He had eyes of porcelain blue, the! skin of a baby, a waist that would tit a ; garter, and a moustache that ; elongated : into two blonde threads. That' entrancing \ apparition Gretchen. .pit down and wor- j ■shipped ' The lieutenant , wrote to his ; peouje. The girl wrote to her. ifflimtw. j From the latter came the promise of a. j : dower.' From the former, the head of the j house, the young chap's father, who looked j the "maiden up and "down, y said thftt she; would do, and asked, to see the. letter in | which the dower was set forth. "Then, at once, had .a. little dog jumped from under the, table at which they were sealed and bitten the father on the, nose, he could not have become more, apoplectic. ! Whether it was the signature or the handwriting, or both, is immaterial, but in a. moment ho was a general in Lower Friinconh again, the next moment he was draggin." his son -away-.frpm the daughter of Fannie Lear. There.is real drama in real life. And there' is more"." When the lieutenant bad gone Gret?hen discovered that I>r was Faust, What then occurred is uncertain. In this .tenebrous, tale-there are many obscurities unelucidoted yet. But a point remains. The girl's apprenticeship complete, presently, in Hyde Park, in the Bois, on the Riviera, wherever the rich and the wicked promenade, she began to appear,-anonymously at first,- then'as the Countess of * This, the Princess of the Other, until recently as. plain,. yet..preUv. Mrs Prestongraugc—the erupted in the neighbourhood"'of -.the Brussels. Court, the guest-of Belgium's- King. ■,■■..■■- . • " Here, rightly, this story should end. The reader 'already- has had his moneys worth—3]lthe elements of a three : volume novel compressed into' a column's space. Between the linos there has-been heredity. Interconnecting thorn- there has been mn. There has been romnncealso, history even, drama ns well, and yet now there is a climax to come. A Jong while ago. when Maximilian, Emperor, of Mexico, wns shot, his wife Carlntta went ,ma%' At the time her brother. Belgium's King,, very- kindly undertook the' care"'of. her.' fortune and. of her diamonds beside.^,Since then both have disappeared. Where' the money went is a detail". But the .stones,' >t is reported, are now, illuminating Fannie 'Lear's daughter's neck. Precisely as., the mother got. the Muscovite jewels tjia child has secured the Mexican gems." • - , '

■ NrMMO and BlAin ssll ".Tadoo," Uio map:!o pkl.lt grower, and which should Ua used by all Kr°wors of'flowora find plants, whotlier in pots or" in tho open .border. Thousands- of tons of ".Tadoo "• are' used ..every year for Krowing plants, -arid , when better known nothing else will,be used.—Atlvt. — Tristan d'Acunlia, in the South Atlantic, Bends out its post once a year to the outside world. It has a population of 6* persons.