COUNTESS AND FARMER

Southland Times, Issue 19500, 14 March 1925, Page 6

COUNTESS AND FARMER

COURT BEAUTY’S CAREER. ONCE WORKED AS SERVANT. The famous Countess Marie Lariscb, daughter of the late Duke Ludwig of Bavaria and niece of the former Empress Elizabeth of Austria, has become the bride of W. H. Meyers, a wealthy American truck farmer of Austrian origin, under romantic circumstances.

This is the latest episode in a life of amazing ups and downs. The Countess was the niece and confidante of the Empress of Austria who was murdered at Geneva a generation ago. A cousin of the present Queen of the Belgians and, before the war, a member of the Bavarian Court, she lost her property when the French occupied Metz. Then she became a general servant in a Jewish family in Berlin. Once a famous beauty, her hair is now grey and her hands worn with work. Meyers read of her misfortunes in a New York paper, obtained her address, and wrote offering financial assistance. He proposed at first to obtain for her a position in a hospital, but during the correspondence he proposed marriage in a letter in which he said:—

“I have no palaces, no castles, no chateaux to give you. I' have no titles to bestow upon you; no jewels to replace the adornments which were yours in better days. “But I have a home —a home of comfort without luxury, to which I can invite you, and it will make me a very happy and better man if you will come to America and spend the remnant of your eventful life with me as my wife.”

'The wedding, it is revealed, took place in the town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and in the presence of Count Karl Larisch, her son. The Countess had already been married twice.