SCENES ONCE BRIGHTEST.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 194, 21 September 1914, Page 3

SCENES ONCE BRIGHTEST.

EX-EMPRESS EUGENIE IM* PARIS. The Chicago "Tribune" gives a penpicture of a recent visit paid to Paris by the ex-Empress Eugenie, once the darling of fortune, now a lonely oil woman, to whom husband, son, power, beauty, youth, are just—-memories. The hand of Time gradually- extracting the sting from those memories, so that Eugenie, for the first time in 33 years, was inclined to visit the palace "and woods and drives of Fontainbleau —she has grown so old that she no longer feels so deeply the grief and chagrin of her exile, and the sight; of those bright scenes of her lost greatness' lia\ e lost their power to wound. She is over 80 now. Luxury /and power no longer appeal to. her as they did in the old days when she played fos the role of the Empress of France and, won. The old beauty which made her famous in the sixties is almost, gone, but she is as erect and trim as of yore, and if her face is lined with great sorrows and great passions, it still retains the sweetness and wistfulness which now, as then, belies the strength and dominating power of her character. "I saw her," writes the Paris correspondent of the '/Tribune, "as sho alighted from an automobile in front of the paved courtyard of the palace. She was dressed entirely in black and her hair gleamed snow-white from under her widow's veil. She was accompanied by Qount Primoli and ,Count Waleski, but with a sprightly gesture she refused their arms to ascend the steps. From 3 till 5 shie roamed through the familiar rooms of the. palace, her memory keen and alive to every change. She noted the absence, of certain, bronzes and tapestries whicfi have gone to make the Ministries more luxurious." She begged for -a rearrangement of the apartments of Marie Antoinette, that they might be as* they had been when she first came to the palace. And, always the solemn procession with memories and tales of former years, and "recalled days when the Galerie of/Henri 11., with its crescents in honour of Diane de Poitiers, was the scene of the merriest balls in France. "M. d 'Esparbds, curator <rf the palace, was conducting the little party through; and -when they came to the open court there was a little group of attendants gathered to see her. One of the men is a noted anarchist, and often makes heated speeches against all forms of government and the tyranny 'of kings. His little girl r who is not over four, was looking with wondering eyes on the Empress Eugenie, who stooped and fondled her. Then detaching a little gold pendant—-a dog with tiny diamond eyes—from her watch chain, she put it into the little one's hands. The child was too shy to answer, anil the father whispered: 'Say thank you, your Majesty.' It-was-.# proof of the undying atmosphere of royalty and rank which clings to the Empress that the anarchist should unconsciously address her by her long-forgotten title." It is said that the ex-Empress has taken to spiritualism very much during the past year. It may easily be so. All her interests, all those she loved, are in spiritland—lonely and exiled and old as she is, one can easily understand how she would be likely to seize upon any avenue that seemed to promise communication with them.