DUPED PRINCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 3 (Supplement)

DUPED PRINCES.

I NOTED GERMAN VAMP. , ! BOLD BEAUTY'S ADVENTURES.. .ATTEMPT OK HER LIFE. The attempt to rvurder the ex-Countess Ferdinand Fischler von -Treuberg, who was shot at and dangerously wounded recently in Berlin by a man with the false name of Count von Arnim, has riveted public attention in Germany on a woman who was one of the most daring and successful adventuresses of her-time. The ex-countess was the daughter of a tailor of Offenbach and, thanks to her ravishing beauty and -her dare-devil nature, she acquired and jewels and luxury with astonishing rapidity. Towards the end o£ the last century, she : took the city, of Frankfort-on-the-Main by storm and also the hearts of the sons of its rich bankers and merchants, to say nothing of the hearts of their susceptible elders. ' ■.*'■'■'

She was the soul of every frolic and gay supper-party of the city. .The solid wealth of Frankfort finally bored her and, rich in experience of the art of capturing men with desirable bank accounts, she appeared at Baden-Baden at a period when the city was at the height of its fame and crowded by rich and distinguished persons from every part of Europe. She provided a sensation when she drove her.own four-in-hand, exquisitely decorated with flowers, at the most brilliant corso of the season, and-the gossips said she would undoubtedly have been awarded the first prize , for her turn-out had not- a royal personage, from whom- she had extorted 'a large sum of money, intimated that -.the- committee would incur his displeasure if Pussie, as everybody called her, was given'the prize.

'Pussie left Baden-Baden to try her luck at Monte Carlo, where, in point of fact, she held her own' with rivals of a dozen nationalities.'. She was quickly the friend of grand dukes and princes,, whom she amused as much as she had amused' the bankers of Frankfort-on-the-Jlain. Germans were and are proud of her. *

"Our one and only successful • adventuress,", said one. German when talking of the murder attempt.

She was over 30 when she came to Berlin, where she; showed herself in fashionable restaurants and sipped champagne in bars frequented by officers of the Guards. All the money which she wanted she got, and she resolved to have a Eew triumph. She decided to be a countess.- So Pussie and a Count Fischler von Treuberg went to London and got married, but the marriage, was subsequently annulled by a German court. ' ' '"'/ ."•'-'■

As her beauty began to fade, Pussie, who spent all. she got,i had to find new means of raising the wind. In combination with a famous swindler, who passed under the name of Baron George de Focke, she began to interest people in an alleged will of the Archduke Eugene, under x which she was to inherit an immense fortune, and she persuaded one of the best lawyers in Berlin to guarantee . that the document which she produced was a correct translation of a non-existing' Hungarian original. In business of this sort she found the melting eyes of her daughter, who had inherited her ' mother's beauty, worked wonders. The swindlewas exposed in one of the Berlin papers. '.'■

Money-Lender Partner. ; The countess, as she was-then, made the acquaintance of innumerable young men of the Prussian.nobility and always had' a plan to help them to get- the absolutely indispensable thousand or so. She was actually in partnership witii moneylenders, including- the famous Heinrich Pariser, about whom one of the young men of the day said: "At least one gets money froni Pariser and is not forced to take books and pictures and babies' coffins." "When some young fool was at his wits'-end to raise ..a. thousand, perhaps to pay debts at cards, -the. countess /■ would lead him to the. usurer. . ■■;"■ '■

. A year before .Pussie and one of her business friends, overstepped the boundary between' the legal arid the illegal. Public attention was 'fixed on. the gang when a young officer of the Guards, caught in their net, put. a bullet through his brain.. . .. ..'■''/■.•■'.:'. '■' '

There was a trial, which lasted for days, and at which the affairs of all' - sorts of. great people were revealed.. There was Princess Louise of Coburg, who had been swindled, and there was Prince Miguel of Braganza, neither of whom . actually aupeared, and -there • were- revelations of the extraordinary connection* between Princess Alexandra of Ysenburg-Budingen and the countess, who had acted together in arrang : ing ,marriages.'- sent to prison, for three years and a-half. . ' '

During her imprisonment -the marriage of Pussie with her count was annulled. When she appeared again she became associated' with' companies for running gaming-tables in fashionable wateringplaces. Latterly she has been able to maintain an agreeable flat in the west end of Berlin. What were her relations with the false Count von Arniin, who , nearly killed her, nobody knows, i The so-called count appeared,at the flat of the ex-countess and niad.e such a frightful scene-that the neighbours, alarmed by the noise, sent for the police, r .When they arrived FrauJJhl, to give Pussie .her pier sent iiame; (leclared that nothing was amiss, and they had to go.- .' Yet she was terribly frightened, for she had got a sailor, a lad of 25 who.'is an excellent boxer, to come to her flat at the time at which she knew. ; ( the ~ mysterious ■friend would arrive.; There 'was another violent scene, and the visitor was quicker with his revolver than the sailor with his fists. •:. ."•• ■ " ' " ■■ '■

The sailor was wounded and Pussie TJhl, as she rushed down'the stairs,, received thiree bullets' and collapsed in' the street in a pool of blood. Yet in hospital she categorically refused to giv.e any information which would help the police to establish the identity of the assailant. • She is now 57 w.ith no hope and nothing but' misery before her. ■'_'_.' . •'

The death.has.occurred of ex-Sergeant A. Harper, one of .'Sheffield's war-shattered men, who had been at the now famous Painted Fabrics > Colony, Sheffield,' since it was formed to find work for seriously disabled nien. When King . Amanullah of visited Sheffield, he saw Sergeant Harperlying in a spinal carriage, and he thrust a £100 note intoMiis hand. Harper has been introduced to all members of the Royal Family who have visited Sheffield in recent years, and lie had an autograph book containing the names of many famous people. •"< '•■" ■'.- '.