SALE OF THE EMPRE'S EUGENIE’S PERSONAL EFFECTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 510, 26 January 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

SALE OF THE EMPRE'S EUGENIE’S PERSONAL EFFECTS.

—o — In passing by the new gallaries of the Louvre, facing th-> quay, I heard die tinkle of a bell, and the voi< e of a oner inviting the public to come in and Ony what remained .'be sola of the Empress Eugenie's- personal effects. Accepting the invitation, I entered the little court, standing in the midst of the Imperial stables. Another bellringer was at the door of the manage where M. Buchou used to give the Prince imperial riding lessons. It is a long vaulted chamber, with a sanded floor. Its even temperature was the reason why it was chosen for the equestrian practice of the boy whom prefets were bound to designate at public banquets “the hope of France.'’ Though all the steeds h«ve long since disappeared from the Louvre stanles a faint smell of horse litte” floated through the air. The manege was last used by Jules Ferry and Rochefort, who were accustomed to take riding lessons in it during the siege But on this occasion it was occupied by old clothes sellers of both sexes, curiosity dealers a few friends of the fallen dynasiy, wlio-e faces had often been seen grouped around the throne of the Salle cles Etats, some dirty students, and a sprinkling of those antiquated gentlemen in white gaiters who pass their lives in hovering anout the bookstands on the parapet of the Quay "Voltaire and passing and vecrossiug the Pont des Arts. The auctioneer was a selfsufticient sort of common-place bourgeois. He did his best to lie jocose at the expense of fallen greatness. In liquidating the Imper al effects he was assisted by *n old c eik, two men wearing threadbare Imperial liveties, and a strong-voiced valuer, who, cou--1 rary to the traditions of Paris auctioneers, puffed the wares he wanted to vend. To some he attempted to give a historical value. Each article he seemed to think was worth its weight in gold, it only as a relic. The dressess, laces, shawls, and mantles, had been disposed of on a previous day ; and it was now the turn of the undeiclothiug and “ intimate house linen" to be liquidated. Pillow-cases of tine cambric—so tine that one wonders how they supported the elaborate em broideries and deepival lace borders—were hotly contested for by a “ petite dame,” a shabby Jew of the Rue des Yidoires, and others. The little lady carried off a dozen. It “ poses” one, she cried, tittering as she spoke, to press the pillow on which an 1 niperia* head reposed, The cypher E happened to stand for her name, which she vol-

unteered to t 11 one of the old friends of the fallen dynasty was Eulalie. As for the crown under it, ma foi, she was just as worthy to wear it. as any one else ! The old friend W"s not loth to cultivate the acquaintance of the sparkling fair one. He assented to this proposition, and volunteered to hold a pillow-case which the auctioneer had allowed her to take. The tow elling was endless. Bundle after bundle of

fine Saxony damask napkins, all with j the E, the crown, the eagle, the busy I Carlovingian bee, and a profusion of | laurel wreaths, were handed round the vaulted room to be examined by bidders and then disposed of. Some breakfasttable napery, the present of a king, now Emperor William's first feudatory was bought by one of the former habitues of the Salle dea Etats. He got it cheap, One of ihe old gentlemen, who happened to be deaf, was furious wl en he found that he might have had the lot nt 130f, The brokers and students were jocose when an inside garment was held up by two dainty little sleeves, and thepublicasked toexamine it, as a fair specimen of the large bale from which it was drawn at hazard. French hands turn out underclothing in a way none other can. Give a Rue pe la Paix lingree tine Irish linen, Valenciennes lace, and a Lorraine embroiderer to execute her ideas, and she will get up a trosseau so natty, pretty, and dainty that a Hottentot Venus would exchange her bracelets and colored garters for it. In france, where the bump of veneration is depressed and modesty a weak virtue, they do not mind setting up to puolic auction body linen. A baron who eats salt fish on Fridays, and aims at a character for piety and respectability of behavior, presided lately in his chateau at the sale of his defunct mother’s underclothing, and smiled at the coarse remarks of peasants who were disputing for her night dresses. None of his aristocratic neighbors thought the worse of him. Nobody could understand why body lii en should not be put up t-' auction with other assets, and when the articles were held up to view, how cauld one expect that country louts would not make merry in their rough way about them 1 When M. Thiers dies his shir.B and hosiery will be disposed of by auction without any ceremony by his nearest of kin. There wer v. peignoirs and dressing gowns, ell womterfiilly elegant, but dusty and somewhat blue-moulded. The sio kings of thread, silk, and Shetland wool, were of gossamer lightness. & n infinity of bath and toilet sponges were knocked down at a hundred fi ancs. They were all of the best quality. 'I ho little lady said she would have been the purchaser if the auctioneer had guaiunteed that he was selling her something which had actually passed through the Empress’s hands. Then I therewere, theladiesthought, delicious (things in the way of petticoats, flannel

bus le», robes de chainbre, sorties de bain, and woollen wraps. Some baby’s robes which, according to the salesman’s legend, belonged to the Prince Imperial's layette , were bought by a Russian lady. A snuffy purchaser shook her head incredulously at those belongings of imperial infancy. They were sumptuously got up, she #dnii ted, but nothing would convince her that they d d not belong to some distressed bouryeoise's layette and were not palmed off by the auutioneerfo enhance their price, as having Been worn by the Prince at whose birth, seventeen years ago, official France went into tinmost excessive demonstrations of delight that ever hailed the advent of a Hoyal child on our planet. Home Paper.