THE CAREER OF A PARISIAN CELEBRITY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 344, 1 April 1884, Page 5

THE CAREER OF A PARISIAN CELEBRITY.

V A Paris correspondent gives some additional particulars oi the extraordinary career of M adaine de Paiva, 1 who just died at the age of 74*, at her castle of Newdelck, in Silesia. There is nothing more extraordinary in the "Arabian Nights," he says, than the story of this woman's career. Her family name was Pauline Therese Lachmann, and she was bora in Russia. Some time between her twentieth and thirtieth year she married Francis Villving, a poor tailor at Moscow, by whom she had a son. She deserted both, and went forth to conquer the world by her beauty, wit, and charms. Slv* came to Paris as naturally as the moth goes to the candle. Fortune did not smile on her at first, for she was picked up half dying from hunger and cold one December night in the avenue o£ the Champs Elysees. The good Samaritan who thus gave her timely aii was a famous pianist. She followed him everywhere on his artistic tours, and : fina'ly induced him to present her at court. Her radiant beuuty had raised up against her a host of enemies ; they ■ instituted an inquiry into her civil and 1 social status, and discovered the truth so that when the beautiful " irregular " ! made her triumphal entry into th Salle des Marechaux an aide-de-camp approached her and whispered, " Ma--3 dame, you have come to the wroDg . house." She understood the hint and r vanished with her paramour, who was j overwhelmed, with confusion, finding

the musical virtuoso had not sufficient influence to second her ambition — she wanted to be respected as well as rich— the tailor's widow {for Villviug. was now dead) left her lover and went to London. There she had to • fight the battle o£ life over again, but ! with so little success that she came to meditate suicide, when the woman with whom she lodged gave her a ticket for a box at Ooveut Garden, advising her to get herself up as splendidly as possible, and to look her most beautiful. The adventuress followed the advice of the " bad angel," and that night made a number of wealthy conquests. She rapidJy became rich enough to return to Paris and start a sumptuous estab- ' lishrnent in a magnificent house opposite to that of M. Thiers, in the Place Saint Georges. Money . purifies everything there, and her salon soon became one of the most frequented in Paris. On the sth of June, 1851, she married a genuine Portuguese grandee, the Marquis Fr. Aranjo de Paiva. To be a married woman was her chief aim ; she attached no importance ■to the husband, and he, after a short time, disappeared from her existence by committing suicide in the open street near the Arc de Triomphe. She then dwelt in a mansion she had built opposite to the spot where she had been found dying of hunger that cold December night in the Champs Blysees. The habitues of her saloon comprised all who had a name in arts, letters, arms and science in Paris. Among them was the Count Henckel von Donnesmarck, who became her third husband. The onyx staircase of her mansion was as celebrated in its day as that of the o^era is now. The ceilings, walls, p4uels, and wainscots were decorated with the paintings, ot such masters as •Bandry, Cabnel, Gerome, &c. She lavished her money most recklessly, ! and thought nothing of giving or throwing away a few thousand pounds. This splendor lasted for 20 years, till the franco -German war broke out. As by her marriage with Count Henckel Donnesmarck she had become Bismarck's cousin, she found it prudent to retire to Berlin. The high society of that city gave her a cold reception, and kept aloof so long as she lived in a house of her own. She therefore took up her quarters in a public hotel, and there was overwhelmed with visits from the fastidious Prussian nobility, who appeased their qualms of conscience by saying — " It is not her we visit ; it is the hotel." The countess having gained her point retired to her castle in Silesia, where she has j ust died full of days and dishonor.