ALL THE WORLD AT HER FEET.

Shannon News, 7 August 1925, Page 1

ALL THE WORLD AT HER FEET.

STORIES TOED B* A FAMOUS BEAUT*. “People ran after me in droves, staring me out of countenance and even lifting my sunshade to satisfy fully their curiosity. To venture out for a little shopping was positively hazardous, for the instant I entered an establishment to make a purchase the news that,l was within spread with the proverbial rapidity of wildfire, and the crowd about the door grew so dense that departure by the legitimate exit was rendered impossible, the obliging proprietor being forced, with many apologies to escort me around to the back door.”

Not even in these days of muchboomed film “stars” has greater interest been shown by the public in any one personality than was the case when Mrs Lillie Langtry was the idol of society. So intense was the excitement she aroused that on one occasion a girl seated in Hyde Park, being mistaken for her? was so badly hurt by the attentions of the crowd that she was taken unconscious to St. George’s Hospital. A Marquess’S Homage.

“My portraits were in every shop window, with trying results, for they made the public so familiar with features that wherever I went—to theatres, picture-galleries, shops—l was actually mobbed. One nighty at a large reception at Lady Jersey’s, many of the guests stood on chairs to obtain a beter view qf me, and I could not help but hear their audible com'ments on my appearance as I passed down the drawing-room.”

The daughter of Dean Le Breton, of Jersey, where she was born, Mrs Langtry (now Lady de Bathe) describes in “The Days I Knew” lie? dazzling career from the time she left her Channel Islands home as the Wife of Mr. Edward Langtry, a wealthy Irish widower, to her retirement from the social and theatrical spheres, in which for many years she reigned as a veritable queen of beauty. Of her conquest of the highest circles of London society she tells many stoi'les.

“Invitations to receptions and balls were so numerous ihat we were mostly obliged to . t.: tend two or thre e of each in an evening in order to keep up our engage ments. Devonshire House, with its renowned marble staircase, was certainly one of the most attractive of the great houses we visited. We went to one of the Marquess of Hartington’s political receptions there. On our arrival he left his place at the head of the stairs and conducted me round the magnificent rooms, pointing out a few treasures, and, on my admiring the lovely coloured water-lilies reposing in marble pools, he drenched his clothes pulling them out as an offering.” The Peacock’s Evil Influence. Mrs Langtry adds: “Through all (Lis procession of operas, dinners, aild baU? I wore my one black govvn, the creation of a Jersey d'res.miaker; v a, the meagreness of my wardrobe : aof so«*m to bo noticed'by others, and it was not even realised by me. 7 The gown, needless to say, had grown .a.usiderubly the worse for wear as the season wore on, and I am sure my maid disapproved of it heartily.” One evening, Mrs Cornwallis West, mother of Constance Duchess of Westminster, begged Mrs Langtry to lend her the gown, as she had no time to reach her ow n house to change before going to the opera. Afterwards Mrs Cornwallis West went on to a ball, with the result that the precious dress was returned to its owner practically in rags! A time came when the Jersey Lily —the name bestowed on her by a compatriot, Sir John Millais, the great artist — and her husband found thenresources coming to on end. Creditors began to be unpleasantly pertinent in their attentions, and at last the couple found it convenient to leave town. Mrs Langtry ascribes these misfortunes less to lack of care than to the baneful infiunce of peacock’s feathers, in whose potency for evil she confesses herself a strong believer. A King’s Early Call. One of hex’ brothers, high Indian official, having shot a sacred peacock, was killed by a tiger soon afterwards. When the tragic news arrived, Mrs Langtry made haste to rid hex-self of a stuffed peacock which she kept in the house. She gave it to a friend, Frank Miles, an artist. A lew weeks later Miles’s father died suddenly, while he himself was obliged to break off his engagement by reason of an illness from which he never recovered. i ears afterwards, in New York, 1 was summoned to" the bedside of an apparently dying friend. Harry Oeiriclis. and finding a hideous brass and ivatln-r travesty of a peacock in the room 1 begged the invalid’s brother to have it removed, which he did. though probably only a coincidence, it is certain that at once the sick man began to mend.”

Kings, queens, princes, and great siatesmen were glad to number themselves among Mrs Langtry’s admirers. A frequent caller was Leopold King or the Belgians, who would sometimes have himself announced as early as nine o’clock in the morning. •So early, indeed, was he one morning that Mrs Langtry sent down word .hat she could not see him!