A FEMININE MONTE CHRISTO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2140, 27 March 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FEMININE MONTE CHRISTO.

Me William E. Curtis, a member of the South American Commission, writes iv interesting letter from Cuili to the Chicago Inter- Ocean, describing the unbounded wealth and splendour of Donni Isador Cousiuo, of Chili, the richest wotonn in the world. She is known by the sobriquet of the Counters of Monto Christ o, and no one, not even herself, knows the exact number of her millions. Her ancestry goes back to the days of the conquest, and were then famous, us they had fought with distinction under the en«ign of the Arragons before the alliance with Castile. The ancestors of her late husband, too, came orer early and •hared in the spoils of the conquest. Their estates, on both sides, were continually increased by the addition of those of less thrifty proprietors, until they became the largest and most valuable of nil the haciendas of Chili. Both estate* were united twenty-four years ago by the marriage of the Lite Don and his surviving widow. While he lived he was the richest man in Chili, aad she the richest woman, for their property eras kept separate, both managing their estates. The husband, at his death, willed all his property to his wife, so that now she has millions of acres of land, millions of money, hundreds of thousands of flocks and herds, coal, copper, and silver mines, acres of real estate in the cities of Santiago and Valparaiso, a fleet of iron steamships, smelting works, a railroad and other productive properly that yield her an income of millions a year. She exerts all her ingenuity to spend as much of it a* she can, and she succeeds quite well. Her coal mines alone bring her in the trifle of 80,000dols. a month ; and as they are the only source from which coal can be obtained in South America, anyone who does not bay from the widow may go to Great Britain for it. It costs the widow but $1*35 a ton to mine and deliver this coal, and she sells it for $7*50 a ton, just a shade less than the cost of imported British coal. As the deposit is inexhaustible, and she has the monopoly, and makes about 600 per cent, on every ton of it, her income from this source alone would suffice to keep her in pin money. She has a fleet of iron steamships, built in England, to carry the coal up both aides of the South American coast. At Lotta *he has copper and smelting works, and her coaling ships bring ore from Peru and Ecuador as their return cargo, , and flour and merchandise from Buenos 1 Ayres. Mme. Couaino owns every house in the town of Lotta, and its -7000 inhabitants are dependent on her for support. In Coronel nine-tenths of its 8000 inhabitants are on her pay-rolls. Her brick kilns and her .potteries supply' all the tiles and earthenware on the west coast; She pays out about $120,000 a month in wages in these two towns alone, moat of which comes back to her through her own supply stores at a nice profit. The widow liven most of her time at Lotta to superintend her business. ■• She is now building a million dollar mansion there, the arohiteots, builder*, decorators, and designers, and most of the material, being imported from France. A short time ago she shipped a cargo of hides and wool in one of her steamers to B >rdeaux, and it is to come back with building supplies for this mansion. The mansion is in the centre of the finest private park in the world, filled with statuary, fountains, caves, cascades, and all kinds of beautiful trees, plants, and flowers, and wild and domesticated animals. The improvement of its natural beauty cost over $1,000,000. She has another park and palace at Macul, near Santiago — the finest plantation in South Amerioa. In these valleys she has boundless fields of grain, great orchards and vineyards, and countless herds. She employs here three or four hundred men, and more than one thousand peons or native Indians. The vineyard of Macul supplies nearly all the markets of Chili with claret and sherry wines, and her cellar here —a building 500 feet long and 100 wide, i* always full. Madame makes her own bottles, but imports her labels from France. She has the most extensive racing stables in South America, and bets heavily on her own horses. At the last meeting her winnings were 100,000dols. outside the purses won by her horses, which she divides among her stable employes. She has another large estate some thirty miles ' from Santiago. She has two houses in the city, oue of them being the former residence of Henry Meiggs, the Californian fugitive, which was the finest mansion in Santiago at the time it was built. The other is a palace of regal splendour, and was built by Parisian architects and artists at a fabulous cost. The rentals from her city real estate amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. She lately presented the city of Santiago with a park of 100 acres and a racecourse adjoining it. Madame CouBin6 r while generous to profligacy, is a remarkable business woman, and has weekly reports from her superintendents —most of them are Scotchmen — on every detail of her affairs. One of the latter remarks that a stick or stone cannot be removed but she knows it. Madame is •aid to be fond of young men, and keeps fifteen or twenty of them always around her. She gives them all the money they can spend, and in return expects them to entertain her. When the United States fleet was at Valparaiso not long since she invited all the officers to spend a week with her at Macul, and sent a special train to bring them np. Admiral Upshur and twenty ef his officers accepted the invitation, and had a hiirh old time at the widow's expense. She would not let them spend a dollar, and she sent word to all the shops in town to let them have all they wanted and charge lit to her. Everyone of distinction who goes to Chili is entertained by her. Lady Bra<!Bey in one of her books of travel gives an account of the splendour in which the Senora lives, and the 'manner in which she entertained her. Last spring Senora Cousino fitted out one of her bhips in the most extravagant style and invited fifty or more ladies and gentlemen to take a cruise. The party visited Juan Fernandez — Robinson Crusoe's Island— and Terra del Fuego. The cruise lasted three weeks and cost thousands of dollars. Madame thinks nothing of spending a million dollars if she takes the notion. She does not care for art, but U fond of diamonds, and sometimes appears loaded with them. Usually she puts on no style, and seldom wears her grand Parisian toilettes. Madame is about 45 years old. She says she will never marry, and no man in Chili has the courage to ask her. Not long ago she took a fancy to a handsome blonde young German, and insisted thit he should give up his business and become her private secretary. She will probably throw him overboard when the whim seizes her. She has t\Vo daughters, Senorita Isadora and Scnorita Pacifica, one nineteen and the I other seventeen years of age, and a son twenty- four years of age. This young man differs from the majority of rich young men, in that he devotes himself wholly to business, and cares nothing for the frivolous pleasures of society. He is constantly looking after his great estates, and spends from six to eight hours a day in the saddle, going from place to place. He is quite pronounced against hismother's freaks and extravagance. He is soon to marry a young girl of humble station, and Madame will present this fortunate bride with the Meiggs mansion as a wedding gift.

Young ladies like horseback riding because it leads them to a bridal path. Geobge (in the moonlight)— ' I was at the tennis court thia afternoon, Clara, and I bet ' Clare (reproachfully)— 'Oh, George, can you speak of tennis on a night like thisT Rather let us turn our thoughts from earthly things to the perfect beauty of the sky abore. How wonderful is \ George — I was going to say I bet oysters on the game »nd won. ' Clara (returning to earth) — 'Oh, George, what a night it i« for oysters P ■ '