Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1875 — The Dancer and the Duke. [ARTICLE]

The Dancer and the Duke.

A correspondent writing of the once famous danseme Fanny Elssler says: “ Fanny’s beauty and fascination were very dishonestly employed to win the heart and confidence of Napoleon I.’s only legitimate child, the young Duke de Reichstadt. The Duke, delicate in health from his birth, had never seemed capable of feeling the least interest in life. He was blase congenitally; nothing could rouse him from a profound indifference and melancholy that permeated his whole being. He distrusted everybody; was unwilling to go into society; was never so disconcerted as when walking alone in the gardens of Schonbrunn, a suburb of the Austrian capital. It was thought that if his affections could be enlisted his mind would assert itself. A number of the fairest young women about the court were presented to him, and they labored vainly to make an impression. Their charms, their blandishments, their flattery, their conversation, their passion, real or feigned, moved him not a jot. He turned from them in weariness, and begged to be excused. Some sagacious functionary suggested that the ballet queen should be introduced to the forlorn youth in the guise of a peasant, in the hope that she, so accustomed to conquests, might conquer even him. The proposal having been made to her she consented, m consideration of 20,000 florins, it is said, to undertake the delicate mission. A sterling artist off as well as on the stage, the details were left to her, and wisely left, as the sequelproved. Knowing the hour of the day when it was his habit to be on the grounds of Schonbrunn, she managed to be there likewise, as if by accident. Very carefully and daintily attired as a peasant girl, set off with every artifice she could command, she looked bewitching, and she thoroughly understood how to enact the part of a charming ingenue. The youth could not help but notice her for she assumed to be so busy tending the flowers as to be unaware of his presence. For several days he satisfied himself with admiring her, but at last a curiosity he had never felt before prompted him to accost her. She blushed when she replied, and every word she spoke appeared to him like a revelation. In short, he fell in love with her, and she pretended to return his love, never intimating that she was not ignorant of his birth and position. Day after day they met in the gardens; then they extended their excursions on foot and in carriage, until a new spirit and a new life became his. He made her his confidante-, he told her of his bitter past, the despondency; of the hope and joy she had been the first to awaken in his nature; that she was the one human being, in all the world, he loved or cared for. Theirs was an idyllic life, while it lasted. He was known to her only as Louis, she to him only as Marie. Very soon they were almost inseparable. Everything was made to favor their being alone; high expectations having been formed that the much-desired change had been wrought. That he loved her deeply, devotedly, absorbingly as man can love once, and only once, there is no reason to doubt. In the midst of this beautiful dream of happiness, the Duke, being one day in the city, felt to visit the theater; having heard even in his solitude of the wonderful dancer. That evening he sat listless in the box, hardly heeding the performance, scarcely noticing the ballet until a lithe figure of brightness and beauty bounded upon the scene. He was all eyes and animation at once. He had never imagined so marvelous a likeness to Marie. Could he be mistaken? He leveled his lorgnette again and again. The vision of the lover could not be deceived. The truth and the whole truth soon flashed upon him. His Marie and everybody’s Fanny were one and the same. The glass fell from his hand; the poor boy turned deadly pale, and would have swooned in his seat had he not been taken from the theater and driven home almost insensible. The next morning the story was all over Vienna. ‘ Louis’ never saw ‘ Marie’ more. The little hope and faith he had she had aroused; after that cruel trick he fell once more into himself, never to hope again. He did not live very long. The very night he died she was dancing in a crowded and applauding theater. She had forgotten all about him, but she still remembered the 20,000 florins.” Why Paints Crack and Peel.—A writer in the Hub thinks that the cause of paint cracking and peeling is to be found in the water which is contained in linseed oil as it comes from the hands of the manufacturer. He made the experiment of boiling linseed Oil by steam until all the moisture was expelled from it. On using this oil, without any dryer, it was found to dry in one-half the time. He then mixed with it some siccohast; using only half the usual quantity employed to’ dry oil not boiled, and obtained similar results. “ The introduction,” says Be, - of steam into the linseed before grinding aids in the expulsion of the oil ; bqt it must stand a long time to precipitate the water completely.” —Out of the 333 games of checkers played in New York, Mr. Wylie won 286 and losjrcfour, the remainder being drawn. He has played 4,000 games since landing in this country, out of which he has lost but fourteen! He has been a close student of the game of checkers for forty ; years, and his equal is not living, fe-