CHRONOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION FOR 1853 ** PAGE 1
CHRONOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION FOR 1853
Copyright Bruce Seymour
Courrier des Etats Unis (NYC) page 2.4
4 January: LM appeared in Charleston, SC
Le Courrier de la Louisiane, page 2.3
5 January: Theatre des Varietes - Les beaux yeux de Lola Montes font toujours merveilles a ce theatre, et paraissent etre pour son fortune directeur une epuisable mine d'or.
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis
Lewis F. Linn Papers
James Relfe Sprigg to Elizabeth A.R. Linn, his mother, 5 January 1853
New Orleans ... New Orleans is unusually gay and active, we have had no cold weather, but on the contrary almost to warm, so much so that mosquitoes have been very troublesome. I have not slept one night without a ban. The celebrated Lola Montez is here and never was greater curiosity evinced to see a human being than has been to see her. She is playing at the Varieties Theatre and crowds are turned off nightly, that cannot gain admittance. I secured a seat last night and attended the theatre, being curious to see a woman who had figued so conspicuously in the world, in her way, and still to maintain a position. Showers of bouquets were thrown to her by the ladies from all parts of the house. She is of medium size, slight figure, gracefully formed, face rather thin, with large flashing black eyes and thick glossy black hair. I will relate an incident that occured during the performance last night and then leave the countess on her way rejoicing for I suppose the subject to be a dry one for you, but may be amusing to Mary. There were some persons in the boxes, ladies included, that were laughing and talking so loud as to interrupt the play and annoy the audience. The gallant Lola, instead of invoking the aid of the manager, took the matter in hand herself and walking to the footlights addressed the Audience thus. Ladies & Gentlemen -- I am truly delighted to appear before you: but if there is a cabal against me -- I shall retire. This was an annihilator. she proceeded during the rest of her play without molestation.
Le Courrier de la Louisiane, page 2.4-5
7 January: Ce n'est pas moi qui vous l'apprends: la celebre Comtesse de Landsfeld, que j'aime mieux appeller de son gracieux nom de Lola Montes, est arrive dans notre ville, et sans se donner le temps de repos, elle a debute au theatre de M. Placide, dans une drame en cinq epoches: Lola Montes in Bavaria. L'affiche dit, et Lola Montes l'a repetee apres elle au public, que ce drame est le recit fidele des differents evenements qui ont rendu si celebre le nom de la charmante touriste. Mon devoir d'homme et de choniqueur est donc de prendre ce dire pour vrai. Au fait, je m'en inquiete medicorement. Peu m'importe ce qu'a ete le roi Louis pour Lola: peu m'importe la valeur politique qu'elle a pu avoir en Baviere, et je suis peu preoccupe de savoir si elle y a fait de la democratie active. Ce que je sais, c'est que Lola a joue un veritable role dans le monde qu'elle en a ete la lionne emerite, et qu'il est toujours fort interessant de voir un personage qui a occupe l'attention universelle, surtout quand ce personnage porte jupes et cornettes. Je ne tiens donc pas a verifier si Lola Montes fait des armes comme St. Georges, bat Monte-Cristo au pistolet, defie Baucher et Francom a cheval, a traverse l'Isar a la nage, a ete l'ame d'une insurection, a inquiete tout un pays, a fort mal mene certain officers bavarois, etc, etc, je sais seulement qu'en raison de tous les bruits qu'elle a souleves, je desirais ardemmement la voir et que je l'ai vue. Faites-en autant, lecteur.
Lola Montez que tous s'attendaient a juger ici, comme danseuse, a debute, a mon grand etonnement, dans le drame. Et quel drame, bon Dieu! En voila un qui est mouvemente, tout au moins pour le machiniste! Mais par egard un peu pour son auteur et beaucoup pour l'excellant roi de Baviere, je n'en parterai pas.
Je suis fort embarrasse a l'endroit de LM. Je la savais danseuse, et je la trouve...tragedienne. Cela rentre bien, du reste, dans sa nature. Fatiguee d'un genre, elle attaque l'autre, et cela sans s'inquieter des etudes que necessite pareille metamorphose. Vive l'independence! Mais a quoi s'arreter? Qui juger! L'actrice, l'heroine, la danseuse? La piece produit devant notre publique a-t-elle des pretensions artistiques ou n'est-elle qu'un preface des representations de la danseuse, devant servir a la defense de la femme? C'est cela, sans doute, et en consequence, je me garderai bien de portee un jugement sur Lola Montes, la tragedienne.
De la femme seule, je parlerai donc.
Mais je joue vraiment de malheur, et celle-la m'embarrasse aussi. Je me souviens d'avoir lu quelque part que nous naissons tous doubles, mais que sitot venus au monde, nous nous dedoublons, et que la partie de nous-memes qui nous quit ainsi doit dans un temps indetermine, s'agreger de nouveau a nous. Cependent, ajoutait l'auteur, il est des etres qui restent complexes et ne peuvent obtenu de se distraire, de se decomposer. Ceux-la, sortes d'androgynes, semblent participer des deux natures: de la femme et de l'homme. Eh! bien, tel est precisement l'effet que Lola Montes a produit sur moi, a cette premiere soiree.
Tantot, c'est la femme avec toutes ses attractions, tous ces enchantements, toutes ses forces de commandements qui bondissait, et me surprenait par ses allures masculines, ses facons viriles. Il semble qu'il y ait en elle deux elements en lutte perpetuelle: la douceur et l'energie. Parfois ses yeux sont tendres au possible; ses levres sont riantes, caressantes, parfois aussi, son regard fauve prend une expression cruelle, presque sauvage, sa bouche se contracte, on croyait presque au coup de dents. Le charactere dominant de sa nature est la vivacite: c'est du vif qui court dans ces veinnes-la, ce sont des jets de flammes qui illument souvent ses yeux bruns dont la lumiere est tamisee par quatre splendid rideaux de cils souples eet soyeaux. Sa taille est moyenne, ses cheveux abondants, vigoreux, ondes et admirablement plantes, sa main petie, son pied...sa robe la cachait. Sa physiognomie a beaucoup de mobilite, et tout chez elle indique l'esprit, la verve, l'entrain, et aussi la fermete. Tout, excepte sa voix. Cette voix est des plus faibles et d'un timbre enfantine. La grace n'est pas precisement ce qui la distingue: elle sembe la dedaigner: ses mouvements sont bruques, saccades, les nerfs commandent en elle. Elle a, vous le pensez bien, un aplomb inexorable, et toute inexperimente qu'elle est sur la scene, elle s'y oublie et s'y promene avec le laisser-aller d'une femme qui circule dans un salon. Elle parle enfin l'anglais avec un singulier melange d'accent espangol et irlandais.
Bref, c'est une fort jolie tete que celle de la comtesee de Landsfeldt, et si eclatants que soient ses diaments historiques, dit-on, par la beaute il ne son, je vous assure, qu'une faible imitation de ses yeux qui jadis ont incendie la Baviere. Et maintenant que j'ai donne l'esquisse de la femme, j'attends la danseuse. L. Placide Canonge
Le Courrier de la Lousiane, page 2.2
1 February: Lola Montes - La comtesse de Landsfeldt a termine au theatre des Varietes son brillant engagement. Elle n'a plus que quelques jours a passer dans notre ville, et le direction du Theatre d'Orleans a voulu en profiter. Il a donne fait des propositions a la charmante heroine, et Lola Montes qui veut aussi connaitre notre public, les a acceptes. Elle debutera demain sur la scene du Theatre d'Orleans. Elle dansera, pour cette occasion, plusiers de ses pas favoris qui lui ont valu tant de succes en Baviere.
Nous engagerons le a saisir cette occasion d'aller voir Lola Montes; il fera connaissance avec une delicieuse femme et une danseuse plein de petulance et de seductions.
Courrier de la Louisiane, page 2.2
5 February: LM had to cancel last night due to indisposition.
Boston Daily Mail, page ???, 23 February copied from New Orleans Delta
Lola Montez, the fair, the eccentric, the danseuse, the actress, the artist, the authoress, the Countess of Landsfeldt, has been - our pen sheds black tears as we record the fact - arrested by our city police! Who that has seen the gentle Lola acting over again the historic wonders of her own romantic past, can fail to be interested in the unfolding of another chapter of her strange history. As an impartial chronicle of events we write what we know of a most singular occurence, and we do so the more readily as, thus far, we have been behind our contemporaries in noticing the striking points and peculiarities of the Countess of Landsfeldt. We act under no desire to encourage scandal, but simply to give a true statement of a fact which the public generally are interested, and fearing that distorted accounts may get abroad through the agency of pens less faithful than our own. Thus having premised, we proceed to the arrest.
When the eccentric Countess left New York, she was accompanied by a female who had engaged to perform the duties of "maid of all work" for certain stipulated wages. This maid of all work performed her said duties for a time without grumbling, but recently, since her mistress' spirit has been rendered irritable by rumors of the loss of a husband, and other annoyances, she has set up a bill of rights, among which a privilege to grumble was specially insisted upon.
Matters thus stood till yesterday, when the quarrel between the maid and the mistress grew to a most energetic height. The maid demanded payment for her work and dismissal from her service, and argued the demand with so much democratic daring, that the Countess grew furious, and forgetting the aristocratic distinctions of rank, "pitched into her," vulgarly so speaking, and gave her what a comical Irishman, said to named Paddy, once gave a drum.
Not yet satisfied, the maid left the presence of the irrate countess, and directed her steps to the recorder's office, where she a tale of wrongs unfolded, interspersed with sobs. The recorder turned an attentive ear to the maid's story, and eventually issued a warrant for the arrest of the offending Lola.
Another difficulty now presented itself. Who, among the members of the city police, would be bold enough to execute the warrant? This difficulty was, however, at length got safely over, and the dwelling of Lola, ere nightfall, was entered by two of the knights of the brazen crescent. One stepped up to Loal told his errand, and requested her to accompany him to the police station.
If the blood of Lola "fired up" at the impertinence of the maiden, how did it boil over and over when the male agents of the law appeared before her. With lips of virgen innocence she affirmed (using all the vehemence of an oath) that she would not go. The officer insisted. She threw herself on her dignity, and declared that she was a countess. The officer declared that countesses did not pass current in this country. Then, drawing a dagger, the fair Lola declared that she would defend her own liberty and honor.
Matters had now arrived at a pretty pass. The flashing eye of the heroine of Bavaria was as fearful and brilliant as the bright blade which she held in her dexter hand, and the two officers quailed before her.
At length, when one of them engaged the attention of the heroine in front, and with a bravery which did honor to his Moslem badge, parried her passes, the other, by a counter movement, made and attack from the rear, and seized the countess by the arms. Now came the tug of war. The countess lost her dirk, but her teeth were left, and she used them on the hands and persons of her opponents with an energy which proved their soundness.
While the storm was going on within, the friends of the countess gathered around her dwelling, and appeared to be sadly grieved at the turn which things had taken. Some of them at length got into the room and the countess, by this move, for a moment obtained her liberty, at their request. She then stepped up to the sideboard, seized a small vial labelled poison, swallowed its contents and then with a triumphant voice exclaimed, "Now I shall be free from all further indignity!" It followed, of course, that the countess fainted, came to, smoked two cigars, fainted again, and the officers, though doubting the reality of the poison, were fair to leave their arrestee under a promise made by her friends, that in due time she would appear before the recorder.
Since writing the above, we learn that the matter has been compromised between the mistress and the maid, and the poison has luckily turned out to be most harmless.
The scene in Lola's chamber, shortly after it was supposed the fair countess had imbibed the fatal drug, was pathetically ludicrous to those who thoroughly "understood the ropes." A gallant, good-looking bachelor druggist in the vicinity, whose heart is overflowing with the mild of human kindness, was not only up to his eyes but up to his chin in supplying antidotes. On a couch opposite the fascinating sufferer lay stretched the picture of despair, one of Lola's most devoted admirerers, - a gentleman who, though familiar with magnets and the properties of the electric fluid, was completely overcome by this last flash from the battery of the divine Lola. In the center of the room a distinguished "brass button" official stood, with arms folded and head on chest, as historians would chronicle the attitude of Napoleon's favorite Mameluke, standing at the bedside of the dying emperor; while on an elevated position might be seen a well-known dramatic poet of this city, taking notes to weave into his forthcoming poem of "Early Stricken Flowers."
The same paper of the succeeding day states that a complaint hade been made to the editor, intimating that the above account had been exaggerated to which he replies:
"Our history of the "incident" was a round unvarnished tale lacking all the properties of imaginary embellishment. As said the Queen of Sheba, when she beheld the glory of Solomon, "the half has not been told." We did not even mention the ungraceful attitude assumed by the countess, when, with cruel extremity upraised, and without pause, pirouette, or preliminary flourish, she planted the soiled sole of her ladyship's shoe on that portion of a worthy policeman's person, by some facetiously denominated his "breadbasket," and all this merely because that worthy policeman informed her that it had become his disagreeable duty to arrest her. Nor did we regard the oath - body of St.George, what a thumper! one which would have been received with vociferous cheers by "our army in Flanders!" which she uttered while she made cholic - occasioning expose of her upraised crurality.
We have heard some funny "incidents" concernig the conduct of "lords of the bedchamber," when the tragic feint of the countess, after she had swallowed the harmless drug, was at its height; but we shall reserve the full details for another chapter, which chapter, we promise, shall be full of republican plainness and ironicality."
Courrier des Etats Unis (NYC) page 2.4-5
18 February: Quoting the Courrier de la Louisiane of 10 February: There was a rumor that LM had committed suicide. The facts are that her maid, who had been engaged for six months with paid return to NYC, had issued a writ of assault and battery against LM. The maid wanted to stay in New Orleans and had demanded her pay. LM agreed to pay but not the return fare to NYC. Because LM was about to leave, the maid swore out the warrrent. The police were brutal with LM and her arms still show the marks. LM is confined to bed.
Louisville Daily Courier, page 3.1
25 February: LM passed Paducah on Feb 24 on board the Eclipse from New Orleans
Louisville Daily Journal, page 3.4
26 February: The Eclipse under Capt Sturgeon left New Orleans on Thursday evening, laid by for 8 hours in a snow storm. 197 cabin passengers, 180 on deck
page 3.1 The Eclipse is the most costly, largest steamboat in the world
Cincinnati Daily Gazette, page ???
25 February: LM is engaged for the National
Louisville Daily Courier, page ??
26 February: Eclipse arrives and Telegraph No. 3 departs
Enquirer (Cinci) page 3.2
26 February: LM coming to Cincinnati
Cincinnati Daily Gazette page 2.3
26 February: LM to arrive in Cincinnati
Enquirer (Cinci) page 3.2
27 February: LM arrived yesterday on the Telegraph No.3 from Louisville and took rooms at the Broadway
Daily Cincinnati Commercial, page 2.2
28 February: Lola Montez at the National: It is seldom our pride and pleasure to herald the appearance of "a bright and particular star" of such sweet beauty and soft effulgence, as that which will appear on the stage of the National Theater on Tuesday evening. The celebrated Lola Montez, the Countess of Landsfeld, makes her first exhibition to a Cincinnati audience on tomorrow evening; and all who wish to see the poetry of motion, and the personation of grace and elegance in the pantomime and dance should avail themselves of the opportunity of the present limited engagement to witness the performance of one of the most celebrated women of the age.