Empress Eugenie Returns to Paris

Dec. 1919

Is Now Pathetic Figure, Bowed by Sorrow of Years.

PARIS, France — With bowed head and with face of infinite sadness, a modestly dressed old lady was seen walking through Tulleries Gardens today. As she walked she would stop to pick autumn flowers, seared and blasted by the cold, but no more faded than her cheeks. Passers-by, seeing her and knowing the regulations of the park, expected some policeman to admonish her, but she passed on, followed by a single maid, unchecked by the uniformed representative of the law.

It was the once proud Empress Eugenie, who, bowed beneath the weight of 93 winters, thus plucked withered flowers from a garden that was once hers. She was revisiting a scene poignantly recalling all the happiness, sorrow and terror which came to her during her years she was the chiefest jewel of the old palatial mansion.

Empress Eugenie left France on July 23, the fateful day when the then proud and haughty Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia which was destined to dismember realms and change the whole face of history.