May 21, 1975 (8 pages)

4. The Nevada County Nugget . tie aaa ES Wed., May 21, 1975 mu (Lola Montez’ life has provided much material for biographers and novelists but what the press had to say about her has long been hidden in musty files. Author Doris Foley diligently searched early day California newspaper files, reading every issue published between 1853 and 1861, to document what they said about the divine Lol.aand then for contrast included Lola's autobiography in this work.) Chapter Twelve GRASS VALLEY DOMAIN, 1853-1854 As if in retaliation for the benign reign of the Countess de Landsfeld in Grass Valley, the winter began in fury that fall of 1853, and Lola courageously responded to the challenge, defying the elements that had set themselves against her. Jéfas Winchester, millman, wrote to his wife in New York on November 19, 1853: ‘‘The lovely Thanksgiving day has been succeeded _by-one of the wildest storms we have ever had in Grass Valley. At 2:00 A.M. this morning a terrible gale woke me with its howling and moaning, like a maniac. Torrents of pine leaves anc burrs and twigs fell upon our house, giving one the impression of 2 storm of hail. You know how those old pines moan and sob with the varving blasts of winter crushing the spirits with their melancholy voices. Last night the sound was awful. A distant roar like a mighty waterfall gradually increased as the wind-demon approached till iv absolutely shrieked. The house rocked, the twigs and leaves rattled, and every moment I expected one of those old giants would come tumbling and tearing about our ears. I could not sleep, but with the first peep of day got up. By this time the wind lulled, coming in fitful gusts, and ‘the rain a deluge poured.’ So it has continued to this moment. (P.M.) Those two old oaks fronting the mill (on Wolf Creek below Winchester Street) gave way to the blasts by parting with several of the largest limbs one of them a foot and a half in diameter. A pine tree fell near the Grass Valley House, smashing three cabins, and badly injuring one man, sc much so, that it was feared he would not live. Another large limt fell on a cabin in the neighborhood of Old Neal’s, in which. three men slept, breaking it into ruins, yet strange to say, all the sléepers escaped uninjured.” In another letter he wrote, “The Countess is here yet, as contented as a lamb. She seems to have taken up her residence permanently among us.” Gilmor Meredith wrote to his sister in Baltimore, Maryland on January 29, 1854: ‘‘What think you of a whole village being nearly buried in snow in the state of California whose climate has always. ~ been compared with that of Italy? Well, we were nearly in that position last week. I was paying a visit to a friend and on retiring at night we fully expected a storm of rain before morning, but instead of that on awakening the whole country was covered with snow to the depth of nearly 2 feet. My old sleighs of the previous year were called into requisition and for four days we had great fish.I was on — The Divine : LOLA MONTEZ AND TI the road nearly all the time riding first with one friend and then another and we wound up by having a daguerrotype taken of the sleigh with ten inside. A gentleman from San Francisco, who was paying us a visit and participated in our fun is about having a wood cut made of it for one of our daily papers and I will be sure to send you a copy for your amusement and let you see what a hard time persons have in the wilds of California.” Nevada Journal, January 20, 1854: ‘The merry ringing of sleigh bells has been heard for several days past in our city. Several temporary sleighs have been fitted up, and the young gentlemen have treated the ladies to dashing turnouts. On Tuesday the Countess of Landsfeld paid our burg a flying visit per this conveyance and a span of horses, decorated with impromptu cow bells. She flashed like a meteor through the snow flakes and wanton snowballs, and after a thorough tour of the thoroughfares, disappeared in the direction of Grass Valley.” The Golden Era, January 22, 1854: Nevada Correspondent“Snow fell here to the depth of 16” and a right merry time the boys . had with snow balls. Yesterday, a sleigh load of Grass Valleyans paid us a visit, accompanied by ‘Madame Lola’ who happened to enter my ‘sanctum’ just as I was penning my items and so confused me that I shall be obliged to say ‘Adios.’ ” ‘The Golden Era, January 29, 1854: ‘The (Nevada City) Journal says the snow and excessive cold for the past few days entirely suspended all mining operations, the ditches being frozen. and buried.” , Grass Valley’s social and recreational activities in 1853 and ’54 centered around churches, theater, lodges, clubs, and societies such as the Grass Valley Literary Society and Sewing Circle. What with billiards, bowling, dancing, concerts and lectures, the lonely and culturally starved found-some companionship and nourishment in this primitive and isolated community. Lola Montez, Countess de Landsfeld, held herself apart from the public gatherings, however. Her name does not appear in the early papers as serving on any committees or listed as a member of any Grass Valley organization. Her life in the village was as she described it to her Sacramento friends, spent in riding, exploring the mines, reading, writing and entertaining her many visitors. It may be that Lola was shunned and avoided by the “respectable” women of the mining camp. The single virtue demanded of females in the fifties was chastity. Mid Victorianism with its rigid code of conformities, set up certain external marks of respectability by which the chaste could instantly be detected from the unchaste. A woman who smoked for instance, was classified with the unchaste, regardless of the many virtuous characteristics she possessed, while a “lady,” however wanton, who outwardly observed the conventions, was classified with the chaste. ‘‘Vice,”’ as Lola put it, “‘has an ugly fashion of going naked in Paris, while in THE ADAMS EXPRESS Company's building, the first brick building in Grass Valley, located at the corner of Main and Mill Streets was completed in November 1854. Gutted by fire in 1855, the walls remained intact. 2 eee eeT eT nT aT en's kee’ ae Fe > +-£ $y 444625 By Doris F TRAGIC SUE ROBINSON! After a gain professional stature and from domestic troubles, she d age of 26 in the Orleans Hotel, 17, 1871. As a child "star" she 1 mining camps with her parent bright smile and precocious tale and song, won the hearts of responded by tossing nuggets a! dust at her feet. (Photo courtesy of the Calife Sacraménto) — London and New York it dresses itsel tability, if not absolute piety.” Lola’s domain included the near noted in the following item by one w Blaze.”” Nevada Journal, May 12, 1 “Whilst taking a help in sustainis Porter-House steak, rare; baked potat I had the languid satisfaction of restit Countess of Landsfeld. As I watched h I sighed for those days when I too, was in the ways of the world.” That she was a benevolent perso counts relating to this facet of her solicitous toward children, especially her many bountiful acts, such as stand and ointment in hand to dress the wou riding to the cabin of an indigent wit likely true. An eastern correspondent ‘ “She flitted from city to city doing gen The following is quoted from th Uphoff, Grass Valley pioneer, who at t Christmas party of 1853. ‘There wer Valley, and I was five when Lola M Christmas party at her home. We wer had been the woman some say she wa have let us visit her. She met us at the each of us a merry welcome: I don’t looks, except that she seemed to me . the world. Yes, she had a tree,J reme for us and we played games afd had bear chained to a tree in the y: Lola Montez was very kind. Once my} sister went to Sacramento. We took t! too, and she held me in her lap most

4. The Nevada County Nugget . tie aaa ES Wed., May 21, 1975 mu (Lola Montez’ life has provided much material for biographers and novelists but what the press had to say about her has long been hidden in musty files. Author Doris Foley diligently searched early day California newspaper files, reading every issue published between 1853 and 1861, to document what they said about the divine Lol.aand then for contrast included Lola's autobiography in this work.) Chapter Twelve GRASS VALLEY DOMAIN, 1853-1854 As if in retaliation for the benign reign of the Countess de Landsfeld in Grass Valley, the winter began in fury that fall of 1853, and Lola courageously responded to the challenge, defying the elements that had set themselves against her. Jéfas Winchester, millman, wrote to his wife in New York on November 19, 1853: ‘‘The lovely Thanksgiving day has been succeeded _by-one of the wildest storms we have ever had in Grass Valley. At 2:00 A.M. this morning a terrible gale woke me with its howling and moaning, like a maniac. Torrents of pine leaves anc burrs and twigs fell upon our house, giving one the impression of 2 storm of hail. You know how those old pines moan and sob with the varving blasts of winter crushing the spirits with their melancholy voices. Last night the sound was awful. A distant roar like a mighty waterfall gradually increased as the wind-demon approached till iv absolutely shrieked. The house rocked, the twigs and leaves rattled, and every moment I expected one of those old giants would come tumbling and tearing about our ears. I could not sleep, but with the first peep of day got up. By this time the wind lulled, coming in fitful gusts, and ‘the rain a deluge poured.’ So it has continued to this moment. (P.M.) Those two old oaks fronting the mill (on Wolf Creek below Winchester Street) gave way to the blasts by parting with several of the largest limbs one of them a foot and a half in diameter. A pine tree fell near the Grass Valley House, smashing three cabins, and badly injuring one man, sc much so, that it was feared he would not live. Another large limt fell on a cabin in the neighborhood of Old Neal’s, in which. three men slept, breaking it into ruins, yet strange to say, all the sléepers escaped uninjured.” In another letter he wrote, “The Countess is here yet, as contented as a lamb. She seems to have taken up her residence permanently among us.” Gilmor Meredith wrote to his sister in Baltimore, Maryland on January 29, 1854: ‘‘What think you of a whole village being nearly buried in snow in the state of California whose climate has always. ~ been compared with that of Italy? Well, we were nearly in that position last week. I was paying a visit to a friend and on retiring at night we fully expected a storm of rain before morning, but instead of that on awakening the whole country was covered with snow to the depth of nearly 2 feet. My old sleighs of the previous year were called into requisition and for four days we had great fish..I was on — The Divine : LOLA MONTEZ AND TI the road nearly all the time riding first with one friend and then another and we wound up by having a daguerrotype taken of the sleigh with ten inside. A gentleman from San Francisco, who was paying us a visit and participated in our fun is about having a wood cut made of it for one of our daily papers and I will be sure to send you a copy for your amusement and let you see what a hard time persons have in the wilds of California.” Nevada Journal, January 20, 1854: ‘The merry ringing of sleigh bells has been heard for several days past in our city. Several temporary sleighs have been fitted up, and the young gentlemen have treated the ladies to dashing turnouts. On Tuesday the Countess of Landsfeld paid our burg a flying visit per this conveyance and a span of horses, decorated with impromptu cow bells. She flashed like a meteor through the snow flakes and wanton snowballs, and after a thorough tour of the thoroughfares, disappeared in the direction of Grass Valley.” The Golden Era, January 22, 1854: Nevada Correspondent“Snow fell here to the depth of 16” and a right merry time the boys . had with snow balls. Yesterday, a sleigh load of Grass Valleyans paid us a visit, accompanied by ‘Madame Lola’ who happened to enter my ‘sanctum’ just as I was penning my items and so confused me that I shall be obliged to say ‘Adios.’ ” ‘The Golden Era, January 29, 1854: ‘The (Nevada City) Journal says the snow and excessive cold for the past few days entirely suspended all mining operations, the ditches being frozen. and buried.” ,

Grass Valley’s social and recreational activities in 1853 and ’54 centered around churches, theater, lodges, clubs, and societies such as the Grass Valley Literary Society and Sewing Circle. What with billiards, bowling, dancing, concerts and lectures, the lonely and culturally starved found-some companionship and nourishment in this primitive and isolated community. Lola Montez, Countess de Landsfeld, held herself apart from the public gatherings, however. Her name does not appear in the early papers as serving on any committees or listed as a member of any Grass Valley organization. Her life in the village was as she described it to her Sacramento friends, spent in riding, exploring the mines, reading, writing and entertaining her many visitors. It may be that Lola was shunned and avoided by the “respectable” women of the mining camp. The single virtue demanded of females in the fifties was chastity. Mid Victorianism with its rigid code of conformities, set up certain external marks of respectability by which the chaste could instantly be detected from the unchaste. A woman who smoked for instance, was classified with the unchaste, regardless of the many virtuous characteristics she possessed, while a “lady,” however wanton, who outwardly observed the conventions, was classified with the chaste. ‘‘Vice,”’ as Lola put it, “‘has an ugly fashion of going naked in Paris, while in THE ADAMS EXPRESS Company's building, the first brick building in Grass Valley, located at the corner of Main and Mill Streets was completed in November 1854. Gutted by fire in 1855, the walls remained intact. 2 eee eeT eT nT aT en's kee’ ae Fe > +-£ $y 444625 By Doris F TRAGIC SUE ROBINSON! After a gain professional stature and from domestic troubles, she d age of 26 in the Orleans Hotel, 17, 1871. As a child "star" she 1 mining camps with her parent bright smile and precocious tale and song, won the hearts of responded by tossing nuggets a! dust at her feet. (Photo courtesy of the Calife Sacraménto) — London and New York it dresses itsel tability, if not absolute piety.” Lola’s domain included the near noted in the following item by one w Blaze.”” Nevada Journal, May 12, 1 “Whilst taking a help in sustainis Porter-House steak, rare; baked potat I had the languid satisfaction of restit Countess of Landsfeld. As I watched h I sighed for those days when I too, was in the ways of the world..” That she was a benevolent perso counts relating to this facet of her solicitous toward children, especially her many bountiful acts, such as stand and ointment in hand to dress the wou riding to the cabin of an indigent wit likely true. An eastern correspondent ‘ “She flitted from city to city doing gen The following is quoted from th Uphoff, Grass Valley pioneer, who at t Christmas party of 1853. ‘There wer Valley, and I was five when Lola M Christmas party at her home. We wer had been the woman some say she wa have let us visit her. She met us at the each of us a merry welcome: I don’t looks, except that she seemed to me . the world. Yes, she had a tree,J reme for us and we played games afd had bear chained to a tree in the y: Lola Montez was very kind. Once my} sister went to Sacramento. We took t! too, and she held me in her lap most