Philadelphia, July 20 — “American women are jealous. They are beautiful, certainly, but they will not admit that any women in Europe can compare with them. And that is not true.”
So spoke Princess Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, in her fairly regal suite at the Majestic Hotel.
“Who and what is the Princess Parlaghy?”
That is the question which has been agitating the Quaker City ever since the arrival of the pedigreed lady with her 18 pedigreed pets, whose royal progress from Washington has been attended by so many wonders.
Apparently, the answer to the first half of the conundrum is this:
Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy is the wife of a Russian prince and a noted portrait painter, for whom kings and emperors have been proud to sit.
Two of the best-known portraits of the Kaiser are the work of her virile brush, and King Edward of England is also numbered among her distinguished sitters.
But “Why is the Princess Parlaghy?” is a more difficult question—especially if we ask, why is she in America?
The official explanation of her visit is that she wishes to paint 30 of our most prominent men and present their portraits to the nation.
As the Princess is said to charge $30,000 per portrait, it will be seen that the United States will soon be $900,000 poorer in cash, unless she changes her mind.
A Portrait of the Process
To interview Princess Parlaghy is a tedious undertaking. Before being introduced into her presence, one must run the gauntlet of 12 persons registered at the Majestic as her suite.
They range from coiffeur and keeper of the animals to first attaché and secretary.
There is also a troupe of wild animals, 13 in number, without which the Princess finds it impossible to exist.
(You may meet them or not, as you like.)
“I have 60 pets in Europe,” said the Princess.
“It is quite lonesome here with only 18. I visit each of these and play with it every night before I go to bed.”
She added, with genuine alarm: “You’ve forgotten to say goodbye to the bear!”
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