Show MADAME LE PLONGEON A Woman Whose Life Has B6en Full of Singular Hardships Interests and Successes One of the most distinguished women travelers of the day is AHc Le Plon geon wife of the explorer Dr Le Plon geonrShe has recently treen honored by a request from the Geographical society so-ciety of Paris foe her photograph to place in its album of celebrated travelers travel-ers In recognition of her services to science lime Le Plonceon was born in the great city of London Her girlhood was as uneventful as that of most maidens who are kept at their studies and allowed very few frivolous pleas urea Her ambition was to travel over the world When vet in her teens she met Dr Le Plongeon In the libraries of the British museum he having journeyed Jour-neyed thither from California for the special purpose of studying certain old Spanish manuscripts Kindred tastes drew together the learned man and the schoolgirl Their wedding journey was a long one from England to Yucatanand Mme Le Plomreon has the distinction of being tne only woman who has lived among the deserted and ruined cities in the forests of Central America Sle endured much hardshlo and escaped numerous dangers during her n years residence in Yucatan but the many really wonderful things discovered by her husband nd herself have fully repaid re-paid them for their years of hardship Just at present the two travelers are in New York Perhaps the most wonderful of their discoveries was the key to the Inscriptions Inscrip-tions by means of which the history of these cities which were in ruins even at the time of Cortez Invasion Is no longer a mystery One has but to read Dr Le Plon geons latest book Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx to be convinced that America boasts of ruins wihch even antedate some of Egyptian antiquity That Dr Le Plongeon discovered this key is as much an event In the world of science as the finding of the Rosetta stone Mme Le Plongeon by the way aP fo speaks Maya quite as fluently as English En-glish and she relates many interesting interest-Ing Incidents relative to the social JiuStoms of Merlda tiff capital of Yucatan I is by no means a dead and burled city but thoroughly alive The residences manv of them are handsome and spacious the women are noted for their beauty which Is of the Spanish type Spanish Is spoken to a great extent They dress beautifully beau-tifully In frocks which are quite un to date in every way and many girls and boys of the wealthy classes are sent to the United States to be educated The carnival preceding Lent is quite as gay a function Merida as at New Orleans or Nice Apropos to Queen Moo she was one of the rulers of the ancient Mayas and in connection with her historv Is the interesting fact that the charred heart of her brotherhusband Coh was found by the Le Plonsreons It was in a stone urn placed witnin the statue of the dead and departed Coh In his mausoleum The heart was preserved ill red oxide of mercury and has been analyzed bv a chemist at the recuest of the president of the American Antiquarian An-tiquarian society A photograph of these relics together with a thousand others all of them taken by Mme Le Plongeon and tracings of the walls and mans casts are counted among her treasures A beautifully preserved statue was found by Dr Le Plongeon one of the I most Derfect ever discovered but to prevent Us fallimr Into the hands of the Mexican authorities who claimed all notable finds the statue was hidden and no one knows of its hiding place to this day but the doctor and his wife Posslblv they may return some day and secure this and other treasures The statue In question was found In or near the nunnerya ruin containing contain-ing SS rooms and incloseing a court over 200 feet square The interior walls are covered with elaborate sculptured ornaments Near the nunnery is the nunner Casa do Tortuuas so called from the I sculptured turtles over the doorway The governors palace Is another noteworthy note-worthy tuti Mpst interesting per haps are the casJs corridas brshut Up houses These ruins have no access t i there are dgonvars but they seem to I I I I have been walled up when the build I ings were erected and their use is unknown 1 un-known I That these are all American ruins and quite equal in magnificence and architectural beauty and skill to any in the world should be a source of gratification to every good American ELEANOR LEXINGTON I |