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Show "VAMPS" WHO MADE HISTORY . 8 By JAMES C. YOUNG. 8 ((cj by .McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) The girl who won and ruled A KING. WE UEAR a great deal today about the iniquitous vampire. It is one of the curious sidelights . of history that the vampire has helped, ' to shape the destinies of the greatest men and empires. Aud certainly iiuua of the famous women who might answer to that description had a stranger beginning than a little gU-l born at Paris in 1721. Her supposed father was Krancois 1'oisson, an oliieer in l lie household of the Duke of Orleans. Hut common report held that her real father was a great financier of the time, who undertooTt Vo direct the girl's education. It Is Hid that in her early youth he ree-'nized ree-'nized in her a spark of genius and Aaped the girl's education so that kmc clay she might be the king's Jhisiress. At the age of twenty this girl was, married lo a nephew of her prole.ctor and became the belle of the wen I thirst th-irst circles in I'aris business life., But that was a long way from Ilia court, which she never entered until chance threw her in the way oC Louis XV, at a public ball. He was captivated capti-vated and not long afterward the young bride cast aside her husband for a doubtful posiUon at Versailles, l.ouls bought her an estate and from this she took the name by which slio became famous the Duchess da Pompadour. Pompadour was a woman of undoubted un-doubted genius. She paid court to the literary leaders of her time, notably Voltaire, and soon became a power In the realm. This power sha extended by every possible means, corresponding regularly with generals gen-erals in the field, dabbling in affairs of state, and finally becoming the uncrowned un-crowned queen of France. For years French policy had been to oppose Austria by alliances with, the Cerman slates. Because Frederick Fred-erick the Great wrote scurrilous verses about Pompadour she swore to be avenged, and when Maria Theresa of Austria wrote her a friendly letter, she upset France's national policy overnight, forming nn alliance with Austria. Tills brought on the disastrous S"ven Year's war and indirectly prepared France for the troubles which ended In the Hevo-lut Hevo-lut ion. Pompadour did not live to see (tin ivnrklmr out of her statecraft. When a fateful illness overtook her. at the age of forty-two, she calmly heard the doctor's sentence, hail herself dressed In court costume, and bravely lay down to meet her fate. |