Wurts Cabala

To have Signor Benito Mussolini call upon her at her out-of-the-way little part-of-a-palace; to have him stay nearly an hour and quite unbend; to have him say gallant, flattering things and laugh his infectious laugh--such not long ago was the reward of a U. S. widow, Mrs. Henriette Tower Wurts, when she gave her sumptuous, ancient Roman gardens to the City of Rome and threw in $50,000 for perpetual upkeep. She received the double reward last week of an invitation to Edda Mussolini's wedding.

Mr. Wurts was for 20 years (1862-82 ) Secretary to the U. S. Legation in Italy. He died in Rome at 86, three years ago. Mrs. Wurts is a sister of Charlemagne Tower, U. S. tycoon who as Ambassador to Germany lived in such splendor that Wilhelm II, all highest and War lord, once said:

"Mr. Charlemagne Tower, your embassy balls are worthy of Charlemagne."

Mrs. Wurts, like one of the social dragonesses in The Cabala, famed novel by Thornton Niven Wilder, is a rich, enigmatic fragment in the age-old mosaic of Roman society. Tremendously dim, tremendously "important," she lives in the via dei Funari; the twisted "Street of the Rope Makers," on a floor of the Palazzo Mattei. Two other floors are occupied respectively by Principe Lodovico Mattei, himself, and by fidgety but obsequious Don Guido Antici-Mattei, a relation who is probably poor but, like rich Mrs. Wurts, tremendously dim, tremendously important to the Wurts Cabala.

The gallant, flattering thing said to Mrs. Wurts by II Duce was:

"Your gift, madame, magnificent--the handsomest ever bestowed on Rome!"

Indeed handsome, the Wurts gardens on the Janiculum Hill which once belonged to the ancient Roman House of Sciarra, are complete with a restored "old villa" and a "new villa" built by Mr. Wurts in the 16th century manner, full of Mr. Wurts' art collection which also goes to the City of Rome.

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