In the '90s, society editors all over the world knew the name of Eugene Higgins. After attending Columbia University, where he was a classmate of Nicholas Murray Butler, he became a full-time playboy, with a $50 million carpet fortune to spend. Almost everything he did made news—his winning of the U.S. fencing championship in 1890; the time his 1,520-ton steam yacht was wrecked in the Madeira Islands (he won a medal for saving his guests); his fabulous parties ("sumptuous pleasure campaigns," the papers called them); his romance with Emma Calve, the opera star....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
