WL hs 2 ? yy TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1919. _ ih é THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG, ) Sad Plight of Gladys Vanderbilt and By Elizabeth Van Benthuysen HAT a pity it is that the international peace conference cannot have a commit tee on broken hearts and shattered ro- mances! They will talk about shoes and ships and sealing wax, of eabbages and kings, but there will . be no solemn body picking up the pieces of the hearts that were struck by shell or the fortunes that were-officially gassed. And yet, along the whole history-making line ef events there will be many women who stand, like so many wives of fishermen on a storm wrecked, const Jooking seaward (oward the!horizon behind Which dropved their social glory and their financial strength. For them there is no indem- nity. For them there can come no chance to re. triave. They staked all of their hones on the altar either of love or of ambition, and they lost. The Penalty of Titles For thoy are the women who married German Austrian titled husbands, either for 'love or , and in many tltere remains for them nothing more than might be reclaimed from the shack of a Beigian peasant which got in the way of a Flanders bombardment on a busy day Titles are below par in all lands; kings and kaisers have largely gone out of business, and ft will pe many days before America, from which these un- fortunate gicls came, will be willing te take any thing "Made in Germany"--even a title that is as musty and old as the cellar of an ancestral castie. A Mitchell Palmer, who has had charge of the work of taking ihe estates and property of aliens in this eountry, has commandeered the American holdings of 29 wome., who married Germans or Austrians, and the total of their seized wealth reached $21,647,000. It was always notorious that the American end of the foreign Wrtune was its spring--the fountain-head frea which the other side drew its revenue to be spent, used in social conquest and dissipated. Rarely indeed has there * been wu case where any 'itled huzoand has used any part of his dot to the making of more money: and cases ' Many Other American Girls Who Married ~~ Teutonic Titles. cut by the hand of the government of their fathers. In the very centre of this group of. Sad Little Sisters is the Conutess Gladys Vanderbilt Sczhenyi She had in her own right in this country, safe from the hand of the Austrian: government, $4,000,000 in securities and the income from a trust fund of $5,000,000 created by the will of her father. 'What- ever funds she had on the other side of the line of - war had either been largely spent in social com- quest, the upkeep of an expensive husband and an equally expensive establishment, or had been taken by the Austro-Hungarian government in the heavy war jevies made on its subjects The count was not of the profiteer type. He had po time te pay heed: to the industries out of which many men coin dollars from the blood of their fellows, even under conditions of defeat. As An earning proposition he was on the debit side f the ledger of life. When he came to America but a few years ago he came frankly as a seeker for a matrimonial al- lance that promised the funds required for high social jinks. He had to the fullest extent what was then regarded as a social asset, before the days when the red flag appeared in Budapest and the more or less common people took the reins of government. But he was not looking™or compan- ionship, for love, for a pretty face, a form divine, or anything m the world, which, separated from mere money, might still have a place in the asset column of life. Ways of the Fortune Hunter It was purely and simply a fortune ~MONEY. He was taken about New York by his aides with much the same spirit that one might have a groom lead a fancy roadster about the tan bark at the horse show with the view of placing the eve and attracting a customer, He was what one might call a bit of human period furniture waiting for a lover of the old, and it was the period of his ancestry, not of his own, that held the lure, Gladys Vanderbilt was one of those who had : passed before thig'ceunt from a strange land who had the uniforms, the gilt and the court dress to od equally gare ly the husband of the type : or must remember. fn order 10 under. 'Woe that has been MT Se ny ' i: v # 4% - } 3 ow ! taking public mon ey, the count great. a Miss Vanderbilt was not pretty. Sbe had none misgle with the | dba Count Sczhenyi in Uniform, of the dash and attraction that might, without the camouflage of'fortune, hawe wo : an errant strang- er. Her figure wag slight and"gtobped. She got no. thrill from hordes, small rh¥thm from the dance and was, insghort but's frail lttle person, reared in the hothouse of society according to book rules. A Brilliant Wedding But she was socially: ambitious and she took the\ count. All society went to see the wedding, because all socfety will go anywhere to see $1,000 000 'inited in holy wedlock to a title. It is the order of things, It'was thus in the beginning, and, with the exceptions of the few times in world af. fairs when the gutter gefs on top of the roof for a brief period of reforming the roof and making badly needed repeirs, It will always be the case. Then came the period of foreign rule. It is recorded that the merry villagers at the old Sczhenyi place flocked out in quaint garb to meet the new mistress and welcome her to the ancient castle that was rich in memories though shy of bathing facilities. But the Vanderbilt dollars wotked wonders on the old pile. It became habit- able for people who had been accustomed to the luxuries of the ordinary American home, and a town mansion came along to keep it company. But it must be remembered all the while that the American dollats were working this transfor: mation. The source of supply was the stream that "Ganicia and the Russian wilds. The Countess Sczhenyi (Gladys Vanderbilt), Who Represents s Large Group of American Victims of the War, she had beem born in Hungary. The wife ever follows the citizenship of the husband. : Such was her status when the war ime, Then ;, @ll ties with her home, her family, her friends-- and her fortuné--were cut. There remained nothing excepting the estate that was already in Austria-Hungary. At first her own land was not at war and her castles were turned over to the _ hospital workers who cared for the soldiers as they were brought back from the Danube, from She went along with the workers and nursed the sick. Maybe it was there that she found some solace fa her hours. of trouble, Then the papers came one day with the ness that America--her America--inad joined the fight, and she found herself actively working with the foes of her native land, albeit the work was one of mercy and charity. Such was her status when the war ended. ; 7 And Then to Lose the Millions In the piean time the suave Mr. Palmer takes in the revenue from her estate and deposits it with (he funds of the common country. They be come a part of the just assets from which the na- tion may collect its part.of the war debt from the . Gnemy. By a curfons coincidence, the money of this girl may be lawfully used'to pay damages for the loss of her own brother's life when the Teu- tons sank the Lusitania, for Alfred Gwynne Van Setuit was one of those who went down on that 'In the long list of women of America who ate © In the seme boat, one finds Countess Hafrict Sig: ray, daughter of the late 'Marcus Daly, who for- felted over $1,000,000 in securities and a bank ac count of some $1 i Add Baroness \Olivia Louise von Rothiirch, formerly Olive Louise Brown, daughter of Will - iam John Brown of New York, a life interest in. Ww erer, Stelermark, Austria, and Anna ven Dery Johahaza, Stelermark, Austria, daughters of the late James Price of Philadelphia and grand-daugh ters of the late Samuel Harlan of Philadelphia heiresses to both their fathey and grandfather's estates, Other Clouded American Titles. Other American girls in the list incluue the following well-known American names: Countess Marguerite Isabelle Eugenie Victor ine de Eteurs Obendorff, wife of former German ambassador to Austria and daughter of Alphonse de Steurs, minister to Holland in France. She 1» a grandniece of the late Henry Astor, grandson of the original John Jacob Astor, and Inherits a share in his estate. Her mother was Countess Margares Laura Zborowski, daughter of Alida Astor, a sister of Henry Astor and daughter of William Astor. Baroness Cornelia C. Zeidiitz, Berlin, Germany. formerly Cornelia Carnochan Roosezelf. daughter of the late Charles Y. Rooseveit of New York. I husband, Baron, Clemens Zeidlits, died in 1501. /nder a trust agreement made in 1889 in contem. plation of marriage her property, valued at about $1,000,000, was put in trust, reserving to heria lite interest. Personal property valued st $200,000 was also taken over. Countess von Francken Sierstor®, Zyrowa Les chnoite, Prussia, formerly Mary Knowlton, daugh- ter of Edwin F. Knowlton of New York. Life in terest trust fund $1,200,000, lett under the will o! her father; bonds, $3600; notes, §21.457.55; insur ance policy, $10,000; bank account, $216,005. Re: mainder intorests of Count Edwin Vietor Guido Friederich Witheira Heinrich. Cusp Marie Siestorpff and Count Hans iene Her man Friedrich Wilhelm Helnrich der Maria Sierstorpfl, sons of the above enemy, also tgken over. Hite 5 Coutitess Alice Grote, Schioss Varchentin, Metkienburg, Germany, formerly Alice Yon on daughter of Anthony von Bergen of New