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II Is the Cause Celebre of the Day. STAIN ON THE HOUSE OF ASTOR. 42 Affair That Has Created a Sensation on Two Continents—The Career of Duc @e Morny, One of the Men Indirectly Involved, Crimes and scandals do “follow the fash ion”’—of that there can no longer be a doubt. There certainly is a tendency for many crimes of one kind to run into a group, and probably hearing of one such excites many others, so queer are the minds of criminals. For about a year al most every day’s paper told of a woman being killed—a wife by a jealous husband, a maiden or a widow by a rejected lover and coon. All at once we heard from every part of the world of some man kill ing his wife’s lover or trying to. In France, the American, Mr. Deacon, killed the Frenchman Abeille; in Yoko hama, the American, Lieutenant Heber MRS. J. COLEMAN DRAYTON. fogton, killed the Englishman, Robinson, a dozen cases followed in rapid succession, and the latest is that the American, J. Coleman Drayton, of Philadelphia and New York, is after Hallett Alsop Borrowe with a keen appetite for blood. The lady in question is an Astor, daughter of the Mrs. William Astor who is the head of New York society and wife of a fifty millionaire. When the beautiful Augusta Astor ten years ago married the socially prominent and popular J. Coleman Drayton, of Phila delphia, it was indeed an affair. But she was fond of society, while he cared more for his club and for hunting. Natural consequences followed. Among those who paid her special attentions was Mr. Hallett Alsop Borrowe, son of Samuel Borrowe, vice president of the Equitable Life As surance society. His visits in New York and at her country place, Crow’s Foot, at Bernardsville, N. J., and their long rides together finally excite a 59 much gossip that the family interfered. The terms of settlement are not known. Mr. Borrowe insists that the Astors paid Mr. Drayton an indemnity, and therefore “honor” no longer rules. At any rate the Draytons went abroad. But so did Mr. Borrowe. What happened on the other side is not fully known, but the upshot of it was that Mr. Drayton took his three children to a retired place in Wales, let his wife choose her residence and sent a per emptory challenge to Mr. Borrowe. The latter was willing to fight, went to Paris for the purpose and named his seconds. And here the comedy begins. Harry Vane Millbank and Edward Fox, English men, on behalf of Mr. Borrowe, met Mr. Ferdinand Boisacq and Francis Cherbou quet, French gentlemen of honor and sec onds of Mr. Drayton. The English gentle men declared that Mr. Drayton had ac cepted money after charging infidelity on the part of his wife, and therefore, said they, “‘by the code of honor their principal could not meet Mr. Drayton.” So all the four signed an agreement that this deli cate point should be submitted to a “jury of honor.”” The Duc de Moray and Aurelien Scholl, accomplished duelists, were chosen, and here is their verdict: “The meeting should not take place un der any circumstances. Where there is a question of money there can be no ques tion of honor.” Mr. Drayton raged, and sailed for Amer ica, and singular to relate Mr. Borrowe came over on the same vessel. Mrs. Dray ton is in London, and her mother, Mrs. William Astor, is practically in control of her. The rest of it—the flutter among the Four Hundred, the grief of the Astors, the gossip, the sneers—all this can easily be imagined. As for the Duc de Morny, the New York World speaks of him in no un certain language. It says: His father was an unscrupulous and cold blooded adventurer, a chevalier d’in dustrie in fact, with no sense of honor or shame, but who at the same time had all the facons of a grand seigneur. His son, the present duke, is fully as unscrupulous as was his father, but possesses neither his father’s tact, his shrewdness, nor yet his grand air. He has been the hero of ali ds of discreditable intrigues and scan dals, 6o much so that his name has become a very byword among all decent people. On more than one occasion he has been hooted in the street, notably when he at tended the funeral of the little Russian actress, Feygine, whom he drove to suicide. He is not even noted as a duelist, as is Au relien Scholl. His appearances on the so called field of honor have ordinarily been in the capacity of a second rather than as a d mits the time of his marriage he was known as the king of Parisian dudedom— le roi de la gomme—and most of the inane, effeminate and ridiculous mannerisms of the Paris gommeur originate with him. It was he who first vewencee skirt danc men by appearing an amateur seats entertainment given at the Club de la Rue Royale in the costume of a bal lerina. He danced one of the most diffi cult and suggestive passeurs of the ballet “Excelsior,” managing his short gauze skirts with consummate skill. His hair was powdered, his corsage decollate in the roast approved fashion, his face was rouged, and, being diminutive in stature, he would — a girl had it not been for his mustache, which he declined to shave off. It was the young Duc de Morny, too, who endeavored in vain to inaugurate the fashion of wearing a claret colored evening dress coat. He was more successful, how ever, in other enterprises of this sort, and many of the eccentricities and extrava gances of dress which have rendered the Parisian petit creve so ridiculous owe their origin to the duke. After having almost completely squan dered the vast wealth dishonestly acquired by his father, the young Duc de Morny married one of the daughters of General Guzman Blanco, that South American land pirate whose name is still a ‘synonym in Venezuela se seonse, ee plunder and every kind of honesty. in His conduct with regard to Mlle. Fey gine, which closed many doors against him both at home and asl was as fol lows: Mlle. Feygine was the daughter of a retired Russian colonel residing at Mos cow. Morny betrayed her during a stay that he made in the czar’s ancient capi tal and persuaded her to elope with him to Paris. Exceeding mean in financial matters, he soon began to grudge the money which he was obliged to devote to her support, and accordingly induced her to make her debut on the stage. She was very attractive, her beauty being of an unusual piquant kind, and, like most Russian women, she was naturally clever and quick to learn. She soon became a popular favorite. But in proportion as she grew in the good graces of the theater going public the duke became tired of her. She, however, remained as blindly in love with him as she had been from the first. Finally he determined to break off his relations with her, but instead of convey ing his decision to her with some faint show of consideration, he adopted a pecu liarly brutal method. Without warning her in any way of what was awaiting her, he drove off to his club, and declaring to his friends there that he had determined to cut loose from Mlle. Feggine, he in quired if there were any of them who cared to succeed him in her good graces. As quite a number of the men present in the room expressed their readiness to do £ 0, he offered to take the whole number of them with him to Mlle. Feggine’s house, in order that she might have an opportu nity of choosing. Accordingly the entire party drove off to the house of the little actress. She was just in the act of dressing when the duke, followed by his compan ions, burst into her room, exclaiming, “There, gentlemen, you can see for your selves the quality of the merchandise,” commenced then and there to explain to her that he had determined to put a stop to his intimacy with her, and that he had brought these men with him in order that she might choose a successor. The girl, without a single cry, apparent ly dazed by the brutal character of the in dignity, fell full length upon the floor in a dead faint. When she recovered conscious ness the duke and his companions had dis appeared. A few hours later she com mitted suicide, leaving a letter addressed to the duke which found its way into the newspapers and which was sufficient to brand him with infamy for life. The duke’s father was the illegitimate son of Queen Hortense Beauharnais and was so proud of his mother’s shame that he caused all hortensia to be painted on the panels of his carriages in lieu of a coat,o arms, until his half brother, Napoleon III, put an end to the scandal. For many years the old duke lived open ly in luxury at the expense of one of the most noted demimonde of Paris. He resided in a kind of pavilion in the garden of her house, which used to be known as the ‘Kennel of Fido,” the duke being re garded as her poodle. When, during his stay in Russia, he de termined to marry one of the ladies of the czar’s court, the fair and generous friend whom he had left behind in Paris threat ened to make things unpleasant for him unless he restored all the money he had obtained from her. It was not until he had induced Napoleon III to cause her to be expelled from French territory that he ventured to return to Paris with his bride. The duke, moreover, was one of the chief promoters of the Mexican expedition. In fact, there was not a single shady and dishonest enterprise undertaken during the first fourteen years of the imperial regime in which he did not participate and from which he did not extort black. The young Duc de Morny’s sister is the notorious Marquise de Belboeuf, whose pe culiar extravagances of character, mas culine ways and intimacies with ladies of the burlesque and even half world have forced most people to close their doors against her.
Newspaper Details
Atlanta Sunny South
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Sat, Apr 02, 1892
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Deanna S.
USA 31 Jan 2026
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