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B
kERN'ARD HAt-SCH. one of the wealthiest
and most popular bachelors In Budu-Penth,
1b claimed by seven women as their hus
band, each producing undoubtedly genuine
certificates of marriage, with the name of
the hupband signed In almost exact dupli
cate of Halsch's handwriting.
ine cnarpe mat Halsch, supposed to
be 0110 of the wealthiest and most desirable unmarried
men In the Austro-Hungarlan capital, member of a
dozen exclusive clubs, a shunner If not a hater of women,
was a polygamlst created a sensation. For a time It waa
charged that Halsch, while suffering from some peculiar
form of dementia, had traveled about Austria and Hun
gary seeking whom he might wed.
But the disclosures that followed were even more
startling. It was discovered. If never effectively proved,
that Halsch's greatest enemy. Mlrlk Lofhshy. had garbed
himself as Halsch, Impersonated the brilliant young bach
elor, and married all the women In order to cause trouble
for the man he hated.
Wed Seven Women in Three Days.
The exposure of the extraordinary cheat end the re
markable means employed by Lofhehy to revenge himself
on Halsch reveal I.ofhshy as the champion wooer and
marrler of the world. He was three months at his woo
lngs, three days of continuous weddings; then for a month,
until the facts began to come out, ho remained gloating
over the approaching discomfiture of lils rival. He had
planned to escape detection, but an astounding accident
betrayed him. and he fled, leaving the deserted wives to
share with Halsch the gibes and sympathies of their
Yrlends.
The beginning of the trouble was In the parliament
building, In the salle de Oala the great hall that Is under
the dome of the building and In which the magnates and
deputies meet between sessions. Lofhehy was an ardent
KoHsuthlst. and Halsch, while not a politician, was a fre
quenter of the house and a liberal In views. After a stormy
scene In the diet one day the two nu t In the salle de Gala
and an argument resulted In which Halsch, a bitter wit,
held his Magyar opponent up to ridicule.
The affair was considered unimportant, but the ridicule
bit Into the heart of the Kossuthlst. and he determined
upon reveng.'.
He knew. In common with almost every one else In
Buda-resth. that Halsch was extremely wealthy, an
old bachelor, and an alleged woman hater, bo he deter
mined upon his line of revenge. He studied carefully the
dress, manners, and customs of Halsch; he visited Halsch's
b autlful ap.irtments on Andrassy boulevard during his'
absence and took pains to note everything.
J .!
Made Himself Up Like Enemy.
Then he wtnt to Paris, secured an expert maker of
theatrical costumes, took him to Buda-Pesth. and together
they arranged th costuming and makeup of Lofhshy until
Halsch himself would have had difficulty In telling wheth
er he was Halsch or Lofhshy was Halsch.
Th.n, secure In his new personality, Lofhshy, bearing
cards stolen from Halsch's rooms, set out upon ttau most
remarkable aeries of courtstilpg the world ever has known.
That evening he astounded two young women Frances
Girnlze and Tlzia Ankrlmoy by calling upon them at
their homes. In each case he presented the card of Halsch
and requested an Interview with the mother. In each
case he stated that he had become smitten with the charms
of the daughters and desired to become formally a suitor,
renuestlng permission to meet them and pay his atten
tions. Also, In each case, he requested that secrecy be
preserved both for his sake and the sake of the young
women until the outcome of his advances became known.
The mothers In a flutter of excitement over the visit from
the rich and desirable bachelor upon whom many mothers,
even those of the noblllt). had lavished their efforts In
seeking to entrap him. promlsed-and he met the girls.
He spoke with them formally, requested permission to
call again, and, receiving it, departed.
The strangest feature of It all, according to people
acquainted with the women, is that the secret was kept
not only by them but by their entire famllles-one of the
girls going so far as to Intimate that she was to be mar
ried to a wealthy German when she wis twitted by her
friends about her mysterious caller.
Perhaps they all feared to lose the "big fish" that
they thought they had hooked.
At any rate they kept the secret and aided Lofhshy In
his plot.
How He Managed the Courtships.
It is thought that at that time he Intended only to en
tangle Halsch In an embarraslng but harmless predica
ment; but In the next cases he was more careful, and In
but one other case did he dare confine his movements to
Buda. selecting the other four victims from the young
women of Pesth.
Within the next week he had placed himself on the
same standing with Bertha von Stobble, Szara Molagyl,
Rosetta Montane, Dsira Czall. and Tesca Karnlszza.
Four of these women were young, under 17 years of
age, and of good families, and three were " old maids,"
one over 50. Three of them were handsome, two fairly
good looking, and two ugly positively ugly, besides old
and one had. lit earlier life, been mixed up In an unfortu
nate love affair.
The courtship continued In secret for months, and five
nights a week and two afternoons Lofhshy donned his
disguise and made his calls, continuing to plead for se
crecy, drawing a picture of what his friends, who con
sidered his bachelordom chronic, would say.
Early In May he brought matters to a climax. He
proposed to the seven women, pledging them to marry
him secretly and to keep the secret until the day he should
set for the public announcement. Each one accepted, each
one gave a pledge to keep their families In Ignorance. He
sealed the seven engagements with seven kisses and
went away to his apartments In high glee.
Secret Revealed by Misstep.
it was there that he made his ilrst and fatal misstep,
the one that revealed his secret. In changing from his own
clothes Into his disguise Lofhshy had forgotten his door
key. His man servant was out and he could not gain an
entrance. He strolled down to the Grand hotel, engaged
a room for the night, and retired. The next morning he
was forced to wear his disguise In the busiest streets.
Two men met him and stared at him. One stopped him
and said. " Why. Halsch. I thought you were in Paris."
" No," responded Lofhshy. " Business forced me to re
main here until this evening." The other man was a
member of the secret police. He knew Halsch was In
Paris, and. wondering why he had returned so suddenly,
idly followed Lofhshy and saw him enter the Lofhshy
apartments. He was puzzled about the matter, but, as
there appeared to be nothing wrong, he merely made a
note of what he had seen and forgot all about it until
later.
Lofhshy, as future developments showed, had a reck
less disregard of the consequences of his acts and took
wide chances of discovery. Perhaps, so the police think,
he became alarmed over the magnitude of his offense and
would rather have had it discovered before he completed
It although the results showed that he was ready to do
Imost anything In 1 rder to square accounts with the
man whom he regarded as his deadly en my.
That he was not caught seems strange, for he pur
chased seven ring.-, cnch identli.-il, when he became 111
giged to the girls and he purchased from the same jewel
er seven wedding rings exactly alike. The Jeweler w:is
scored by the police for failure to notify them, but he ex
plained that he knew Lofhshy well nnd had no reason t'
suspect there was anything wrong.
Thf dates of the weddings wer Miy 4, .". Hnd 0.
Ir fortunately for him, Halsch returned to Buda-Pesll
on the evening of May -t.
Pledged His Brides to Secrecy.
The weddings began the next morning. Lofhshy then
married Frances Glrnize. the ceremony being performed
by a Roman Catholic priest with whom arrangements h.ul
been made weeks In advance. After the wedding Lofh
shy pledged his bride to keep the secret until the evening
of Friday, May 12. when she was to come to the banquet
room of the Grand hotel, where he would proclaim her
nis wife In the presence of all his rriends at a grand ban
quet. That afternoon, before a Magyar dignitary. h was
married to Desira Czall. and In the evening, before a Lu
theran minister, he married Bertha von Stobble.
The next day he married Rosetta Montane and Tlzza
Ankrimoy, and the following day he took as his wlvcf
Szara Molagyl and Tessa Karnlszza.
That the seven weddings could have been kept secret
even for a day was considered strange, and It is asserted
that Lofhshy paid large fees to those performing the cere
monies on condition that they keep the tecret for several
days and make no report, claiming that he was arranging a
big susprlse, and by this he managed to allay whatever
suspicions they may have had.
He kissed each of his seven brides farewell at the
altar and obtained from each the promise that they would
e.ppear on Friday evening at the hotel banquet room to
be introduced as his wife.
His aim achieved. Lofhshy discarded his disguise and
settled back to hear the ror of laughter und the storm
of censure fall upon his foe. His revenge was about to
be consummated, and he was happy. The ridicule which
Halsch had brought uion him was nothing to what would
fall upon Halsch. and besides he expected legal complica
tions and possibly the utter ruin of the reputation of tho
strictly moral oil bachelor who for years had been the
tmodel of the capital.
And, in dense Ignorance of all this, Halsch was arrang
ing for a big banquet In honor of his forty-eighth birth
day, to be held at the Grand hotel on the evening of May
U-of which Lofhshy had heard when he arranged for
his wives or Halsch's wives to meet him there.
Also there was a buzz of expectation In seven house
holds, where the seven brides had confessed to their seven
families, pledging them all to secrecy, und there was milch
preparation for the event of Friday night. The families
smiled In anticipation of a surprise when they read in
one of the papers a little announcement of the coming
banquet of Halsch.
Friday night came. The grand banquet hall of the
great hotel, one of the greatest In all the world, waa
ablaze with light. Halsch and his friends had gathered
for their " stag " feast. The merriment was at its height
at Ht:l when a page, hastily entering, made his way to
where Halsch was seated at the head of the long table
along the sides of which his friends were gathered. The
boy muttered something.
Halsch shook his head angrily. The boy said some
thing else. Halsch tried to smile. Suddenly he Bcented
a joke and. leaping to his feet, said:
" I drink to the Joke let It go on."
His friends were astonished.
" Bring my wife In," said Halsch, laughing. I guess
the Joke Is on me.
" Some of my friends have sent up a woman to pre
tend she is my wife," he explained.
The friends around the table roared with delight.
" Bring her In. It us drink her health," they shouted
The page ushered " her " in seven of " her."
Meeting of the Seven Brides.
The scene that followed was Indescribable. The
brides wept and broke down from shame. Halsch Im
plored, entreated, denied, and asseverated. He declared
he had married no one. Each of the women declared she
had married him and euch was ready to attack the other
six.
The friends roared and grew angry, then thoughtful.
Nobody could understand what had happened.
For half an hour the banquet was broken up. The
women, threatening legal prosecution, had started t their
homes. Seven families were ready to murder Halsch at
sight. The whole of Buda-Pculh rang with thw story.
Halsch was In a peculiar position. The more he de
nied tho more scorn and laughter he brought upon himself.
People laughed until the tears ran down their cheeks, then
grew angry nt the thought of the shame thrust upon the
seven women.
Halsch's guilt seemed proved. The priests and ministers
and courts that had sanctioned the marriages Identified
him. The families of the girls told of his months of court
ship. He retaliated by proving an alibi at the times they
said he called. He swore he was In l'arls at a certain time
about the first of May. The friend who had accosted
him on the street vowed he was not, because he had met
him on Klosternburg avenue and spoken with him.
That almost caured a duel. Every time he said he was
out of town some one appeared to prove that he wasn't.
Ten friends swore that he was with them on Margit Isle
on the same night that five members of the families of
two girls swore he called at their homes.
Practical loker Is Discovered.
1 lie case looked bad. Lofhshy wus en toying his re
venge. Legal proceedings were Instituted wlu n one day
Jonkhry, the detective, suddenly remembered. He con
sulted his notebook. That afternoon he called on Lofhshy
while Lofhshy was out. What he discovered mode his
suspicion a certainty.
Then he called on Halsch and stated the matter clearly.
And Halsch remembered his quarrel with the Magyar,
Some one warned IxfhHhy Just In time, and while the
police were on their way to his house he fled. While they
were searching the city he crossed the frontier.
The next day the truth of the matter wus heralded
through the city, and on that same day Halsch himself
called on each of the seven women, 'and to each of them
he offered to do anything In his power to repa'r the dam
age except to marry them. That he could not do, both on
account of the law and because he had become engaged to
Krag.i Lltislie but he promised to give another banquet
and Invite them all.
The entire population of the twin cities of the Danube
wus aroused to sympathy by the cruel ueceptlon practiced
011 the seven women, but the seven themselves appear
glad that they escape J the vllluin.
They are arranging to attend Halsh's banquet In their
honor and to laugh down the sltuatiou into which they
were cast by Lofhshy's deception.
Hut all over Buda-Pesth the men who know llalsh refer
to him as " Solomon " or " Brlgham Young " or " Bluebeard."