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THE COURIER
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Society has occupied itself this week
in going to the races, and attending
the formal opening of tho Funke opera
house, and in the enjoyment of a few
quiet events. Tho change in the
weather a few days ago afforded a fore
taste of autumn, and had the effect of
directing attention to the things that will soon more actively engage
the interest of society people. Will it be a lively season? is a question
n)t easy to answer at this time; but as The Courier has already
said, there is a strong probability that there" will be an even greater
development in the way of clubs than there was last year. So far
as can be seen now thesnason promises to bo oneof unusual interest.
The first event of importance will be the wedding of Miss Bertie
Burr and Mr. Beman Dawes, shortly after tho first of October.
Tho Vanderbilts and the Astois and the Goulas are having their
troubles now. There isn't any scandal in the Gould family; but
George suffers poignant distress in that little difficulty about the
centre board that prevented his last race with the Prince of Wales.
There is some change to-day in the talk about William K. Vander
bilt's family. Mr. Vanderbilt's friends have refrained from saying
much so far, but they did not hesitate to say that when the truth
was known he would be amply vindicated. So far as can be
learned from statements made to persons in the confidence of the
Vanderbilt family, their sympathies are all with the husband.
They hope that the matter may be settled out of court It is not a
question of money. Mr. Vanderbilt is willing, it is said, to give his
wife all the money she wants, but he insists upon retaining charge
of the children. Cornelius Vanderbilt, is the eldest son of William
H., is assumed to be the head of the family. His mother yields to
his judgment in almost everything affecting the Vanderbilt
property, and he watches with almost paternal care the wandering
of William K. Ever Bince the voyage of the Valiant was brought to
such an abrupt termination, Cornelius has been worried; the first
touch of domestic scandal in the Vanderbilt family was about to be
come public property, and he seemed powerless to prevent it. Be
fore Cornelius Vanderbilt went to Chicago he talked
with several friends at home. He appeared to be very much wor
ried. Some of his associates advised him not to go, but to allow his
brother-in-law, Webb, to represent the Vanderbilt interests at the
Newell funeral. There was a good deal of telegraphiug between the
Grand Central station and Bar Harbor. Mrs. William H. and her
youngest son, George, are spending the summer there. Finally it
was decided that Cornelius should go to Chicago and that Willie K.
should be asked to come home at the earliest opportunity and
straighten things out. A friend of the Vanderbilt family said that
Willie K. was coming home right cway. He has been living in Paris
since the Valiant party was suddenly broken up in Nice, and was
likely to remain there until he was able to come homo with his
children. Tha only member of the Valiant party in New York is
Dr. Edward L. Keyes, who was invited at Mrs. Vanderbilt's request,
but Dr. Keyes declined to say why he had returned home so unex
pectedly. A steward who had expected to join the party until the
moment of sailing was for some reason or- other left behind. It is
said he is with Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt at Bar Harbor. It is
asserted by friends of Willie K. that he was in no way responsible
for the interruption in the voyage of the Valiant, but that circum
stances made it necessary for him either to leave the ship or get rid
of some of his guests. He consulted friends and was advised to dis
continue the voyage. Since that time Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt have
lived apart. Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt has been unpopular
socially for a long period. Winter before last one of the most prom
inent men in town spoke of her as the most unpopular woman in
society. She is not at all lavish outside of her own family. She
does not entertain to any extent, but likes occasionally to give grand
affairs. During the winter of 1892-93 gho arranged to give a musi
cal at her house on Fifth avenue and Fifty-seventy street, and had
engaged the Walter Damrosch Symphony orchestra to play.
Meanwhile some of the charitably disposed women, including Mrs.
Richard Irvin, induced the proprietor of the Waldorl Hotel, which
was about to be opened, to let them give an entertainment for local
charity in it as a house-warming. They decided on a concert, and
not being able to secure other attractions, persuaded Mrs. W. K.
Vanderbilt to let them have the symphony orchestra, as tho evening
selected by her was the same as that on which the Waldrof opened.
This she did, and was publicly credited time and again as having
donated the music, though sho paid but the merest trifle toward it.
Again, a clergyman who is connected with tho public charities on
Ward's island worked very hard to induce her to help a near rela
tive who was in a hospital, whose family was in great need a Mr.
Barney of Booklyn and she finally sent a check for 850. The
Barney famely had helped her along before she married Vanderbilt.
People now again say that the marble house, the million-dollar man
sion built by the W. K. Vanderbilt at Newport, was ill-omened from
the start. In appearance, with massive walls surrouading it and
capped with funeral urns, it is a gastly mausoleum. It was opened
by Mrs. Vanderbilt after its completion in July, 1892. Though it
took two or more years to build it, it is au open secret that more
than 8100,000 of interior decorations and tapestries were destroyed
by dampness. One of the first incidents that occurred in the house
was of a painful nature. A German governess went crazy and
imagined she was walled in by white marble. Mrs. Vanderbilt bad
her taken to the Bloomingdale asylum. It seems that this poor
woman was of noble birth, and had married a poor man for love and
been cast off by her family, and whet, he died endeavored to make -a
living for herself and child, She was oppressed with anxiety and
sorrow when she took a governess" place. Her family, when they
heard of her misfortunes, sent for her, and she is now in their castle
at home, but without her reason. Mrs. V?. K. Vanderbilt has two
sisters. One, Miss Smith, is a kindly disposed, practical single
women who lives in New York and takes little or no interest in
worldly vanities. Mrs. William George Tiffany, her married sister,
resides, when in America, at 75 east Fifty-fourth street. Her hus
band is celebrated as a sport and whip on both sides of the water.
She was Virginia Smith when she became the wife of Ferdinand
Yznaga, and the story of her divorce and remarriage in one of the
uptown hotels to Mr. Tiffany can-be easily recalled. Of the three
brothers Cornelius, William K. and Frederick W. Vanderbilt
only the latter is childless. Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt, the eldest
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, is in her eighteenth
year. She was named for the present Duchess of Manchester, form
erly Miss Yznaga, and the eldest daughter of the Duchess of Man
chester, who is a year or two younger, was in turn named Alva for
Mrs. Vanderbilt. Miss Vanderbilt was not in the least pretty when
6he went abroad with her parents on the Valiant last year. She is
of medium heighth, ordinary girlish, slim build, has a snub nose,
very dark eyes and hair that would pass for black, though it is only
very dark. She is disposed to be democratic, affable, and jolly when
her mother is not about, and when she is subsides into a supposed
necessary condition of naughty vacuity. Tho other children are
younger and in the hands of tutors, governess and maids. Two
summers ago at Newport the comment on the flirtation between
Mrs. Vanderbilt and O. H. P. Belmont was very general and very
unfavorable, and only the immense wealth of the family kept the
condemnation down. They were constantly together and he was
one of the few visitors constantly admitted to the marble house.
Once, at least, every day Mrs. Vanderbilt appeared on tho Ocean
drive, and was almost invariably alone in a phaeton, driving a pair
of spirited high-steppers. The cottage set at Newport is small and
revolves constantly in the one little circle, so that the intimacy that
prevails is something akin to that in a big boarding house. Despite
this gossip, the intimacy of Mrs. Vanderbilt and O. H. P. Belmont
was so noticeable that the general talk was that a divorce would
surely be procured. After Mr. Vanderbilt (who during the ealier
part of the season was away) returned to Newport; tho gossip in
creased, As far as could be judged an outward harmony prevailed
and when Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt left Newport in tho early autumn
they drove to New York on a brake with four horses, and O. H. P.
Belmont was one of the party and continued on with them to Oak
dale, their Long Island county-seat. Mr. Vanderbilt was in England
seeing to the construction of his new yacht during the following
winter and Mrs. Vanderbilt remained at her Fifth-avenue residence