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VOLuU^ I. NUMBER 17.
...
fi TERY THAT HAS
SET SOCIETY
ON EDGE
INVOLVES RICH AND GREAT
Strange Affair of Mrs. Frederick
0. Beach, Whose Throat Was
. Sla shed by a Man at Her Winter
Home in Fashionable Aiken, S. C.
EW YORK.—Society mys-
HjfcNT - Y teries are the most baf
fling of all “ysteries. So
'JkMR ciety has a mystery today
2alx£®Sl that would require the
best efforts of a Sherlock
Holmes to solve. It has
some elements in it that
are altogether unusual in
the affairs concerning the
rich and great. This mys- #
tery surrounds the attack that was
made on Mrs. Frederick O. Beach at
Aiken, 3. C. More than a month ha?
elapsed since she was brutally as
sailed in the darkness outside her
home. Her head was beaten with a
fence paling and her throat was
slashed with a knife. The mystery is
still unsolved.
All the persons whose names have
appeared in this affair are in the
front rank of high society. Mrs.
Beach, before her second marriage,
was the widow’ of Charles F. Have
meyer. • She was Camilla Moss, the 1
daughter of Courtlandt D. Moss of
Philadelphia. One of her sisters is
Mrs. J. B. Tailer, whose New York
residence is at No. 43 West Forty
seventh street. Another sister is Mrs.
Johnston Livingston Jr. The Living- ;
stons have an estate at Hewlett, L. I.
Frederick 0. Beach is a member of
several clubs and a close friend and
companion of William K. Vanderbilt. ;
Wheh in the north the Beaches make
their home at Hewlett. In the winter
they shift their domicile to Aiken. Mr.
omKs'3. Beach are prominent mem
bers of the “horsey” set of society,
■ the colony that is devoted to out-<>f
door sports and gathers every winter
at Aiken for shooting,. hunting and
golf. It is the Meadowbrook and
Hempstead sporting element trans
planted.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Beach Favorites of
Fortune.
Mrs. Beach is a noted equestrienne,
and very fond of the hunting field.
Her husband long has been famous as
a driver of crack four-in-hands and as
a daring rider after the hounds. His
handsome face has gained him the
sobriquet of “Beauty" Beach. His
wife is very pretty. She is still under
35, but looks almost ten years
younger.*
Mrs. Beach’s first husband, Charles
F. Havemeyer, was the eldest son of
Theodore A. Havemeyer, the .enor
mously rich sugar king. Her mar
riage to Mr. Havemeyer was consid
ered a very happy one. Two children
blessed the union. In May, 1898, Mr.
Havemeyer killed himself with a pis
tol at his home at Roslyn, L. I. Au
gust Belmont summoned the coroner.
A jury was hastily impaneled. It con
sisted exclusively of men in the same
social set. August Belmont was the.- '
' ;v foreman. It met at midnight, and de
clared that there was no evidence that
Havemeyer had fired the bullet into
his brain with suicidal intent—that
the self-shooting w r as an accident.
From her husband’s estate Mrs.
Havemeyer inherited a great sum of
money. About a year and a half after
his death Mrs. Havemeyer married
Frederick O. Beach. As a girl she
was rich, as a widow she was richer
still, and as the wife of Beach she still
had a greater fortune at her command.
All her life, therefore, she has had all
the money she could possibly need,
millions of dollars.
Aiken is one of the most fashionable
winter resorts within easy traveling
distance of New York. It vies with
Palm Beach in the fuxurious way of
living pursued by the fashionable col
ony, and is far more exclusive than
the famous resort on the coast of Flor
ida. It . has been celebrated for years
for its mild climate. Not only those
x of riches and leisure, but many who
are suffering /rom weak lungs are at
tracted by its balmy atmosphere.
Great pine forests cover the country
for miles all about Aiken, and the air
is soft and mild, no matter how bit
ter may be the cold in New York.
Perhaps a hundred rich and fashion
able families from New York, Phila
delphia and Boston have their winter
homes there. Then there are many
more who run down to Aiken to spend
a fortnight or a month. Some of the
places of residence are great estates,
among the most magnificent in Amer
ica: others are big, comfortable
i bouses surrounded by spacious
grounds. One of the most opulent and
select country clubs in the south is at
Aiken. The building in which it Is
housed is large and luxuriously ap
pointed. It Is the headquarters for
the smart set, and many of the aqciety v
people stop there In their Hittings
©le Unllm
AT THE MINEOLA RACES
/ JHA
L—• । r 1
Mrs. F. O. Beach, Mrs. Jas. B Tailer, Sister of Mrs. F. .0, Beach; Mrs.
Johnston Livingston, Sister of Mrs. F. Q. Beach.
back and forth from one place of
leisure to another.
Robbery Not Motive for Attack on
Mrs. Beach.
The attack on Mrs. Beach occurred
on the evening of Monday, February
26. She was returning to her home
when a strange man sprang at her,
knocked her down with a blow from a
paling which he had torn from the
fence that surrounds the- Beach place,
and slashed her throat with a sharp
knife. Mrs. Beach’s earrings were
torn from her. It was at first sup
posed that they were of great value
and that the motive had been robbery,
but the pendants were found next
morning on the ground where the at
tack had taken place. They provpd to
be of little intrinsic worth- Mrs.
Beach said they were family heirlooms
her mother had given her, and she val
ued them on account of the associa
tions connected with them. A mo
ment before Mrs.-Beach was assailed.
Pearl Bampton, a negro woman in'the
Beach family’s employ, was felled by
the same fence paling and presumably
by the same man who struck down
Mrs. Beach. This negress was near
an outbuilding used as a laundry. She
told contradictory stories afterward
of having seen some one run out of
the laundry and disappear in the
darkness Just before she was struck.
Mrs. Beach’s screams when she was
assailed aroused the neighborhood,
and her attacker was pursued. He
dodged into an alley and escaped. Mrs.
•Beach swooned and was taken into the
house. The assault occurred just out
side the grounds. She was for a long
time in a serious condition and un
able to afford the police and detec
tives much assistance. She declares
it was a negro that attacked her, one
that she does not remember ever hav
ing seen before.
Naturally every one began to ask
questions. Why should any one at
tack Mrs. Beach? What possible mo
tive could there be? If the motive had
been robbery, why had her assailant
attempted to cut her throat and add
murder to the crime?
Cholce^Morsel fo^Those Who Revel in
- Scandal.
Starting with the known facts, so
ciety at Aiken and elsewhere straight
way became more than busy. It must
be remembered that in a small place
like Aiken, where the exclusive social
circle is limited, the vital thing of
each'day's existence is gossip. It is
like> life in one of those little garrison
towns in India that Kipling has de
scribed so mercilessly. Therefore
every one began building a fabric of
theories as to how it all happened.
After two or th nue repetitions each
small incident was distorted into a
thrilling bit of gossip, which presently
was passed along as a matter .of fact.
In this way thd Beach affair soon be
came an inconceivably tangled skein
of surmise and susplcioifthat widened
day by day and involved more and
more people.
One of the stories that started, no
one knows where, and spread with the
utmost rapidity, was to the effect that
a close relative of the woman slashed
Mrs. Beach's throat, and that the as
sailant and his friends conspired to
hide his guilt by charging an un
known negro with the crime. Mr.
Beach, because of the inactivity of
the police and the activity of the gos
sips, employed two of the most promi
nent lawyers in Aiken to look after
his interests, and brought down a de
tective from New York. The detec
tive spent several days in Aiken, but
if he accomplished anything it was
not made public. This furnished more
food for the gossips, and Mr. Beach
spent day after day closeted with bis
lawyers.
Then a new figure appeared in the
case with an astounding proclama
tion. C. Oliver Iselin, the millionaire
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1912.
New York banker, the dean of the
Aiken colony, came out with an an
nouncement in a letter to the mayor
of Aiken that he would take pleasure
in the lynching of the person or per
sons who were responsible for the
slanderous accusations that had been
floating about since the murderous as
sault on Mrs. Beach. Mr. Iselin’s
name had not been mentioned in the
dispatches from Aiken before that.
He is fully as rich and as prominent
socially as the Beaches. His estate
at Aiken, Hopelands, is one of the
show places of the south. It is named
after his wife, who was Hope God
dard, the daughter of Colonel William
Goddard of Providence. They have
five children. Mr. Iselin is famous as
a yachtsman. He Is the owner of the
Vigilant, and was one of the manag
ing owners of the Columbia and other
cup defenders. His home is at-New
Rochelle.
In Mr. Iselin’s letter to the mayor
he offered rewards for the apprehen
sion and conviction, not only of Mrs.
Beach’s assailant, but of those who
'had attacked- other women shortly be
fore and soon afterward. The victims
in these cases were j servants, and
none of them was hurt much. Mr.
Iselin’s rewards, however, have such
large, stout strings to them that it is
not likely any^private detectives will
take them upland pursue the matter
on the speculation of collecting them.
The striking feature about his letter
to the mayor was his expressed desire
to aid in lynching the slanderers of
Mrs.’/Beach and her husband.
Mayor of Aiken to Make an Investiga-
5 J tion.
I; Then the mayor of Aiken threw his
hat into the ring, figuratively speak-
1 ing. He came out with the announce
ment that he proposed to probe the
matter to the very bottom, arid that- he
was going to pursue his own private
: and personal investigation of the af
fair. He added that he was not going
to take any one fnto his confidence,
but was going to get at the truth and
would make public in due time what
ever he found out. He declares he
does not propose to have the reputa
tion of Aiken suffer in the eyes of the
world, and he is going to clear it of
every stigma that has been put upon
It by the Beach affair, no matter
whose feelings are hurt,
That is the present status of the
' mystery. If it ever is unraveled and
the solution gets Into print It eeems
likely it will be one extreme or the
other. Either it will resolve itself
into a case of unprovoked and brutal
assault by a negro, or else it may drag
to light various society skeletons. As
it stands now it has all the elements
of s mystery that are essential to the
first / 300 words of a fine Sherlock
Holmes story. All that is lacking is
the solution —and it would take more
than a Conan Doyle to invent a climax
that exceeds in thrills any of half a
dozen that are being whispered behind
closed doors In Aiken.
Charge Made Involves Frederick O.
Beach,
’Frederick O. Beach and Mrs. Beach
recently returned from a trip abroad,
where Mr. Beach learned'that he was
wanted in Aiken, S. C.. for trial on a
charge of having attacked Mrs. Beach
there. Beach stated that he ran from
the house to his wife’s rescue when
he heard her screams.
After Mrs. Beach’s recovery she and
her husband returned north and sail
ed for Europe. Later a warrant was
issued on the affidavit of a detective
accusing Beach of the attack. Beach
cabled from abroad that he would re
turn home at once.
Ywo Uses for Burmese Teas.
The tea grown in Burma is used
almost, entirely for pickling. After- ,
ward it is eaten as a condiment
MYRICK’S
DEPARTMENT
STORE
MILLEDGEVILLE,GA.
SPRING
IS HERE
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CAN WE
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We will be pleased to have
you call and see what we have.
Your Friends,
W. S. MYRICK
& COMPANY
X.
SI.OO A YEAB.
