Newspaper Page Text
Gay Mrs M c Kees
Crushing
r -
How the Solemn Declaration of a
French Court That She Is Unfit
to Bring Up Her Own Child
Has Broken the Spirit of
Colorado’s Loneliest Daughter,
and Has Ended Her Life
of Irresponsible Frivolity
Paris, Nov. 25.
THE French divorce court has
rendered a solemn judgment
hat Mrs. Hart McKee, the
American beauty and heiress, is an
unfit person to nave the custody of
her own child.
This judgment has fallen as a
severe punishment upon this bril
liant young woman, whose escapades
have shocked her friends, humil
tatod her family and disgraced her
t' If. She now refuses to go out, to
show herself on the boulevards or
in the Bois, to attend any of the
biah-rolling Bohemian gatherings at
which she has been the chief orna
ment.
The judgment was given in a suit
brought by Mrs. H. Sellers Mc-
Kee, ...othi r of young Hart McKee,
fretn whom Cornelia Baxter Tevis
McKee is now divorced. Young Mc-
Kee himself has no qualifications
for bringing a suit on moral
grounds.
The elder Mrs. McKee’s suit, told
th-- win * history of her daughttr
ii.-nw’s conduct in Paris. Not a de
tail was spared. There were amaz
ing accounts of the young American
woman's doings with Turks, Hun
garians and Roumanians that must
brine blush to the cheek of every
l ■ ■ic American.
court ordered that young
■j’Kee's little' boy, A. Hartu
p' McKee, Jr., should be placed
m charge of the eminent Professor
Chauvet, of No. 7 Rue Francisque
fiarcey, Paris, to live in his family
and be instructed by him. The pro
fessor is a recognized authority on
the education and training of chil
dren. The judgment provides that
for only six months of each year
the mother is to be permitted, on
the first and third Thursdays of
each month, to take the boy out
from 10 o’clock in the morning
until 6 in the evening.
During the vacation season she
Is to be allowed to Live the boy
with her for one month, and the
father is to have him for one month
aiso.
In asking for this judgment Mrs
Seilers McKee called particular at
tention to the details of another
law suit brought by young Mrs.
McKee against Najib Pasha, a
notorious Turk. According to the
record-, the Turk was most friend
ly with young Mrs. McKee during
the divorce proceedings against
Hart McKee, and loaned her money
at that time amounting to $200,000,
for which she gave him bonds of
th" Erie Railroad for nearly double
that amount.
Later the friendship between the
pair was broken, as the result of
bad temper that followed a partic-
f urnished Flats for Chickens;
Truck Garden in Your Rnnrfnir
TIE growing triumphs of inten
sive farming are now ex
tended in England to chick
ens raised in furnished flats, and
salads grown indoors.
Experiments have proved it pos
sible to keep as much poultry in as
good a state of health in a subur
ban back garden as on an acre or
more in the ordinary method. Mr.
Meech, who is principally responsi
ble for the discovery and invention,
has 3,000 hens to the acre at Poole,
near London. The method is'
spreading very rapidly, and it is
particularly remarkable that one of
the most famous of English fan
tiers is giving up “the fancy - ’ to
go in for egg production in the new
manner.
The general Idea is simple
enough, though considerable inge
nuity is shown in some of the de
tails. Hens are kept on the bun
galow system and chickens in flats.
A bungalow room twenty-five feet
by sixteen feet is reckoned quite
>arge enough for 100 hens. On the
wooden floor of this wooden house
deep straw is laid, and all the
tood of the hens is scattered in
so that they must work hard
-heir living. How hard they
'■ rk is shown bv the fact that they
rapidly reduce the straw to chaff.
ar -d as they do this fresh straw is
added.
Probably a great part of the suc
cess is due to the lighting of the
house with electric light. In the
v ery newest of the bungalows a
device has been introduced by
which the light wanes slowly dur
•ug half an hour, and so induces
\ - ~ ’T’ ssszzszzz ''
ularly gay night’s entertainment.
The Turk then refused to return
the bonds ind young Mrs. McKee
brought suit, for their recovery.
She found that this would let loose
such a| Hood of details about her
private life that she withdrew the
suit.
Najib Pasha in his answer gave
details of intimate friendship with
her during the divorce proceedings,
showing that he had lent her money
and given her advice regarding the
peculiarities of French law. Before
the withdrawal of the suit it was
proved that the oonds given to the
Turk by Mrs. McKee were the ones
she told the court had been taken
and dissipated by Hart McKee dur
ing their married life.
Najib Pasha’s answer brought in
tno name of Prince Jean Ghika, a
long-haired, wild-eyed Roumanian,
who married Miss Hazel Singer
daughter of Charles J. Singer, of
Chicago. He became her adviser
and confidant after she quarreled
with the Turk.
Another name introduced in the
elder Mrs. McKee’s complaint was
t.iat of Count Antonio Apponyi, an
impecunious Hungarian nobleman
-ormerly secretary of the Austrian
Embassy in Paris and now a
Parisian boulevardier. The Count
evidently expected to marry Mrs.
McKee, and on the strength of this
wrote her very remarkable letters
remonstrating with her mode of
life.
Young Hart McKee was very
much excited about his wife’s rela
tions with the Hungarian at the
time she was trying to get a divorce
from him. McKee hired one of the
best known detectives and guides
to the night life of Paris, Jean
Sarda by name, to watch his wife’s
doings.
Sarda is a great authority on all
those strange subterranean noc
turnal places of amusement in
Pans that excite the curiosity of
the foreign visitors to the gay‘citv.
The mer fact that McKee should
have hired such a man to watch
his wife is a curious commentary
cd her mode of lite. Young McKee
paid Sarda $5,000 for hi.-, services.
Curious to note, McKee’s mother
had previously engaged Sarda to
watch her son when she was trving
to rescue him from the life’ o*
Pans.
Count Apponyi, who. like manv
Hungarians, is of an exceedingly
ardent temperament, became so vio-
MrKe’n . wo ° in 5 of young Mrs.
McKee that she was frightened
She appealed to Monsieur Monquin
chief of detectives of Paris, and
asked that the Count be ordered to
remove himself from Paris. The
police official assured her that this
... . ijvuutm
the hens to go to roost before the
light expires. The wonderful effect
of good light for long hours on the
health of birds has recently been
proved so in some experiments at
the Zoo. The hens, it is said, lay
better and feed better, and keep in
better health in such a well-lit
bungalow.
The necessary apparatus, by
" hich a full-fledged salad (lettuces,
radishes, cress, etc.) can be grown
indoors in one-half the natural time,
costs very little in a room where
electric light is already installed.
This novel electrical plant con
sists of a coil, to which is con
nected a small high-frequency ap
paratus. specially designed so that
it costs only a few- shillings. The
coil again is connected with a few
turns of thick insulated wire wound
round a wooden frame.
Within this frame are several
shelves, on which are placed boxes
containing various vegetables. The
whole space inside the frame is in
e violent state of electrical agita
tion. This was revealed when high
frequency lamps were laid on the
soil, glowing with brilliant light
When such a lamp touched the soil
sparks flew off in all directions.
“I calculate from previous experi
ments,” said the inventor of this
ingenious process, "that the time
which the seeds naturally take to
grow will, by this process, be re
duced by nearly one-half.
“And an important point Is that
the lettuce leaves, for Instance, are
seen by miscroscopical examina
tion to be far fuller and finer than
those grown under natural condition.
■ -
fw - - W v
could not be none, but warned the
Count not to molest Mrs. McKee.
She was so frightened by him. how
however, that she ran away from
Paris for a time.
The Count has since married a
beautiful English girl and taken
himself out of the way for the time
An amusing sidelight on this epi
sode was that Count Albert Ap
ponyi, the great Hungarian advo
cate of universal peace, expressed
great annoyance at being confused
with his wild-eyed relative.
Young Mrs. McKee became a par
ticular star of that Bohemian high
society in which degraded apaches
from the slums minglo with
neurotic ladies of the ancient aris
tocracy.
She is a great friend of the In
fanta Eulalie, who recently shocked
her nephew, the King of Spain, by
wiiting a book demanding all sorts
of freedom for women. She was
lately the quest of honor at a din
ner at Mrs. McKee’s artistic home
in the Latin Quarter, when the
others present in- ______
eluded two Am
bassadors. severa I
other members of
the diplomatic
corps, Yoursy Pa
ss h a, ,u n o t b e r
Turk; Airs. Clif
ford Barney and
Pierre De
schamps.
She was one of
the most admired
guests at a bad
Ui ' n by the
Duke and Duch
ess de tlraniont
as their chateau
near Paris. A wit
*■' comedy revue
written for the
occasion was
played by society
amateurs. j n j t
lhe Duchess de
Gramont took the
leading part,
wearing a re
markable red vel
vet ro be trimmed
with ermine.
rhe role of Louis
the “Grand
Munarque,” was
t a k e n b y t p t!
Dnk- de ( iuis(l
Princess Lue)ell
I,' I '’; 1 '- '■■ s, ’" i ‘ted
‘ho King's notori
*'”s favorite,
Uuj '- de .\Jonte
-pan.
, A,t «r the pjav
'here was a S a .
■cme dance by
‘lie I'oUllfess de ■
all |
Airs, liar i Aje.
K<
'f’l... 1.
she divorce suit brought bv Mi,,
was a contest in which <■
couple threw mud at one another
' ’■■ vf 9"»r<iinarj vivacity.
•She lived to an accompaniment
01 Pistol shots, indecent literature
and pajamas.” said her counsel.
M-utre Barboux.
.i.„? ,OnKl ' ? " r McKee more than once
tied a cord around his wife’s neck
and tried to drag her across the
room at the end ol the cord.
He had the habit of walking
around bis wife’s home wearing no
more clothes than did Adam in
those remote days of primeval inno
cence. Or if he ; leased to clothe
himself jt was in some fantastic
costume, perhaps his pajamas, with
his wife's blue silk dressing gown
as a mantel. this garb he would
go to the kitchen and make per
fervid love to the maids, who flew
from his advances.
“He always carried a revolver
wfiiWsSiW '' ■
r- f ■ .
■<;. OMmteigF —
M
Mrs. Cornelia Bax- 5--
ter-Tevis McKee,
as She Locked - I ''
When at the
Height of Her
Frivolous Career.
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Little A. Hartupee McKee, tlv- S in ’who Harn Been Taken from His
Mother’s Control hy the French Court.
always slept with it under his pil
low. and often threatened to take
his wife’s life uales- she gave
money to him.
“He nad a manti, for travelling,
but the centre of his circle of travel
was Monte Carlo, where he lost
sums like $15,000 in a single night.
He took his wife’s money to stake
it, compelled her to sign checks—
even signed her name to checks.
"He worked on her feelings by
being grossly cruel to her child
Hugh, her son by her first marriage.
Two hours before his own child
was born he refused to telephone
tm a physician, and left hts wife
Buffering the agony which only a
woman can know. She dragged
herself to the telephone and called
for a doctor.
“The only food his wife had was
some pickles and sardines brought
In by her maid. McKee, wearing
his wife’s rose-pink dressing gown,
■vt-ot.' articles for 1 lie newspapers
” ... i •co. i,.,. ••
"lb made love to the maids and
was otteu found In the kitchen. He
had a collection of shocking stories
and insisted on reading them to his
wife."
Bad as this picture was. McKee’s
lawyer endeavored to paint an
equally lurid one of his wife.
“Under a fair and gracious ex
terior she wears a devilish soul,"
said Maitre Laborl. "Her beauty
conceals a nature inconceivably
perfidious, false and cruel.”
He charged her with intimacy
with Lord Rosslyn before she be
came engaged to McKee He had
a letter from an English hotel
keeper to give color to this charge.
He then declared that Mrs McKee
was living with her husband not
only before she married him. but
within five dayc after they first
mot.
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He declared that she was
trying to get her divorce in
order to marry Marquis
Guglielmo, a large, per
fumed nobleman, quite no
ted for his willingness to
marry /American heiresses.
Why, do they think I
want to get rid of one
brute in order to marry
another?” here observed
Mrs. McKee.
In giving a decision on
the divorce suit the court
;;.ive a divorce to each and
denounced each of them
. oiiatlv
> <tnatty.
Spoiled darlings o, fortune -too
rich, too fortunate, too idle—it was
impossible that they would ever
■■■nd a family and assume the real
duties of life. We must, think of
:h<m as hot-house plants grown In
the atmosphere of new wealth.’
That wai what the French Advo
< ■ te-Ge>: ral said
The carve; of Mis. McKee and
her husband h id. indeed, furnished
ni'.ieh ,as:s for ,bo court's remarks
Born ti Tennessee she had moved
r.sl a child to the Far West with
Im" father, who made a fortune
'll re and became Governor of
Wyomi: s.
Shi was a dream of blue-eyed
golden-haired loveliness. When she
first began to attract notice he
was the most conspicuous beauty
m Denver She was engaged to
Gerald Hughes, a rising young busi
ness man of that city. Suddenly
she jilted him ano married Hugh
Tevis, a young San Sancihco mil
lionaire. Life with this stormy
beauty must have been a strenuous
experience. Within eight weeks of
their marriage Mr. Tevis died.
Then Mrs. Tevis went to Europe,
and her engagement to a score of
princes, millionaires and celebrities
was reported She returned to
America unwed for a time and then
gave society another surprise.
Young Hart. McKee, son o{. J.
Sellers McKee, who made $2(t,00().-
000 as a glass manufacturer in Pitts
burgh. wooed her and wou hor.
A Snapshot of Mrs. McKee and Count
Apponyt, the Hungarian Diplomat,
Who Was the Centra! Figure of
One of Her Escapades.
McKies o.vn matrimonial career
had been complicated. lie had beta
divorced from his first wife. Lydia
Sutton, .md after that it was ex
peeled that he would marry Mi't.
Gen< vieve Phipps, who had then
only rec fitly been divorced from
Lawrence Phipps, son of Andrew
Ctirnogie's old business partner.
It was understood at the tint*
that Mrs. Phipps secured a divorce
tn order that, she might marry Mc-
Kee Tiie sight of Cornelia Baxter
bad changed his sentiments.
After the Phipps Aorce McKee
unexpectedly boat deci a steamship
lor Europe, Then it was discovered
that Mrs. Tevis was on board, too.
Immediately after their arrival in
Europe they were married.
Then began that life among “the
dancing dervishes of society” ia
Paris which has had such a sad
culmination.
From a series of lawsuits, which
included two suits for divorce, the
elder Mrs. McKee was able to build
up a crushing story that proved her
daughter-in-law’s unfitness to take
care of her own child.
The latest decision of the court
means really that tho father and
mother are equally irresponsible as
parents, but naturally jt falls most
severely upon the mother.
It has hu.t her to the depth of
of her being and has suddenly dis
gusted her with all the pleasures of
life. The heartbroken mother Is
now paying the penalty for eight
years of reckle-f social dlssipa.ioa
and gayety.