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Great britala deserved.
A Prosaic Retreat to
London Ends a Romantic
Dream Dissipated by Rude
Realities, Huge Expenses,
Hungarian Peasants and
a Noble Husband’s Ways
It Is Wrong to Say
“Knots per Hour”
Gl adys
Vanderbilt
Fortune
Wasted,
Flees He
'Feudal
Vienna, May 8.
*in HE announcement that the
f I Count and Countess Laszlo
) A Szechenyi are going to live
permanently in London makes
another famous international mar
riage look like a failure.
When Gladys Vanderbilt became
Countess Szechenyi she was going
to live like a princess of fiction on
her husband's estates in Hungary.
She would divide her time between
feudal demesnes in the country and
picturesque palaces in the city. She
would enjoy the admiration of a
primitive but loyal peasantry. She
would add brilliance to the court of
an emperor. Now she has gladly
given up the ancestral demesnes and
her magnificent palace in Budapest
and all the primitive feudal delights
of life in Hungary. She is going to
live in London, probably in a flat,
where she will be in close touch
th up-to-date America.
The reasons for this collapse of a
unuantic programme are partly finan
cial and largely personal. The
Count had made enormous inroads
into his wife’s large fortune and
tht n the feudal privileges of her
position turned out to ,be very dif
ferent from what fancy painted
Inem.
The privileges for her consisted
mainly in handing out large checks.
When she reached the ancestral
estate she found it was without bath
tubs and drainage. She put in these
and all kinds of other American
conveniences at great expense.
The loyal peasantry proved an un
mitigated nuisance. They swarmed
into the house at all times of the
day, wearing top boots and long
knives and exhaling very ancient
odors. They followed her wherever
she went. She was expected to
take part in all sorts of picturesque
but unpleasant ceremonies that
grated on the nerves of a highly re
fined New York girl.
For instance, the peasants ex
pected her to attend all the wed
dings, to kiss the bride, to kiss the
babies (later), and to taste the food
and drink served at these primitive
and highly hilarious gatherings.
Paprika and puszta soon became a
bore. \
The Szechenyi family behaved as
if they had conferred a very exalted
honor upon her in accepting her al
liance and her money. They bored
her to death with the greatness and
glories of the Szechenyis for the last
'eight hundred years. Her friends
say that she had horrible dreams in
which dead and gone Szechenyis
and other patriots fought over their
battles above her prostrate form.
They told her she ought to learn
Hungarian. She made one attempt
and gave it up with a sore feeling
about the jaw. Now they say bit
terly that she is the only Countess
Szechenyi who never spoke Hun
garian.
On top of all this she had the
humiliation of finding that she had
no position at the court of Vienna,
that her husband kept up all his old
associations without regard to her,
that he spent her money lavishly
without giving her any adequate re
turn for it, and in short that she
was nothing but ‘‘the little American
cashier.”.
It was a shock to her to find that
she could not be presented at the
court of Vienna, because of the rigid
rule that no one may enjoy that
piiviiege who does not possess six-
t.p°u quartering^ of nobility.
She would have preferred a
i.e in Vienna, but the Szechenyis
to d her it was the proper thing to
build one in Budapest, and the fact
;.ha‘, she was outside the pale in
Vienna reconciled her to this view.
For a time she was buoyed up
with the hope that she might be a
queen, for a “band of patriots," un
folded a glittering project to make
Count Szechenyi King of Hungary
on the death of the Austrian Em
peror. The “patriots” got about a
million dollars and that was all it
meant to Gladys Vanderbilt.
Now the Szechenyis are exceed
ingly indignant that the Countess
should think of abandoning Buda
pest for London. They are actually
making the puszta ring with their
outcries.
“One has to know the Szechenyi
history to appreciate what the pres
ent situation means to that family,”
said an intimate friend of the illus
trious house. “The Szechenyis be
long to one of the few families of
of the great show places of Hungary.
This means that the Countess's
fortune of twelve millions had been
depleted by four millions, and this
amount being tied up in land was
practically non-productive. Adding
to this the five millions settled on
the Count which he would consent
to use only as he pleased and it can
readily be seen why the Vanderbilt
family were uneasy.
But there were other expenditures
that drained even the great Ameri
can fortune of the Vanderbilt heir
ess. When she married the Count
the Szechenyi jewel boxes w'ere
empty. As an American bride and
heiress it was natural that the
Countess should want to have jewels
as valuable as those worn by the
Archduchesses and other ladies of
rank, it is estimated that it took
one million dollars to replenish this
jewel box. The countess’s jewels
are the envy of every one who sees
them. In justice to the Count it
must be confessed that he spent
some of his own money in this task.
The Count admits now that he did
not realize how the money was
melting. He, like the average man
who marries, instead of earning, a
fortune, supposed that there could
be no end to the money.
And now the Count develops a new
phase. Having been foiled in his
political aspirations and having lost
interest in his new estates, he goes
in for high finance. He takes the
three millions left of his five and at
tempts to make himself Money King
of Hungary. Being absolutely ig
norant he goes boldly in where wise
men would fear to tread. He
forms a syndicate to gain control of
the transportation corporations of
N INE out of ten persons will
say that such and such a
steamship Is capable of
steaming at “twenty knots per
hour." A nautical man would
simply say "twenty knots.” Which
would be correct? The latter, of
course. The mistake arises from
the fact that the landsman thinks
that a “knot” is just the nautical
term for a “sea mile,” which is, in
the rough, 6,080 feet, or about one
and one-eigth land or statute miles.
A knot is not a distance at all—
it is speed. The word “speed”
combines distance and time. For
instance, if we wish to speak of the
speed of a locomotive we refer to it
as so many miles per hour. There is
no single word in the language to
express speed units, so we must
use two words—miles and hours.
As is well known, the sailor has t,
language peculiar to himself, and he
has invented, above other things, a
single word for unit of speed. Thus
a speed of one nautical mile per
hour is called “one knot.” Hence u
is excessive to tack on another “per
hour” after the word knot when the
word already includes one “per
hour.”
Perhaps some will ask how the
word knot originated, and th ex
planation of this is simple. When
a seaman wishes to ascertain the
speed of his craft he does so by
means of a log line, which consists
of a piece of wood called the “log”
or the “log ship.” to which is at
tached a length of line. The line
is knotted at regular intervals, the
distance between two consecutive
knots bearing the same proportions
to a sea mile that the time of a
sand glass used in connection with
the operations bears to an hour. t
Thus, for instance, if after the
log is thrown overboard the line
paying freely out lets out fifteen of
its knots in the time that it takes
the sand glass to run down, then the
jship is making fifteen knots.
How the Countess Was Surrounded by Swarms of Picturesque
but Uncouth Peasants on Her Husband’s Estate.
Vanderbilt, have been alarming.
Five millions had been settled on
the count at the time of his mar
riage. This amount was placed in a
bank in Vienna before the marriage
ceremony and later two million
more was added to this. But the
last amount was ‘generally credited
to the Countess.
The marble palace in Budapest
with its art treasures and rare fur
nishings cost one million. It was
this first great expenditure that led
the Count to believe that there could
never be an end to his wife’s fortune.
hundred dollars in creating the su
perb Komorn estate. In graceful
compliment to the fortune that per
milled this luxury, the Counl named
the new estate “Gladys Castle.”
At this time Mrs. Vanderbilt and
her sons became alarmed over the
expenditures of the young people
and they tried to call a halt. On
talking over the situation they
found that half a million had been
spent in renovating and refurnish
ing Castle Szechenyi at Oermezoe,
and nearly six hundred thousand on
the Komorn estate in making it one
his country. He speculates on the
Bourse and while successful at first
soon becomes so involved that the
conservative estimates of his losses
place them at three millions. He
was no better at playing the finan
cial game than he was at the
political.
But all this lime the Vanderbilt
family has not been idle. Several
months ago Mrs. Vanderbilt, senior,
and her two sons insisted on going
over the affairs of the young people.
This took time. Two months ago
Mrs. Vanderbilt hurried to London,
where she was met by the Count,
and the result of this meeting is
apparent in the announcement that
Ihe Szechenyis will live in London
permanently. The Vanderbilts feel
that it is time for the Conut to drop
his former expensive friends and
pleasures. Mrs. Vanderbilt insists
that what is left of the twelve mil
lions must be tied up for the Sze-*
chenyi children. And this Is about
to be done, in legal form. The in
come only of this remnant can be
spent by the parents. Added to
this is a rumor that Mrs. Vanderbilt
has offered to pay the rent of the
London establishment so long as the
young “spenders” live up- to this
agreement.
The Count's men friends were also
very expensive. He financed several
noblemen who had no means of their
own and he helped the Prince Miguel
de Braganza in his struggles to win
Anita Stewart.
The Szechenyis could live on their
mountain estate in spite of the re
duction in their incomes, but the
Countess has had more than enough
of the loyal-and unwashed peasan
try.
aris-
the ancient
tocracy which has
remained purely
and passionately
patriotic. While
other young noblemen have
been fascinated by the charms
of the Viennese court and other
young noblewomen have pre
ferred Austrian husbands, the
men and women of the Sze
chenyi house have lived in
their own country, and they
have only, with rare exceptions,
intermarried elsewhere.
“They do not go to the Vien
nese court except for offieial
duties, as In the ease of Count
Lnszlo’s father, who was a dis
tinguished statesman and Am
bassador, and often at the Em
peror’s court as a matter of ne
cessity, and so with the Count’s
eldest brother, who was for
some years Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador to Denmark and
Norway. They consider it their
duty to stay in Hungary as a
family.
"Every bearer of the name,
with the exception of the for
mer Gladys Vanderbilt, speaks
the national language, whether
a member of the house by mar
riage or ibrth. This Is in con
trast to many other old houses
of the aristocracy, where the
German of fashionable Vienna
aud the French of Paris are
the languages used.
“The Vanderbilt marriage was
looked upon with great favor by
Count Laszlo’s relatives. They sup
posed that the bride would have a
domestic establishment in Budapest
which would add an attraction to the
aristocracy to counterbalance the
gayeties of Vienna. They supposed
it would also be possible to get her
to dedicate her time and money to
the benevolent plans of charity and
philanthropy which have absorbed
the Szechenyi family In Hungary for
many centuries, but they have been
bitterly disappointed.
“And now to think that this little
American moneybag should run
away from Budapest, should forsake
the Szechenyi estates and the Sze
chenyi glories and complain that our
national customs are barbarous! It
is an outrage, sir, and for a less
affront than this the Szechenyis
have shed rivers of blood in past
times!”
The inroads made by Szechenyi
extravagance and Szechenyi ambi
tions into the fortune left the Count
ess by her father, the late Cornelius
Her friends say that she had hor
rible dreams, in which dead and
gone Szechenyis and other Hun
garian patriots fought over their
battles above her prostrate form.”
He insisted that this palace and the
expensive improvements made on
the family estates be paid for by his
wife. This attitude is held in
variably by these titled fortune
hunters who need American money
to keep body and soul together.
They contend that as the estates
will belong to their children, their
wives should pay the price. But it
is only at such times that the foreign
husband acknowledges that the
mothet of his children has any real
right in them. •
The Count's personal expenses
were vfery large, his friendships ex
pensive, then there were debts, past
and future, to consider and lie flatly
refused to spend his money for the
benefit of his children.
And so the million dollar mansion
was paid for by the Countess.
Then the count decided that he
would like to have another estate in
the heart of the Magyar country, in
the wild mountains of Hungary anu
the Countess spent one million eight
Photo © 8v
Powc*.-, fvyq.Co.
A/ • y.
The Countess Szechenyi in Hungarian National Costume, and Her Little Daughter, Countess Cor
nelia Szechenyi.
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