Newspaper Page Text
Republique Francaise.
MINISTERE DE LA GUERRE.
CABINET
du
MINISTRE PARIS, LE "
Bamples of Bogus Let
terheads Used by the
{“Marquis” in Writing
Important Looking
“Official” Letters to
Himself. He Used
More Than a Hundred
~ Different Kinds.
8S MARJORIE RAMBEAU is a charming actress.
But she lives in the unreal atmosphere of the
stage where everybody plays a part.
I & young actor enters from the wings with fur coat
d tosses his gloves into his silk hat and says, “‘I am
;:ung Brown, son of the multi-millionaire copper king,”
m Miss Rambeau rises and greets him as if he were
y the multi-millionaire’s son,
Of course, the actress knows the young actor owns no
hts or automobiles and never has lived the elub life
m social life bf the young man of millions.
. __But they are all playing parts in stage life, and so
they come to take each other at face value.
. And perhaps that is why it happened that a stupendous
Ee was so easily played on Marjorie Rambeau, when
ouard Rousselot, a French cook, bowed himself into
&he presence of the actress and carelessly mentioned that
e was the Marquis de Castillo—the very, very wealthy
Yyoung French robleman of that very distinguished old
aristocratic family whose ancient lineage runs 'way back
into the Spanish grandees. '
But if Marjorie Rambean didn’t know the difference
between a cook and a nobleman, neither did a good many
other older and-more sophisticated people in New York.
8o far as she could see he said and did just the things she
dmagined a marquis would. And it was rather nice to
have ‘‘a real marquis’’ making passionate love to her,
If her ‘““marquis”’ smelt of the kitchen and the tenements,
it wasn’t apparent to Miss Rambeau.
And so the pretty romance ran on from week to week.
Miss Rambeau’s noble lover was very devoted.
Would Marjorie really marry her marquis, her friends
Dbegan to ask—and would they be invited over to those
old castles and the family estates and the shooting pre
serves and-—oh! perhaps possibly really meet the mar
quis’s dear friend, King Algomo of Spain? Oh, well, any-
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SPANISH EMBASSY
biles of his own in
New York, where he is only visiting; how many must he
own in Paris, where he really lives?
But Marjorie Rambeau’s ambitious friends are not
thinking about her palaces and estates just now. Her
marquis is in the Tombs—a prison cell is so unromantic!
You smeil the onions of the cooking from the prison
kitchen and the disinfectants, and it’s such a narrow
existence,
Edouard Rousselot, ex-cook, ex-chauffeur and bogus
‘‘marquis,’’ is quite an unusual person. Nor was Marjorie
Rambeau his only victim. Nor were they all simple and
trusting actresses. Can you blame Marjorie Rambeau for
being fooled when you hear that such hard-headed prae
tical business concerns as these were glad to accept His
Excellence at face value and that this plausible French
cook owed when he was taken in charge by the Federal
authorities: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Ansonia Ho
tel, the Netherlands and various other of the largest New
York hotels sums ranging from one to three thousand dol
lars; Healy’s, Bustanoby’s and other ‘‘lobster palaces,”
amounts running as high, in some instances, as $4,000;
automobile agencies, livery stables, apartment agents,
tailors, merchants, garages and other business houses as
much as SIOO,OOO in the aggregate?
Nine Tailors Made His
Gorgeous Uniforms to Dazzle Beauty
Modern history contains no example of such an artis
tic adventurer in the domain of beauty and finance as this
bogus marquis. He brought to bear an amazing knowl
edge of feminine psychology in his campaigning, an ex
tensive acquaintance with masculine gullibility in his
pursuit of luxury,
Deliberately he set about hesjeging the hearts of some
of New York’s most celebrated beauties. In these martial
days he knew that romance would have little time for any
one but a soldier, To his assumed title of marquis he
added, therefore, a self-conferred captainship in the
French army and a uniform.,
The effect of a uniform upon the feminine mind is a
matter of much scientific wonder. The ex-cook gave a
new demonstration of the soundness of this scientific prin.
ciple. . Nine tailors, according to his unpaid accounts,
were kept busy by him making uniforms which he de
signed for their effect upon the hearts of the young
women whom he desired to impress. The developed in
stincts of an artist guided him in the selection of uniforms
for special occasions. He knew the true values of cam.
ouflage,
His favorite uniform for daylight wear, for instance,
consisted of a petty infantry officer’s coat, with the
collar of an artillery officer, the cavalry officer’s red
trousers, the barracks boots of the Zouaves, the whole
topped' off with an aviator’s rakish cap. ¢
theyfound Oug thatMarjorii
~ The Dazzling Exploits of a French Adventurer Who.
Abandoning a sls-a~-Week Job, Fooled **Wise ™ B
for Two Years. Won the Hearts of Its Most Famj
Bills and Ingeniously Hoodwinked Some of N
how, all this was for
Marjorie, if she de
cided to marry him.
And so rich—think
of it, seven automo-
For evening wear, under
the bright lights of cases and
drawing rooms, the dapper
ex-cook selected a wholly
different combination, chésen
to reflect more brilliant
hues and harmonize more ex
quisitely with the evening
toilettes of fair admirers.
His favorite evening uni
form consisted of the bold,
jauntily plumed chapeau of
the chausseurs, the coat of a
lieutenant of the gendarme,
gray, clinging trousers of the
mountain regiments and the
boots of the Tuilleries Guard.
To the boots he added the
spurs of the American cav
alry officer. The effect was
o
3 3 . ;
R
. & s 3 A
! T
: s
Edouard Rousselot, the ex-Cook
and ex-Chauffeur, in One of
the Uniforms He Used in His
Masquerade as a' Marquis. This
Was the Uniform He Espe
cially Chose to “Match Marjo
rie Rambeau’s Soul.”
magnificent—irresistible, as various young women dis
covered.
For ballroom affairs the ‘‘captain-marquis’’ added,
pendant from a red silk sash, a jewelled sword, having
practiced long and arduously the art of wearing-a sword
at after-dinner dances without imperiling his dancing
partner’s gown.
The ‘‘marquis’’ was cosmopolitan in his tastes—even in
the matter of feminine adorers. For instance, while Mar
jorie Rambeau flattered herself that he existed for her
alone, there was the svelt and nimble Gladys Feldman,
who was 80 sure that she herself was the sum total of
the ‘‘marquis’s’’ aspirations that she had photographs
taken just for his eyes alone,
And not only that, but on the back of one of her photo
graphs was written, in delicate feminine hand, this legend :
““To Edouard, the best, sweetest and most charming
chap in all the world.—Gladys.”’
Gladys is a star inva stage world that differs greatly
from the mimic realm enhanced by Marjorie. Gladys is
one of the most distinguished of those ‘‘Follies girls”’
whose claim to fame is their attractive pulchritude rather
than their dramatic art. ¢
So carefully did this ‘‘marquis’’ prepare his campaigns
against the feminine sex in general that he even adapted
his uniforms tg the moods and complexion of the young
women whose favors he coveted. Marjorie Rambeau has
been most successful in her portrayal on the stage of that
sort of femininity which is essentially primitive. She is
impulsive and cambative, Pastel shades, he thought,
would not appeal to her as do colors more sharply defined.
‘When he called upon Marjorie, or was her host at a gay
case, the ““marquis’’ added gold cords and tinsel to his
coat and chose bright trousers with yellow braid.
Gladys Feldman, the ‘‘marquis’’ soon discovered, is of
& more even temperament. Beauty, to her, he found does
not abide in contrasts—rather in soft and clinging harmo
nies of light and shade. Perhaps Gladys herself has
never sensed this trait, not being accustomed to intro
spection. The ‘‘marquis’’ learned, however, she was
most susceptible to his gallantly when he chose a uniform
of delicate shades.,, the pale blue coat of the Foreign
Legion, for instance, with the mauve trousers of the
officers of the regiments from Morocco.
Neither Marjorie nor Gladys nor any of the other stars
of the various strata of the stage could be expected to
detect the incongruity of their suitor’s uniforms. In
their world they do not ask the actor who walks upon the
stage to introduce himself as a prince if he wears the
proper insignia of his rank. They take him at his word.
But the marvel of it is why the pseudo captain was not
called to account by bona fide officers of his adopted
army, whom he met and entertained by the score. None
of these, it seems, detected the masquerade. Nor did any
of them question the correctness of the Legion of Honor,
the Military Medal, the War Cross, the Service Medal and
other decorations which the ‘‘marquis’’ wore on all
occasions,’
His Rise from the Cooking
Pans to a Shining Light of Broadway
In 1909 young Edouard Rousselot, whose father was
the collector for a notary in the Argonne, was ejected for
misbehavior from a school in Paris to which his parents
had sent him at the expense of all their savings. Dis
owned by his father he became a chef in a cheap restau
rant in Paris. After a while he worked his way up to the
kitchen of a more pretentious case, where, occasionally,
he was permitted to prepare the favorite dishes of notable
boulevarde dandies. He was discredited as 2 cook, how
‘ever, when he was caught pilfering the rare sauces kept
in the cook’s cabinet for some of the gourmets, who were
particular patrons of his employer’s establishment.
Then the youthful chef went to London. Without a
‘“‘character’’ he could not get a cook’s job, so he became a
chaut!pur. _His cab was stationed mostly in Haymarket
and Piccadilly, and there, late at night and in the early
hours of the morning, he came into such contact .with
gay young spendthrifts and women of the night ‘world as
these would permit between themselves and the chauffeur
whose car they tumbled into at the finish of a hight-time
revel. He was arrested one morning upon complaint of a
young woman of considerable note who declared that she
had left a pair of costly satin slippers in his car and that
when ghe returned to look for them they were missing.
The slippers were found by the police in the chauffeur’s
lodg‘ilxlxgs. :
e whilom cook was sentenced to Brixton prison, in
London, for this offense. When he had served his time
he found London an inhospitable place, so he came to
America in the steerage.
Not long after his arrival in New York the young
Frenchman gave signs of that versatility which, later, was
to help him hoax & whole city by becoming an employe
of the Telephone Company, who engaged him at sls a
week to insta}l telephones for new subscribers.
Of what his doings were during the next few months
the authorities have learned but little. It is known, how
ever, that he patronized, in the late evenings, the cheaper
table d’hote places where so many foreigners are apt to
gather for t}xeir prolonged dinners, and where the smoke
of myriad cigarettes mingles with the odors of red wines
and the tinkle of the tin-panny dance pianos. Over one
of these places he lived, in a cubby-hole room, with only a
gaslight and a stool besides his bed.
His first significant move after his landing in New
York occurred early in 1915. One day he appeared at his
lodging house earlier than usual and pleased his landigd
by announcing that he wished to pay his very much ¢
due room rent. He intended to move, he said, ‘‘to of
quarters.’’ Certainly his landlord, who had experien@
great difficulty in cojlecting $2 a week from him forfe
use of the little hallroom, would have been greatly
tonished could he have seen his erstwhile lodger, justl
hour later, sumptuously established in one of the n
expensive and elaborate suites at the exclusive Waldf-
Astoria !
But it was not Edouard Rousselot, telephone. installfy,
who registered at the Waldorf, Instead, it was no legla
person than the haughty, high-born Marquis Edougyd
Rene Marcel Rousselot de Castillo, of Paris and Madr§!
When the mighty hotel clerk read that sigmatul,
sprawled imposingly across the register page, he involg
tarily straightened his neck scarf and smoothed down s
hair. Such distinguished guests are rare, indeed. _
Of course, the ‘‘marquis’’ had plenty of money. Hjd
anyone recognized in him the humbßle installer of tdp
phones he would have wondered greatly at the graduatin
of a fifteen dollar a week salary into a ‘‘bankroll.”’
The secret was that one day the telephone companys
employe was summoned to install a telephone in a nfw
aparfment just being occupied by Miss Josephine Mahfr,
who had attained the age of fifty-five years withoutjs
perceptible romance. Miss Maher was quite ridh, )
almost immediately took an interest in the rather hag¥
some young man who came to put in her telephone. Wi
the telephone company’s employe eame to her he exp.af
that he was really a marquis driven to labor by cril
circumstances, She sympathized with his distress ajd
remembered that she-had ten thousand dollars handy.
How the “Marquis” Played His
Game—and How Discovery Overtook Him
Lacking only what he had paid his lodging house la.
lord, there was ten thousand dollars in the purse of the
‘“‘“marquis’’ when he registered at the Waldorf-Astoria. It
was with ¢his ten thousand in capital the ‘‘marquif”
piled up an indebtedness to New York’s business men pf
more than SIOO,OOO, climbing meanwhile to the cofi
dence of Marjorie Rambeau, Gladys Feldman angd other
delightful young wémen who never learned of the eldegly
and innocently trustful Miss Josephine Maher.
But these were not the only results of this ten-thdu
sand dollar trust from the elderly friend of the ex-cogk.
His operations included pulling the wool over the eyes jof
almost every governmental department and the embassjes
of various foreign nations.
Almost incredible as it seems the one-time cook, who
had become a telephone employe, dropped completely dut
of sight between the lodging house and the big hotel|as
far as the public was concerned, and the ‘‘Marquis de
Castillo,”” who might have been exposed at any‘min te
had anyone thought to look up his standing in one of the
many printed lists of Europe’s nobility, entered upon
remarkable career of misrepresentation that has amaged
the United States Secret Service Department. ¢
It was not long until the promenaders along Fifth
avenue became familiar with the sight of the slight, bril
liantly uniformed young French ‘‘officer,”” who strolled
nonchalantly, debonair symbol of the gallantry of France
and the subtle romance that enhaloes its fearless heroes.
His automobile, of an expensive make, became familiar
to traffic policemen because of its habitual speed. In the
gayest rendezvous of the night life head-waiters and im.
pressionable feminine eyes alike welcomed the romantic
stranger. |
For a period of time the bogus marquis spent his efforts
in getting his bearings. Evidently he studied cerefully
his “‘manner of approach’’ to the designs he had in viaw,
which, mostly, embraced handsome young women, Who,
because of the vast experience in the ways of the world,
are supposed to be carefully critical of all masculinity
except that part of it equipped with large and generous
purses, or, as an alternative, high heroic estate. He se
lected, after this consideration, a man who stood high
in the inner coteries of that nebulous social stratum kno
as ‘‘the Great White Way.”” To this man, since dead,
the ex-cook presented himself in the lobby of the Wald
and displayed as an introdvction a very friendly and inti
mate letter from King Alphonso of Spain, a letter f
Ambassador Jusserand of France and a brief note, 8-
gngwledging certain mysterious favors, from (ene
offre. »
With such credentials the Broadway celebrity "
charmed. He became sponsor for the ‘‘marquis’’ st J
clusive little gatherings of the great folk of the stdge
the professions—incidentally paying the bills. Thus
the ‘‘marquis’’ launched upon his remarkable career.
Be it said at once that the ‘‘Marquis Edouard Rehe
Marcel Rousselot de Castillo, Oaptain of the French army,
detailed to the United States on secret and highly imper
tant missions,’’ was distinguished in bearing, haughty in
manner as becomes a marquis when occasion arose, urbane
and gracious as host and guest, and exc¢eedingly gallant
at opportune times. Also his uniforms were fascinating,
brilliant in hue, with flamingo variations of color;
bewitchingly martial in their incidental trappings, 8
as spurs, swords, belts, buckles and decorations. Then
was nothing of the cook or the convict or the chauffa
or the telephone installer in his social bearing. He cor
rectly saluted a brother officer or the representative of
an allied army. He received with reserved cordial
intoductions to powerful financiers, notable attorn
visiting diplomats and big business men. Over a wom-