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Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr.,
Whose New $5,000,000 Long
Island Palace Was Burned
Down Before She Could
Occupy It.
WHAT is the secret ot the long
series of disastrous fires
that has destroyed so many
of the houses of the New York
millionaire colony on Long Island?
Since the first of the year there
have been nine fires, resulting in the
complete destruction of that number
of houses in the Long Island colony.
The amount of property destroyed
was over $3,000,000. The number of
fires before this year in the same
district had been remarkably large
‘for a number of years.
The fires have been so numerous,
they have occurred in such close
proximity to one another and they
have made victims so evidently of
the same set of persons that the sus
picion inevitably arises that crime or
at least gome form of wrong doing is
at the root of the trouble.
The owners of the houses are prac
tically agreed that somebody is try
ing to burn their places down. The
representative of Paul D. Cravath,
one of the most conspicuous of the
•ufferers, has made this admission.
He and his neighbors are now en
gaged in a search for the culprit or
culprits. There are now on Long
Island more persons of great wealth
than can be found in any equal
stretch of country In the world. The
houses are more costly than any
other equal area could show.
The possessors of all these palaces
ere thoroughly alarmed by the
thought that somebody is plotting to
burn their* dwellings down in the
dead of night, endangering their art
trasures and even the lives of the
occupants.
As to the motive for the Incendiary
plot there Is still much uncertainty.
Opinion varies between attributing
the acts to some hater of the million
owners and to some wicked
contractor or material man who
wishes to mak« an opportunity to
•apply new material.
A view that finds considerable
fav'r is tr.at the fires are the work
of anardblstti or a pita tors of the I.
'W. IV. iji>\ snimotel by hatred of
Uc luillu i-niit c.ass. The victims of
LrJomeWy &umin&Up the Lonfc Hand
Mill iona irex' Country Rejidence.r?
Investigation Begun
to Find Out If
\ the Recent Fires
•1 in the Homes
of Mrs. Vanderbilt,
jfjli Mr. Collier, \
jplx J. P. Morgan’s \
■ J Partner and Many I
y Others Were \
Incendiary--and Why? \
FIVE POSSIBILITIES.
An Insane Firebug.
An I. W. W. Anarchist.
An Ambitious Architect.
A Greedy Residence-Building Contractor. J *
A Revengeful Servant.
the fires cannot speak definitely of
their suspicions on this point. The
possibility that a discharged servant
is responsible has also been suggested.
It is pointed out that many of the
houses burned belonged to persons
■who are especially objects of attack
by advocates of violence. Several of
the Long Island residents who lost
Iheir homes had been associated with
the late J. Pierpont Morgan, whose
name was a red rag to social discon
tent.
One of the first Long Islanders to
suffer was Robert Bacon, former Am
bassador to France and partner of
Mr. Morgan. The Bacon mansion at
Wheatley Hills, Westbury, L. 1.,
was burned to the ground two
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A Photograph of Mr. Paul D. Cravath’s Locust Valley, Long Island, Mansion When the Mysterious Fire That Destroyed It,
Was Nearly Out. Mr. Cravath Was One t)f the Legal Advisers of the Late J. Pierpont Morgan.
Why First Born Children Are Most Subject to Disease
TfERE is an old, widely held
belief that oldest children are
liable to inherit the weak
nesses of their parents. Unlike
many old beliefs, this one has been
supported by modern science. Pro
fessor Soren Hansen, director of
the -Danish Anthropological Survey,
one of the leading eugenists of Eu
rope, in an article in the Eugenics
Review, says:
“That the earliest bom children
are of Inferior quality to the suc
ceeding at birth is an indisputable
*nd long-known fact of experience.”
The oldest children weigh less
than the others, are more frequent
ly born dead and of those that come
into the world alive a much larger
proportion die in the first year.
They are more subject to tubercu
losis, short sight and feeble-mind
edness than later born children.
Professor Hansen examined the
3,622 tuberculosis patients of the
Oresund Hospital, In Copenhagen,
and found that 988 were first-born,
713 second-bom, and 668 third-born.
After taking many possible sources
of error into consideration, he came
to the conclusion that there were
64 i- r cent more first-born than
years ago. The cause of the fire was
never ascertained.
A year later the beautiful Summer
home of Henry P. Davison, another of
Morgan’s partners, was burned to the
ground. This place was located at
Peacock Point, near Glen Cove, on
the Sound. It adjoined the estate of
William D. Guthrie of the law firm of
Guthrie, Cravath & Henderson, who
have frequently represented the Mor
gan interests, and it was not far from
the country.place of J. P. Morgan, Jr.
So far the Guthrie place and that
of J. P. Morgan, Jr., have not been
molested, but only a few weeks ago,
on April 14, the $500,000 home of Paul
D. Cravath. another member of the
great law firm just referred to, was
them would have beeD, if these en
joyed average health.
He believes that the weakness of
the first-born is due to tho fact that
tho channels of circulation in the
■mother are not yet sufficiently de
veloped to afford all the nourish
ment needed to the child. There
are also several secondary causes.
The first-born and the earlier chil
dren are more subject than the
later to imbecility, epilepsy and sim
ilar defects, and Professor Hansen
intends to investigate these points
fully, as he has done with regard
to tuberculosis.
The inferior quality of the first
born children is a matter of great
importance to the present world
wide propaganda of eugenics. The
tendency to limit families is con
stantly spreading among the more
civilized nations. As families be
came smaller the proportion of first
born to tho whole number of chil
dren must become larger.
Professor 'Hansen believes from
the experience of France, that there
is do hope of stopping the limiting
of families. For a number of years
France has offered prizes and other
inducements to parents to produce
large families, but without Import
ant results. Professor Hansen be
lieves that our only resource is to
take special care of tho children,
because the proportion of weakly
first-born must become constantly
greater.
It is scarcely necessary to say that
all eugenists do not share Professor
•Hansen’s feeling that it is hopeless
to create a sentiment In favor of
large families. Most of them ad
vocate families of considerable size
in the interests of the race, and they
believe that when the science of eu
genics is better understood, their ad
vice will be heeded.
The idea of having very large
families or just as many children
as possible is discouraged by eu
genlsts, because the object of eu
genics is quality rather than quan
tity. But eugenists are equally
opposed to the idea of limiting fam
ilies to one or two, or none at all.
Many eugenics advise parents t>
aim at three, although when all con
ditions are favorable it is desirable
to have more. The idea common'y
held in France and other countries
that two children to a family are
sufficient to maintain the popula
tion at Its present figure is entirely
wrong. If fertile parents have only
two children to a family, nothing is
done to replace those adults who do
not marry or «re necessarily un
productive. It is not certain that
three children to a family would
maintain the population at It* pres
ent standard, but It is believed that
with better care of health this num
ber might suffice.
By studying five thousand families
in the prosperous north of England,
industrial districts, J’rofessor Fraser,
Copyright, 1914, by th# Star Company. Great Britain night® Reserved.
! ->s
Am-.. . ' ■■/•- ’ >j j '•< ■■'
| "y ■
m Jp
Miss
Vera
Cravath,
Daughter
of
Paul D.
Cravath.
of the Eugenics Education Society,
has reached some Interesting con
clusions bearing on first-born and
later children, lie finds that when
the parents marry at the ideal pe
riod the third child has the hest
chance of being strong and able.
He decides that the ideal period for
marriage is twenty five for a woman
and between thirty and thirty-five
for a man.
Ho thinks that a woman who
marries at twenty-five will have
three children by the time she Is
thirty. The third child born at ‘his
period lias the best chance* In life,
because the mother has reached the
fulness of her development and for
Bfverai other reasons.
He finds that If parents are com
paratively advanced In life, tho chil
dren inherit something of their age
and have less chance to live long.
This tendency is more noticeable
vher, the mother is middle-aged
than when tho father Is. For in
stance, Ihe children of mothers
around tho fortieth year do not have
good chances of long life, although
they may be well and strong. They
inherit the maternal age.
Very young parents also bequeath
aorno of their Immaturity to their
children and these are not likely to
be of fine physical development, al
though they may he healthy and
long-lived. A mother under twenty
three i* regarded as Immature in the
Anglo Haxon races.
pHoro (/her«w«e 2,eNp£Rw««p n Y .
It Was When Completed and as Tt Appeared, Destroyed
by Inexplicable Flames, the Morning She
> Was Going to Move in It.
completely destroyed. This beautiful
establishment was located at Locust
Valley, a few miles to the south of
the Davison place. No one knows
how the fire started, although, ps is
usual in such cases, it was attributed
to defective insulation.
The very same day the country es
tate of Raymond K. Haylls, ut Hale
sito, Huntington, a few milns from
the Cravath place, was nearly de
stroyed by another mysterious fire,
and the following day the mansion of
Stephen E. Burgoyne, at Kim Point,
Great Neck, and the colonial cottage
of Mrs. ppfer K. Collier, at Southamp
ton, L. J., wore reduced to ashes
through fires occasioned no one
knows how.
Add to these disasters the four
fires of April 9 to 10, which were dis
covered successively on the place of
R. it. Chapman, at. Great Neck, L. 1.,
tlie tire of April 3, which completely
gutted the $500,000 mansion of Mrs.
Jessica Taylor, daughter of the late
Jameg R- Keene, at Codarhurst, the
fire of February 18, which destroyed
Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr.’s esiabllsh
ment between Jericho and Westbury,
and the fire of January 26, which
started In the Port. Washington ship
yards and destroyed $200,000 worth
of pleasure yachts owned by million
aire residents.
In the case of the Chapman fires,
there is no doubt at all that the fires
were of incendiary origin. Four dis
tinct efforts In two days to burn
down the place were made in two
days, but the identity of the firebug
has not yet been ascertained. Mr.
Chapman Is president of the Hudson
Trust Company.
The theory that an anarchlstlccon
splrator is responsible for the fires is
based upon the fact that in every
case the victims were millionaires.
There have been no fires at ail In
the affected area among the homes of
people of average means.
The possibility that the fires are
the work of a “pyromanlac” is held
by some person*, but no tangible
evidence has yet been secured to sup
port this view. The typical pyro
maniac is one who is instigated prin
cipally hy a desire to see the fire ap
paratus and firemen at work, but In
these out of the way country places,
which boast of no elaborate fire de
partments, this motive could hardly
have been present.
While the turning out of a big
array of fire fighting apparatus Is not
a characteristic feature of these
country fires, however, they do occa
sion a form of excitement of their
own, and It is quite possible that,
some degenerate mind might derive
a peculiar pleasure in starting fires
of this Character Just for the sake of
watching the frantic efforts of the
neighbors put thorn out,
A more ingenious theory is that of
an Insurance man who believes the
larng Island fires are the work of
some unscrupulous builder or ma
terial man, who not having shnred In
the previous contracts hopes to profit
by the rebuilding of the houses
which he destroy*.
In the same was some ambitions
architect who hrul not shared In the
giving out of plane might figure that
If the house* had to he rebuilt he
might this time be more lucky. No
evidence at all has been secured thus
far to support this theory, but the in
vestigators are keeping it in mind.
Thai, the fires may be due to wil
fully careless building on the part of
owners Is the suggestion of a well
known technical publication.
?*, ■***
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L-- ,
pHiiro
t/*i Pfft'rt'O** &
t//*Ofawo*o m v)
Mrs.
Vanderbi't’s
Beautiful
Home as
“Owners of pretentious country
houses that burn are not deliberate
incendiaries,’’ says Safety Engineer
ing, “but are they not passive ineen
dlurles in accepting conditions that
favor flit's? Certainly they could have
afforded homes built to endure; they
had money to encourage the languish
ing craft of perpetuating beautiful ar
chitectural creations with lasting ma
terials, and Incidentally, to set a few
good examples to a country that
needs them badly.”
Mistakes, it is pointed out, aro
often made in building a house which
mint eventually load to a fire
sooner or later. For instance, a plank
of the flooring may project into a
flue. The protruding plank in the
flue would become as dry as tinder
as a result of the heat to which It
was subjected, and eventually a fly
ing spark from the fire would Ignite
the plank and the destruction of the
house would almost surely follow.
No clue at all would be left to tell
the tale.
Sometimes, of course, the care*
lc::sness of a carpenter might re
sult In a similar situation, and In
one of the fires In question, this
possibility Is being considered. Thl«
whs the case of the Davison fire.
The Davison place at Peacock
Point is a three-story brick and
white stone structure, one of the
handsomest, on Long Island. It had
been closed all the Winter until the
day before the fire, when Mr».
Davison, her two sons, Trubee and
Harry, and three school chums of
the eons, motored from New York
to spend the day.
It was cool In the house and tha
boys decided to build a wood fire.
Logs were lighted In a huge fire
place. When the place was auffi
clently warmed, they put out the
fire and forgot all about it. Some
hours later one of the caretakers
saw smoke coming from the roof,
and long before the firemen from
Glen Cove arrived on the scene, th®
mansion was doomed.
Here was a case where a heat
dried plank protruding into th®
flue might very readily have been
the cause, of the fire, but, of course.
It was impossible to ascertain its
actual origin.
The sixty-room mansion of Mrs.
W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., which was de
stroyed on February 18, was a new
house. A defective flue was given
as the cause of the fire which de
stroyed it, but whether or not a
protruding floor plank figured in th®
case will never be known. Mrs. Van
derbilt did not have the chance to
live even n day in her new house.
The disastrous fire In the Port
Washington shipyards, which de
stroyed several valuable yachts. Is
believed to have started In an out
house. Whether an incendiary was
responsible for It or not has never
been definitely ascertained.
State Fire Marshal Ahparn Is now
conducting a vigorous Investigation
Into the causes of these fires. While
there |g little hope that the ruins
of the splendid mansions will fur
nish sufficient evidence to warrant
arrests, witnesses are being exam
ined with tho Idea of locating th®
sulprit.
The owners of the other estab
lishments In the vicinity are plan
ning to form a vigilance commit
tee to protect, their property against
the torch of the firebug, whoever he
may be, nod until he is apprehended
no Long Island millionaire will con
sider his country residence case.
3