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w£M ' . f<Kr < ~%'ll !^b^il| t lj^^' i f PPpI tjllll ft v <.v wj ii'f h >jKor " n .ajpiap# fSM ' ml IJif \Msu* ' twdmW vII '*' v v'* S Wy**w!i@£' Smßm®** .v&y V.# HT-fljPwbk PHlf- i’ ** mk mmi’s mmt-< .«> M&IgHH fn fjfi^^Pi MMmM uM-t r mimm!lm It |Mif|'; ,&SBSBi "i-'v->KI v V • tA” fwlfW^W 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 Pjgjj J| jijr* Jfr Trf rnlt PBft i i M m ciu;. ton ijhiiJjlilili, r 'Mm* Wm "V--. wiim- xmk\ ; i K*m**.*mSrit ii»l| &i.Wyk "V - - . - ■ 1 ... -I* 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. ?*, ■*** ? i 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