Newspaper Page Text
VOL. XVI. NO. 20
AIDS AMERICAN
BRIDE AND BABE
" ED FLEE RUSSIA
T! \
Mrs. Lillian de Malinowski Tells
of Alleged Persecution by
Her Husband’s Rich
Parents.
RESCUED BY NEW YORKER SHE
MET ON STEAMSHIP.
Thrilling Adventures to Recover Her
Baby Son, Heir to Large Estate,
Recounted on Her Safe Arrival in
the United States—Still Fears That
the Boy May Be Kidnaped by
Emissaries of His Father’s Family.
EW YORK.—Separated
from her wealthy Rus
sian husband by the
scheming of his fam
ily ; kept by force from
the side of her baby
boy; risking her life
to regain him, and fin
ally escaping across
the Austrian border of
Poland by the aid of an American
friend who had hurried to her from
Norway, Mrs. Lillian Richter de Ma
linowski is back in New York after
three years of distressful married
life.
With his girlish mother is Leonard
George de Malinowski, eighteen
months old and heir to a vast estate
not far from Gitimir, Russian Poland,
In Ithaca is Edward G. Wyckoff, a
member of the typewriter family and
rich in his own right, who thinks mod
estly but with real satisfaction of the
part he had to play in the drama of
Mrs. de Malinowski’s life.
Four years ago Caesar de Malinow
ski came to America from Russia. He
was the son of Casimir de Malinow
ski, a rich Polish land owner, whose
home, “Mlynysczce,” was one of the
oldest and largest estates in all that
part of the empire, Caesar, then twen
ty-four, had come to the United States
" because his father insisted upon his
marriage to the daughter of the own
er of the adjoining estate. “If I must
marry I want to marry the girl of my
choice,” de Malinowski said, and bade
his family farewell.
Wedded in New York.
A very few months in America
brought him both the desire to marry
and the girl of his choice. She was
Lillian Richter, the seventeen-year-old
daughter of Mrs. Caroline Richter of
Tea Neck, N. J. Five times he pro
posed to her, and finally, April 28,
1908, they were married in St. Francis
Xavier church. New York.
For a long time the young hus
band’s family refused to recognize his
marriage, but finally the father came
to see his new daughter for himself,
and in July. 1908, they sailed together
for Europe and “Mlynysczce.” On the
steamer with them was Mr. Wyckoff
and his family bound for a two years’
Visit to the continent, and in the
course of the journey Mrs. de Malin
owski became so intimate with them
that when the time for good-bys came
she kissed Mr. Wyckoff and called
him “Dad.”
That fall the Wyckoffs visited
“Mlynysczce,” and were cordially wel
comed by the entire family. They
spent a week on the estate and then
started again on their travels. A year
and a half later, leaving his family in
London, Mr. Wyckoff went to Iceland,
intending to come home byway of
Spitzbergen and Norway. He had
not much more than got on his way
before this telegram came to his ad
dress in London:
“Please come to rescue. Homeless,
childless, penniless. LILLIAN.”
Alarmed by this word, Mr. Wyckoff
replied with a request for more infor
mation. This answer came without
. delay:
“Please wire money. Beg Dad to
come.”
After much search these messages
were relayed to Mr. Wyckoff at a vll
' lage on the coast of Norway, and at
once he started for Russia. He had
made reservations on the Virginian,
sailing from Liverpool on Aug. 19, just
a month away, and his passports
h would expire Aug. 5.. That left him
but two weeks in which to get to Giti
mir and make what arrangements
might be necessary for Mrs. de Malin
owski. He wasted no time, however,
in worrying over the shortness of his
A notice.
F Reaching Gitimir, Mr. Wyckoff only
succeeded in finding Mrs. de Malin
owski at the home of her physician
Sifter a friendly German had come to
his aid as an interpreter. He was
shadowed everywhere he went, and
•L when he finally found the little moth
er his passport had but three days to
run.
Smiufam bulletin.
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Mrs. de Malinowski was almost a
wreck, physically as well as nervous
ly. Her own passport was good over
a limited territory only, but Mr.
Wyckoff, by the cunning use of soft
words and persuasive roubles, got
her and the baby safely to Warsaw.
The next night the little party was
on its way to Kalisz, on the Austrian
border.
At every station gendarmes went
through the train, plainly in search of
Mrs. de Malinowski, but Mr. Wyck
off had run short neither of flattery
nor money, and each new danger was
passed until Kalisz was reached.
There a delay of three hours came
and a company of soldiers. This time
there was no disguise of the fact that
Mrs. de Malinowski was being sought,
but even in this crisis the Ithacan did
and said things so suavely that the
soldiers peeped into the compart
ment where the mothp.' and the baby
seemed to be asleep, turned to Mr.
Wyckoff with a salute and allowed the
train to cross the border ten minutes
later. The troubles of the Americans
were over.
Bride’s Story of Persecution.
“My sorrow began immediately aft
er the baby was born,” Mrs. de Malin
owski told a reporter for The World
the other day. “My mother-in-law and
my sisters-in-law turned openly
against me, and before Leonard was
a month old he had been taken from
me, and even Caesar had taken apart
ments in another wing of the manor
and refused to see me.
“The most absurd reasons were giv
en for all this. Mme. de Malinowski
accused me once of taking some linen
while she was away, as though I
could make any use for it, supposing
I had wanted it, in a house where we
all lived together. There was nothing
too trivial to be used against me, and
finally, after all my jewelry and most
of my clothing had been taken away
from me, I was taken by servants to
Gitimir and ordered never to return.
“I took refuge with a priest I had
got to know, and began to plan to get
Leonard. 1 really didn’t care for any
thing else, but I did want my baby.
The first time I tried to get him I lay
hidden behind a clump of bushes for
two hours and a half waiting for a
nurse who had promised to bring him
to me. She got so near to me I could
see her eyes, when some other serv
ants caught up with her and took her
back to the house.
“That night orders were given to
shoot any one found on the place
without permission, but the following
midnight I tried again, another serv
ant having promised to bring Leon
ard to me at a specified point on the
banks of the Volynia.
The Volynia is very wide and swift
there, but It has shallow places where
reeds and grasses grow to the sur
face. Although the priest tried to dis
suade me, I hired two men to row me
across the river. Half way across the
boat began to leak. I grew frightened
and the boat capsized. Fortunately it
was one of the shallows, and although
I went into water up to my shoulders
the priest, who had been following in
another boat, dragged me quickly in
beside him and took me back to his
house.
Disguised as Servant.
“Even then I had not failed to see
that lights were moving through the
Manor house, and I made up my mind
that they were getting ready to
take the baby away, as I had heard
they meant to. I was so sure that 1
went to the station at Kodyna, where
Mme. De Malinowski would have to
take the train wherever she was
bound. The station master hid me in
the upper part of the building, and
from a balcony I soon saw Mme. De
Malinowski arrive with five servants
and the baby.
“I was dressed as a peasant, and
when my mother-in-law got into her
compartment I was put into one ad
joining. She had the train searched
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY. GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10,1911.
to make sure I wasn’t aboard, but my
disguise saved me, and we started for
Berdeschev. The conductor proved to
be my salvation. Sixteen years before,
when he was a porter, he told me,
Mme. De Malinowski had given him
25 kopeks—five cents in our money—
for handling 25 trunks, and he had
never forgiven her!
“He telegraphed ahead to Berde
schev, and when the train arrived the
police were waiting. I told them that
a rich woman was trying to kidnap
my baby, and when they had satisfied
themselves that I was the baby’s
mother, and when they discovered
Mme. De Malinowski in the next com
partment with the baby, they took
him from her and gave him to me. It
was by first victory.
“I hurried back to Gitimir and paid
board for a week, which left me only
enough money to send the telegrams
to London. But. within a very short
time Mr. Wyckoff had come to me
and it was all over. When we
reached Charing Cross and I saw Mrs.
Wyckoff waiting there for me I came
nearer to fainting for joy than I ever
shall again, I know.”
Protected Her Arrival.
Mrs. De Malinowski and her small
son sailed for New Y’ork on the Adri
atic August 10, 1910. Mr. Wyckoff, be
ing compelled to wait for the Virgin
ian, cabled to his brother, Clarence F.
Wyckoff, to meet Mrs. De Malinowski,
but since the name of the young moth
er did not appear on the passenger
list Mr. Wyckoff had great difficulty
in finding her. He sought the aid of
Collector William Loeb, Jr., and met
no less than ten steamers due on the
same day as the Adriatic, or the next.
Mr. Loeb, however, had seen to it that
no obstacles should stand in Mrs. De
Malinowski’s way, and although Mr.
Wyckoff did not meet her at the pier
he did find her just as she was start
ing for her mother’s home.
“I have no doubt,” Mrs. De Malin
owski said yesterday, “that the at
tempts to get Leonard away from me
will continue. My husband’s family
does not care about me, but they do
want him, and they are as rich as I
am poor. The upkeep of Mlynyszce
alone costs them between SIOO,OOO
and $150,000 a year, and I have no
reason to think that they will agree
either to let Caesar come back to me
or to let Leonard stay with me in
peace.”
Mr. Wyckoff received a letter not
। long ago from De Malinowski in which
। he begged his American friends not
: to form an opinion of the case until
his side had been heard. He did not
say, however, what that side was.
I —
Child Welfare Exhibit.
The New York child welfare exhibit.
। which is scheduled to open on Janu
ary 18, will be most comprehensive
and will consist of moving pictures,
documents and anything that will help
to make the subject clearer to those
interested. Among the speakers will
; be Miss Jane Addams of Hull house.
Miss Florence Kelley of the Consum
ers’ league, Miss Lillian Wald, founder
of the Henry settlement and initiator
of the idea of a children’s bureau, and
a number of men workers and sym
pathizers. The exhibit is financed by
philanthropists and is headed by the
Russell Sage foundation with $6,000.
Twenty men have contributed SI,OOO
each.
i —
Didn’t Want It.
“Will this suit wear well?” Mr. De
i Lighter asked the clothing merchant,
i “Wear well?” repeated the dealer,
i “why, sir, it will wear so well that,
i at the end of a year no one will be
I able to tell it from a new suit.”
i “Then I don’t want it,” observed
i Mr. DeLighter, as he cast his eye on
something cheaper, “I’m going to Eu
, rope for a twelve-months’ stay, and
when I return I don't want to have
• anything in my possession that I’ll
have to pay duty on.”
Back From New
York--Our Buyer
We are pleased to state our buyer has return
ed from New York and other Eastern markets.
He states that this has been his most success
ful trip made in his six years’ experience. The
market on ail lines was found to be at alow ebb.
Prices Were as Low as They
Were When Cotten Was
Eight Cents Per Pound,
The reason of this is not known; all seem to
think we will soon have big advances in all lines;
but we are protected; have bought the largest
stock ever brought to Milledgeville. Our prices
will be low—lower than you could reasonably ex
pect. We have the goods, not in New York, Phil
adelphia or Boston—but right here in Milledge
ville in our
Two Big Stores
We also wish to announce to the ladies of good old Wilkinson, coun
ty, our addition of a “LADIES’ REST ROOM/’ with toilet and lavatories.
This room we have long needed, and we are pleased to invite you to feel
at home here. We expect in a few days to tell you some very interesting
store news. YOUR FRIENDS,
W. 8. MYRICK & CO.
“The Store Where Shopping is Easy”
SI.OO a Year.
