The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972, February 16, 1908, Page 29, Image 29

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    THE OREGON SPTpAY JOURNAL ; PORTLAND SUNDAY KORNING, FEBRUARY ,6 I9M
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her husbaod'a lor to maintain ita health and Its vital
Jty. aha sought tha aaaeat of tha king to such a sep
aration aa should fre her front aa asaoclatloa that
constantly ranwe4 her pain.
But Victor Kmmanuel dreaded the poUtloaj conse
quences of full expose. He could not deny her right,
if she chose to exercise It; but he appealed to her to
show the royal house the oonslderatloa which he tad
hla family seeded. ' '
, The story of the sudden, crushing unhapplnesa that
had befallen her traveled widely, aotwlthstandlag her '
dignified reticence. Her friend. Quaes. Alexandra of
England, tbottght too. much, of her to let her sactifloe
all chance o$ regaining the duke's affection. The queen
last suromer.hastened to Naples, where aho found the
royal pair, and made an appeal to the duke's dormant
regard for hla wife and to Helena's love for her hus
band. She succeeded, andtbey were reconciled. But con
sumption was already doing its cruel work on the
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body that had but little aid from a mind whose osy ' j
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Is the Beautiful Duchess
cP Aosta .to Dierof a Broken
Heart?
ELEXA, the beautiful Duchess
d'Aosta of Italy, intimate friend
Jtnd beloved companion of Queen
'Alexandra of England and sister of the queen
mother of Portugal, is reported to be dying in
Cairo, Egypt, of consumption.
In point of fact, she is dying of a broken
lie art rather, to be strictly accurate, dying of
the terrible physical poisons that are produced
in the human organism by sorrows not to be
comforted, by a grief not to be assuaged.
v Most tragic is the assertion that her poi
, sorter is her own husband, the equally hand
some Duke d'Aosta, who, fr the gratification
of his passions, it is charged, plunged her into
the mental anguish which suddenly, dramaU .
ically, tragically doomed her youth, her
beauty and her loving heart to the untimely
'grave.
Her. soul, poisoned by the titled husband
whose afection she claimed by every right vf
wifehood and every charm of womanhood,
has poisoned her formerly strong, healthy
young body. The princess for whom the late
Duke of Clarence of England vainly pined
until he died some years ago, with her name
upon his paling lips, is perishing, in her turn,
jpf love's deadly cruelty.
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warm spot In their hetrti for th good women their
one have loved. Queen Alexandra' liking for Prlnceai
Helena of Orleans became a tender, half motherly af
fection after the duke of Clarence had died.
The Duke d'Aosta cany wooing later, an older
brother of the duke of Abruail, coueln of Italy's king,
Victor Emmanuel. And then heir to the Italian thfone.
Helene cherished no rooted, fond regrets for her Eng
lish lover, for It had been his misfortune to play the
common role In that eternal Masque of Eros, where
each pursues some sweetheart whose love Is not for
him. She was fancy1 free when Aosta sought her
hand, and when she gave it to him her heart went
with It.
The few years that have passed have brought
changes In the worldly prospects of the royal plr. Vic
tor Emmanuel has an heir, and the Italian people are
so little enamored of Aosta that. In any event, they
were likely to have Insisted upon the enthronement
of Tolande, the little princess of the direct line, had
her father died.
To the Puchess Helene the extinction of her ex
pectations of the throne brought h great disappoint
ment. Her fortune Is ample; her huerband. the heir of
the Immense wealth left by his -grandmother, the
Countess de Merode. Is one of the richest men In Eu
rope; and her happiness In his love and her home was
imbued with the calm delight which contents a woman
of her domestic, affectionate nature.
BROKE ALL BOUNDS
What the most scientific care and a full renewal of
the lover-like bearing of the duke might have accom
plished will never be known, for only a few months
more elapsed when his paaslon for his Inamorata
broke all bounds. -
The girl In the Intrigue, who had been secluded by
her family, had been conducting a correspondence
with her lover ; clandestinely. In December she fled
from her place of concealment, and. It Is asserted, went
straight to Aosta at Naples. s
For one week his renewed Infidelity remained hid
den. .Then the girl was discovered undtf hla protec
tion. His duchess, all hope of her lost happiness departed,
left him at once. She went to Cairo, ostensibly for her
health. But the physicians there declare her doomed.
To live would have been (a desperate Struggle, at
best, and now for her there Is nothing left, to mako
life worth her living. The pelson 'of unrequited love,
more deadly than the poison of asps, Is doing Its fatal
work steadily, swiftly, perhaps mercifully.
It has been less than a century that Caroline of
Brunswick, queen of England, died within a month
after her triumphant trial on charges that shamed
King George IV, the libertine monarch who brought
them against ber on evidence as false as. his own long,
lying career.
A woman of magnificent physique, as powerful of
mind as she was of body, her years of suffering left
her- tiurelv strength to survive her complete acquittal
left a dying wreck of the woman upon the instant
the need had passed for the use of all her vitality In
defense of her maligned virtue. She left this Inscrip
tion to be set upon her tomb:
Her lies Caroline of Brunswick, the Injured queen ef
England.
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Man's love Ii but a thine apart;
'Tl woman's whole existence.
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AJDDEST of all Is the fart that the Durhes
d'Aosta Is only one of thousands of women who,
by swift or slow degrees, are being similarly
murdered throughout the world by men similarly
(deliberate In their soul-polsoningwork.
. What clergyman, what physician expert In the
deadly .lore of toxicology, from the venom of the rat
tleenake to the lethal poison of uric acid, will hesi
tate to affirm the moral guilt of the man? And what
lawyer, what Judge learned in the laws of all peoples
.will deny that he bears any taint?
. ' , Medicine, even now. Is only awakening to the full
extent to' which the body Is Influenced by the mind,
and only the most distinguished of physicians appear
to appreciate that Influence to the full extent of its
Importance.
:v- One of the foremost Hvlnar specialists In disorders
Of the mind and the nerves, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, has
over bees sedulous to note the effect of the spirit
i upon the body and to insist upon the need of moral in
fluence to supplement the physical treatment. Written
In commemoration of the discovery of anesthesia, snmc
passages from his feeling poem, "The Birth of Pain,"
might well have been penned on the suffering of the
'Puchess d'Aosta and of all unhappy women whose
.Wrongs no laws redress, no medicine can cure:
. The Birth of Pain! Iet centuries roll twar:
, Come bark with me to nature's primal day.
! ' What mlnhty forces pledged the dust to life!
What awful will decreed its silent strife!
Till through vast ages roae on hill and plain
, Life a aadrleat voice, the birthright wall of pain.
,. ..-. The keener aenae and ever growing mind
i Served but to add a torment twice refined.
?f ' more tender, aa It trrew more aweet,
av cruel llnka of morrow found complete
j . when yearning- love to conecloua pity grown
. maJ p,ln thrills, that were not lta own.
J-o! Science falters o'er the hopeleaa tak.
5? .ve and Fi,n ,n va'n an anawer ak.
' ! wSt?r".Un,t n.erv demand what good Is wrought
Where torture clogs the very aource of thought.
' Born In England, sister of the duke of Orleans,
claimant to the overturned throne of France, the
Duchess d'Aosta is the sister, also, of Amelle of Portu
gal, One of the most attractive women who ever
' iZZltLl lT- Jh" bre the tltle of Princess
Helene when King Edward's son saw her and fell des-
PeSte,rJ? W,th her 'rounded beauty her
irolden hair, her tender, lovlne- mi .. t
wit and cleverness. ' lov"S foul and her unusual
Princess Helene was widely read v. .i
wearisome blue stocking. She and h.r .i.!he Tas n0
were sportswomen to thi core?and .hl h t.'.Amuelie'
health and high spirit, that 'come of 1 ' , 1 lKh
miirh In axerclae in tha . "Ie given as
indooriv i w "uay eulturo
But the young man who seemed destined to h. ui.
apparent to Great Britain's throne was not n. ?
could be permitted to contract an alliance with v
man Catholic, however ancient her lineage The k
.." trothed him to his cousin. Princess May of Teck aW
not long afterward he died, his loyalty to la beiia
Helene Inspiring his last breath. ,
Whatever changes ceme, mothers have always a
Italian people hold the duchess In an esteem ss sin
cere as their dislike for her husband Is emphatic. The
nation was at once rejoiced and saddened when the
Socialists, In one of their recent campaigns, succeeded
In unearthing a scandal which dragged the Duice
d'Aosta from his high seat of morality and practically
convicted him of an Intrigue with a lovely young
noblewoman of Naples, whom the most anxious of her
family failed to rescue from his seductive wiles.
This disgrace of Aosta was food and drink for the
Italians, but they were reluctant to reflect upon the
consequences the scandal would have upon the wife
whom they so greatly respected and admired.
Popular misgiving was more than Justified. Helene,
at first Incredulous, was finally convinced against her
will that her husband was flagrantly unfaithful to her.
She fought out her battle with herself in that pro
found secrecy with which women of breeding and re
finement cloak their sorrows. But she was wounded
too deeply. The publicity of the scandal, the Injury to
her pride were of minor Importance. Her anguish was
In her stricken love.
She could find no excuse, no condonement. Heart
sick, with the beginnings of fatal disease almost in
stantly Implanted In her body, which had needed only
Cronyr
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IPicte. .3rra & .Trrore..
It has been little more than a month that the set
tlement was reported In Pennsylvania of a legal suit
which, when It was begun, gave some promise of es
tablishing in law the principle of proving death by
Injury to the emotions that principle which In Eu
rope and America, from queens and princesses to sim
ple gentlewomen, has been demonstrated thousands of
times as being the most tragic reality in human ex
istence. ' A father sued for $25,000 damages the lover who.
Jilting his daughter, left her to brood over her misery
until she died of her sufferings. Compromised. It Is
said, for $5000, the case left no precedent In the law
books for subsequent claims and no entering wedge
for a statute safeguarding woman In the most vulner
able portion of her being.
And when the lovely, loving Helene, princess royal
of the ancient Bourbon line, adored by a scion of tho
most famous reigning house in Europe and disdained
by the head of another on which her ancestors would
have looked with contempt, dies of the wounds he dealt
the soul that was more beautiful than her beautiful
face, who but some hysterical, sentimental women
will haye the courage to arraign the handsome Duke
d'Aoeta as her murderer?
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ROM one end of the country to the other
women have been rising in wrath to de
fend their 6ex from aspersions alleged to
have been cast by former Congressman
James Hamilton Lewis, of Chicago, in a recent
address before students of the Northwestern Uni
versity Law School. ,
It injustice to Colonel JLewia to state that he
has denied making the remarks attributed to him,
and hia denial has been borne out by several who
heard him speak. As the alleged slander upon the
sex traveled over the country in advance-of the
denial, however, the storm that has raged about
Mr. Lewis' ears has been both cyclonic and pictur
esque. He will probably ponder long and deeply be
fore he discusses woman upon the public platform
again; at least, ho will choose words that cannot
be twisted into an assertion that- U women are
liars."
T
HIS Is what Colonel Licwis Is alleged to have
said In his address before the Chicago law
students:
Remember, gentlemen, an oath means nothing to a
woman. A woman always comes to testify aa a wltneaa
for one of two reasons either she cnran thrbugh a sense
of affection or duty to those whom she loves or she comes
to satisfy what ahe regards as a perfectly legitimate feel
ing of resentment. -
If It Is the first of these, she will come through fire
and water to testify, and sh will see things as her friend
views them. Sincerely and earnestly she will testify that
things are as hc thinks they ouuht to be. and you may
cross-examine until you have exhausted the vocabulary,
and you will gt nothing from her but her Ideas of what
they ought to be. A woman has no Idea of the sanctity
of an oath. nd a woman will repeat when on oath any
thing she will say when not on oath.
No persons have come to the defenso of their sex
with greater alacrity than some of the leading women
lawyers of the country. They, too, have had experi
ence with women on the witness stand, and believe
x hey are qualified to speak upon the subject
Ll. 1 10 take the c"dgels and laythem with
V,? uPn Colonel Lewis was Mrs. Belva A. Lock
tnn widely known woman lawyer, , of Washlng-
ifnH.rf.?. ?" in.ce candidate for President of tho
United btates. Listen to Mrs. Lock wood:
(Vhen James Hamilton Lewis stoops to say that
all women witnesses are perjurers or falsifiers, or
even that they pervert the truth, he Is one himself.
"I have been a practicing member of the local bar
of the District of Columbia for thirty-four years, and
during thAt time have tried and defended many suits
where women were witnesses as well as men, and
have found that even among the lower classes of
women they were iuite as reliable as men, but some
what more given to detail.
"In the trial of a real estate case, where the wife
was a witness as well as a party in interest, and her
statement wasagalnst herself, she said: 'Mrs. Lock
wood, I am a good Catholio, and I cannot tell a lie.'
"On one occasion, while defending a woman for
shooting a constable, who was attempting to dispos
sess her, I wm getting on fairly well with the de
fense, when the Judge asked that the defendant be
put on the stand. To my horror, she proceeded to
state not only that she had shot the man, but went
Into details as to Just how and why she had done
so. "
"For a moment my lawyer's wit deserted me I
saw my client in the penitentiary and her little chil
dren unprotected in the street. Then came the reac
tionthat she should be saved at all hasards. The
man had not been killed, but only peppered in the
legs with birdshot, but the act and the intent were
the same.
. "The testimony had developed that the husband
and father, who was absent from home in a distant
state, had loaded the gun and set it In the corner of
the kitchen, telling bis wife at the time that if any
person attempted to molest her to shoot him, .
"I took up that' point in the old common law, that
'a man's house is his castle, which he has a right
under all circumstances to defend,' and that the
woman In this case, as was her. duty, was only obey
ing her husbajid, who, If any, was the real criminal.
The Jury returned In less than ten minutes to say
it had found the defendant 'not guilty.'
"On another occasion, defending a man for shoot
ing a woman, the testimony developed that the shoot
ing was accidental. I could hav saved the man from
the penitentiary if I could have made him tell the
truth, and so told him. But he was bo scared that he
could not, and would not say that he held the pistol
and fired the shot, but denied under oath that he had
had a pistol that night. But the police had found the
pistol, and had traced Its ownership to him.
"As a pension attorney, I once had a cask coming
from New York city, under the dependent fathers and
mothers' act.' The eodler had died, and the old couple
had separated and were living In different places. The
first application came from the mother swearing that
the father was dead; the second came from the father
before the first was concluded, awearing that the mother
was dead.
"I am not one of those Who believe that the men
tallty or methods of reasoning of men and women
are so very different, or that either of the sexes woul
make a livable and desirable world by themselves
nor do I believe with David, tha-t 'all men are liars'
and, much less, all women." 4
Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch, who, In addition
to being a lawyer, has the honor of being the first
woman Justice of the peace in the country, has this
to say:
"In my twenty-one years' experience as a lawyer
and in my brief experience as a justice of the peace I
have found women as truthful as men. In justice to
Colonel Lewis, it should be stated that the omcers
of the law college before which his criticised address
was Kiven deny that he made any such sweeping charge,
"However, if he had. it would not be any worse
than many other men believe. Men who do not
change laws classing women with children. Idiots and
criminals must also believe women are too ignorant
or too corrupt to testify truthfully. When women
are no longer disfranchised with children, idiots and
criminals, tnen mens gallantry win be more prac
tical."
Miss Mary L. Trescott, an attorney, of Wilkes
Barre Pa., expresses her views as follows:
"I never believed that Mr. Lewis made the state
ments alleged. However. I believe that women- as
witnesses are not to be trusted to tell what we want
them to tell and no more. Being generally of ner
vous temDerament. and unaccustomed to appear In
public as witnesses In a legal controversy, they are
ant to lose their nervous eauillbrlum .and tell more
of the truth than we want to hear or than Is help-.
ful to the side of the case for which they are test!
fvlnir.
"They will not only tell all they know, but all
tlhcy think, ana their sense or justice ana tneir lines,
and dislikes will b-; very apparent; but, so far as tho
facts are concerned, they will tell the truth, In most
cases. There aro men who are not accustomed to tnis
kind of business who will testify In the same way.
There are women of broader experience who will
testify calmly and truthfully to the facts within their
knowledge and material to the investigation.
BELIEVES IN HER SEX
Mrs. Carrie B. Kllgore. the veteran woman lawyer
Of Philadelphia, is a firm believer In her sex. She says:
"There are men, and probably women, who have but
little Idea of the sanctity of an oath. Undoubtedly, wil
ful Deriury Is sometimes committed In our courts. There
are witnesses who sincerely testify to the truth aa they
see It, but who are mistaken as to tne racts. They are
not perjurers. Then there are others who have so high
an Idea of truth that they do not need to be sworn
to speak the truth, 'but will repeat on oath anything
which they will say when not on oath,' Just as the
learned professor says woman will do.
"I do not think that a general classification as to tha
reliability of witnesses, based upon sex,can be justly
made; nevertheless, I believe, in a general way, that
woman has a higher idea of the sanctity of an oath than
has man. Why? Because, whether from nature or edu
cation, she Is more deeply religious 'more superstitious,
perhaps the scoffer will say. She Is more timid and trust
ing, less self-asserting, hence more, readily appreciates
her dependence upon and relation to the Creator of tho
Universe. .