THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, i SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 24, -1922.
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f V i ' - -' r -i nniiin-fT-r"irinr ri- i n i in i itt ( nT-rniT-riT'iii- Tr'Trr ' x - 11 'rr ' - -1
Mrs. CIyae Vr- 'vV-"-
ICByfield' V V- 1
Suit Against t .
. Walter Candler X .s; ; ;
Came as the Se- : j
quel to a Cham- C , -' 1
pagne Party.. f
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Ana aii uus aappenea u au canaier i -m j- f t t i s t
I J jh? '61 !i f
Georgia
Society, Gasped
When Ex-Mayor Candler
Accused Charming
Ma rga ret Hirisch o f
Attempted Blackmail,
. and Now Another
Beauty Is Asking for
$100,000 Damages
From His
Son
The Thirty-Day Promiory Note for $2O,5O0, Payable to Clyde
K. Byfield and Signed "Walter F. Candler," Which the Latter
Claims Was Obtained Under Duress.
(Mrs. Onezima de Bouchelle,
ucauuiui new loaus
Divorcee, Reported Engaged to
Asa G. Candler, Aged 71.
WHAT a hard-luck tangle for a soft
drink Croesus .and his millionaire
Asa G. Candler, of Atlanta, was round
ing out his career as the richest man In
the South, pillar of the church, "father"
of a great university, director of banks
and corporations, builder of skyscrapers,
xtayor of his city, brother of a bishop and
ft Judge, when
(Fizz-bang! His soda-water millions
rrothed into, a shower of trouble. A pretty
society woman, he charged, tried to "shstSe
hJm down" for half a million. He got a
court conviction, against her. Another
beauty, a divorcee, rot en leased to him
oyer the protests of his family. And to
crown his troubles his son, Walter, ac
cused a business man of blackmail and
was sued tor (100,000 by the business
man's wife-Hiaughter of a ity detective
who said Walter attacked her .after a
champagne supper on an ocean liner!
Ana ail this Happened to Asa Candler
when 'he was past sixty and had Just re
tired from business after working haH
from sunup to sundown all his life!
f Asa Candler waa one of three brothers
jrho started life on a Georgia farm. War
ren entered the ministry and became the
South's leading Methodist bishop. John
practised law and rose .to be .associate
jastlce of the -Georgia Supreme Court.
Asa. went tb ork In a drug store and got
more money and fame than any of them.
I He started hig career wasa jng bottles
ad rolling pills for $15 a month. Then
he discovered a formula fora soft drink.
It made him rich. He put up office build
lags In New York. Baltimore and Atlanta.
He gave fl.000.000 outright to Emory Unt-
VersitV.' H founded th Oantnl Rank-
aid Trust Corporation. He contributed to
cturches. hospitals and causes galore.
The South hailed him aa its own Rocke
feller. Atlanta Insisted on electing him
ayor. He finally Qait work after giving
1,000,000 apiece, to his four' sons the
snost envied, honored and respected man
b Dixie.
k l have labored hard all my life,"! a
ctety women
called on Mayor
Candler in the in
terest of various
"drive s." Mrs.
Hirsch was
among them.
Once she and the
Mayor were pho
tographed to
gether in a Red
Cross group at
Atlanta's exclu
sive Capital City
Club, and once
she visited him
honorable mayor and a little society
lady!'"
The man was "Handsome Bill" Cook.
According to Mr. Candler. Cook and Mrs.
Hirsch demanded $500,000 as the price of
their silence. Instead of paying the money
Mr. Candler fcad them arrested as alleged
"badger game workers." x
The jury exonerated Asa Candler of
Mrs. Hirsch's sensational charges and
convicted her of blackmail. She was fined
$1,000 and sentenced to a year in State's
prison. Sentence was suspended on con
dition she would leave Atlanta. She did.
Cook, found guilty, drew a year's sentence,
but forfeited his bond and "skipped."
As if this wasn't enough excitement for
a retired millionaire, Fate sent him ro
mance In- the person of Mrs,
Adoinh Roquet, famous New
1 Orleans beauty, descendant of
Y I an bid French family and
3
" 1 rwM' -:v:-:i-ri?7":v;--'j-
s
: .
ij
r
Asa G. Candler Million Dollar Home at Druid Hills.
1 am due a boll- ' at his private office fin the Candler
Bounced Asa Candler,
day"
And how did this "holiday" begin?
With a sensational trial in which he
charged Mrs., Margaret Hirsch and "Hand
some B01 Cook with attempted blackmail.
.- "Handsome Bill" , was a sportsman and
man -a bout-town who "hit the trail" at th?
Billy Sunday revival In Atlanta which Asa
Building.
This is Mayor Candler's account of what
happened there: "f asked Mrs. Hirsch
what I could do tor her. and she told me
she wanted to see me about Bed Cross
business. She seemed nervous. Suddenly
she said, Oh, Mr. Candler, there's a man
at the window I turned around, but saw
Candler was .Instrumental In financing. nobody. When I turned; back again Mra.
Mrs. Hirsch was' a petite brunette who
first net Mr. Candler while he was Mayor
and she was a Red Cross worker..:;
That was during the war and many so
Hirsch had thrown off her hat and coat
and had disarranged her blouse. The next
minute the door burst open and a man
stood there. He said. This Is nice! Our
- "x.fJf,V i queen of Mardt Gras
at the Confederate reunion in
Atlanta, which she attended as
sponsor for the Louisiana Di
vision of United Confederate
Veterans. , There were balls,
receptions pageants, and the
wealthy Atlanta "widower suc
cumbed to the sparkling eyes
of the Louisiana, belle.
The world knew nothing of
this love affair until telegrams
from Reno, Nevada, announced
that Mrs. Roquet had divorced
her husband and resumed her
former name of Mrs. Onezima
de ' BoucbeHe. Almost simul
taneously - Mr. Candler ad
mitted that he and Mrs. de
' Bouchelle, .were engaged to be
married.
Announcement of the engagement cre
ated a sensation In; Atlanta, especially tn
church circles, for. Bishop Candler has
ever been outspoken In his denunciations
of divorce, and Asa Candler was as staunch
a lay figure tn- the church as his brother
was among the clergy. It was common
gossip along Feachtree street, the South's
Broadway, that the Candler clan was pro
testing vj- against tav seventy-one-year-old
chief wedding a divorcee.
"When will the weddingr take , place ?
demanded the newspapers. "Is it true that
the engagement has been' called oS?"
Cflsvricht, 19S2, by ZatonaUonaZ feature Service, lac Greet BciUia Slcfcts Bswrwfl.
take place
Autumn."
"I am quite sure Mrs. de Bouchelle has
been misquoted," said Mr. Candler in At
lanta. "The wedding has not been sched
uled, nor has San Francisco been selected
as the place for the wedding. Beyond this
I do not care to comment."
While the newspapers were still trying
to reconcile these contradictory state
ments, another sensational knot was tied
in the Candler family tangle by Asa's
favorite son, Walter.
Walter, a widower like his father, had
married a Titian-haired teller In the Cand
ler bank, - Miss Marion Penland. He had
two children by his first wifa and a third
child was born of this secona marriage.
Walter became interested in race horses.
Since Atlanta has no big racing meets
Walter built a private race track of his
own in fashionable Druid Hills and in
vested in an expensive stable. Lullwater
track became the scene of many society
fetes.
Clyde K. Byfield, manager of an auto
mobile company in Atlanta, also was. in
terested in race horses. He had married
Sarah Gillespie, and, although she was the
daughter of a city detective, she was
pretty "and vivacious and did not find it
particularly difficult to "crash" , Atlanta
society, including the race-horse Set led by
Walter Candler and. his wife.
, Mrs. Byfield posed as a cigarette girl at
one of the Lullwater fetes. She and her
husband were invited to the Walter Cand
ler home. They chummed together fre
quently. When Walter Candler decided to
sail. for Europe this Summer he offered to
pay the expenses of Mr. and Mrs. Byfield
If they would go along. Mrs. Byfield, be
said, could look after the children, as, Mrs.
Candler was going to visit her parents in
California. ; " '
The Byfields, Candler and the Candler .
children sailed on the same boa. They
returned on different vessels. And scarcely
had Candler reached Atlanta again when
he filed suit against Clyde Byfield to stop
him from collecting on a note for $20,500
Candler had signed! in ' ' ' - '
Said .Walter Candler In substance:
"The Byfields held me up. There was a
champagne party our last night on board
J
''
f' " J S.'- V
Mrs. Walter Candler
Driving One of the
Candler Thoroughbreds)
on the Candlers Private
Racetrack.
"No, indeed!" declared
Mrp. de Bouchelle in
Reno. "The wedding will
in San Francisco In the
5
.Walter Candler, Whose Troubled
With the Byfields Followed
the Mid-Ocean Champagne Party
know exactly how It happened that I got
in Mrs. By field's stateroom. ' Byfield
crashed in the door and demanded $25,000.
He hit me and I hit him, I was dazed and
submitted to his demand. I gave him a
check for $25,000. In Paris I took it back
in exchange for $2,000 cash and a note
for $20,500. it was blackmaiL"
"That's false!" replied Byfield. "Thi
last night on board there was a champagne
supper, but nobody was drunk. I heaid
Mrs. Byfield 'crying out from her state
room. I rushed In to find her' struggling
with Candler. I did my best to kill hint
with my bare hands. Afterward he came
to me of his own accord, cringing and
cowardly, and offered me the money. - I
took It because I was afraid he would
leave me stranded in Europe. The letter
I signed exonerating him of misconduct
was false."- ' .
While these charges and counter-charges
were being hurled the report came from
California that Mrs. Candler was on her
way to Honolulu and would sue-for di
vorce. Then she cabled that she . would
stand by her husband. To add to the mix
up, Mrs. Byfield sued Walter Canaier tor
$100,000, claiming he injured her and
bloodied, her face. ,r"lf anybody -bloodied
her face," replied Candler, "It was her
husband. He gave her a terrific beating.
Behind this mare of alleged blackmail,
champagne parties, fights .and rumored
divorce actions looms the slight figure of
Asa Candler, Walter's father. What, asks
Atlantadoes he think of this scandal? Or
Is he too much occupied with his own en
gagement tangle to think? - Will he marry
the New Orleans divorcee In spite of hit
going across. 1 was Intoxicated and don'( family? Iaaa happy wth his millions