41
1
Royalty
Ostracized Plain
i
Gladys Deacon
Because o f a
Scandal—But NOW
She Is a
Marlborough
ICTORIA, Quean of England, snubbed
The First
the rleh American girl because she
W ife
was the daughter of a con v let, who
of the
bad eon feared killing a man.
Present
"Impossible!” exelslmed the Queen.
Duke of
And so the millionairess wasn't Invited
M arl
to the wedding of her dearest friend to the
borough,
Duke of Mnrlb«rough.
But Time, the Jester, aometlmos playa Formerly
mad pranks . , , The snub waa a quarter Consuelo
of a century «go. Victoria died. The
Vander
Dueheag of Marlborough divorced the Duke.
bilt.
Then the Duchess quarreled with her
friend, tha slayer's daughter. And tho fsfernottoaol
slayer's daughter, recently, married the
PAote.
Duke herself!
English society gasped—and wondered.
It wasn't only ths topsy-turvy swap In
the Duke's wives; the question on every
lip to-day Is "What will the Queen do?”
"Will she,” asks the gossips, “snub her
as her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria, did?
Or will she receive the Duchess si court?”
"And wbst will the Duchess do?" specu
late others. "Whs got part of her revenge
when she married the Duke. Will she
wreak It to the full by snubbing, In turn,
avsn though the snubbed one be a Queen?"
Ths story haa Its beginning thirty years
ago In the bondolr of a beautiful woman in
the fashionable Hotel Spleodlde at Cannes,
V
Francs . . .
Edward Parker Deacon was a scion of
ene of Boston's most exclusive families
His grandfather was Commodore Deacon,
of the t'nlted States Navy. Hie father was
Edward Denoon, Michigan lumber king
In 188» Deacon married a daughter of
Admiral Charles Baldwin, she waa twenty,
he was thirty-two. Their friends approved
It U t love match. They went to Parle ou
their honeymoon end, fascinated with the
French capital, decided to stay there.
And then the serpent entered Eden,
■mile Abetile, suave and handsome, with ,t
reputation as a bou vlvnnt and a heart
breaker, saw the beautiful Mrs Deacon and
straightway deal red her He waa a diplo
mat who "had a way with women," and she
was pest thirty then, thn mother of four
children.
lh * ••Pl"*1"" ««me at Canoes on Febm-
•ff
l»’ E Deacon, guided by the elerk
of the Hpleadlda, a man named Baumann,
smashed In the door of his wife's room on
floor at 3 o'clock in the morning.
For g second tho anguished husband,
hie pride outraged, hie world crashing
nronid him. paused to take In the soenw -
hle adored wife with lacy gown hardly oov.
• rt** "•r white shoulders; the frightened
man crouched behind a chair.
"T 4
«rumpled
The Marlborough Coat
tote a lifeless heap.
®y'*««0« «t ths trial left no doubt of *as a question of divorce. Deacon had the
better grounds, not she
iMSed that Deaeon knew of her conduct.
At the asms time the husband waa not
•■4
•‘ ■«"«»•d 1» for buelneee rea. allowed
to go altogether unpunished. He
««■A But_the court gave this eaotiee scant -onissued gad waa sentenced to a year tu
“ «denes, advising Mrs. Deacon that, if it prison.
JaleraalMMtal Photo.
ness o f M a r lb o r o u g h , F o r m e r ly
G la d y s D e a c o n .
health-shattered
h e died in an
asylum.
American society exonerated
hint of any blame, hut the stigma of the
scandal did not die with him.
Gladys was eleven when her father killed
her mother’s admirer. After the trnkedy
Airs. I tea c m . brought tier daughters back
of Arma.
(Cl 1031, International Feature Srrvks, Inc
to America with her and took up her resi
dence at Newport. The Four Hundred ac
cepted the Deacon daughters and the Doa-
caa wealth regardless of the smudge on the
name. ''Snug Harbor,” the villa o f Admiral
Baldwin. Mrs. Denoon's fathor. waa the
scene of many elaborate function!. In
tarn Mra. Deacon and her daughters were
welcomed in the most exclusive homes of
America’s aristocracy.
One of these was the villa of William K.
VandesMIt and hie wife, the lovely Mrs.
Ale« Smith Vanderbilt, a Southern beauty
from Mobile. Alabama. Tbelr daughter
waa Consuelo.
tirvat Britain Blrttta Baaerved,
Consuelo V a n d e r - \
blit became the chum \
of pretty Gladys Dea- V ' '
con In the playtime of
\
youth at Newport. To
\
«
Consuelo, whose own
\
mother and father sep-
\
arated aoon afterward,
the skeleton in the Dea-
con family closet was a
”
matter of small mo
ment. 8he snapped her
fingers at it. But in
fnCernsttonltl FkeMk ’
England, w h e r e the
Vanderbilt heiress aoon
The Duke of Marlborough.
was beselged by a score
of suitors, society was not
for
Society would have given much to know.
giving.
But society was denied the privilege. On
This Consuelo realised forcibly the surface the rift had not disturbed the
when her engagement was an chumminess of Consuelo and her fritnd-
nounced to the Duke of Marlbor No sooner was she entrenohed In the Inner
ough. In making her plans for the circle of British society than the new
wedding, Consuelo, of course, as Duchess of Marlborough "took up” Miss
signed Gladys to a prominent role. Deacon again. The Queen might continue
But Vanderbilts and Marlboroughs to snub her, but under the wing of the
alike registered horror.
Duchess, Gladys was a brighter flame than*
t "What will the Queen say?”
ever at the fringe of Victoria’s court.
For Victoria ruled Britain, Its
It wasn’t long before Miss Gladys Dea
high society as well as its gov- con waa the “most engaged girl” In the
f rnment—and Victoria, a u s t e r e , society columns. Titled aristocrats pur
straight-laced. Puritan, had to be sued her by the soore. Humor had her the
considered above all else.
The fiancee of the than Crown Prince of Ger
Queen had been reluctant to ap many, next of the Marquis de Ch&rette of
prove the Vanderbilt-Marlborough the ancient French house of that name;
match to begin with, because of the then to the Earl of Warwick; to Lord
break between William K. Vander Francis Hope, ex-husband of May Yohe,
bilt and his wife, and she had let erstwhile owner of the hoodooed "Blue Dia
tt be known frankly that the pres mond”; Prince Carl of Llthtenatein and
ence of Gladys Deacon and this ad Lieutenant Reginald Oliphant, of the Royal
ditional "breath of scandal would be, British Navv, were others In her train.
to say the least, entirely too much.
But to them all the American heiress,
Society of that day—it was 1895 still beautiful, though the years were troop
—found the tidbit a rich morsel. ing fast, turned a deaf ear.
Miss Deacon, hufflcd, looked to Con-
The reason for her refusal to marry
Often puzzled the gossips.
Could It have been tnat, beneath her
laughing acceptance of Queen Victoria’s
affront, Gladys Deacon hid a sore heart?
Could It have been that, despite her re
instatement in Coneuelo’s affections, she
never forgave her friend for the wedding
invitation that did not arrive? Did Gladys
Deacon brood, plot, wait years fer her re
venge?
Certain It Is that something finally
jarred the friendship of Consuelo and
Gladys. But the smart set already had
begun to mention in the same gossip the
names of the Duke of Marlborough and
Gladys Deacon before Gladys suddenly
stopped speaking to Consuelo, and Consuelo
suddenly stopi>ed speaklug to Uladys. The
snubs were open—and tongues wagged
faster than ever.
After the duchess secured her divorce
a year ago, eociety waa rocked with a
genuine bombshell—
Gladys Deao«. at forty-five, became the
bride of the Duke of Marlborough, former
husband of her whilom friend, Consuelo!
And then all eyes turned toward the
Queen, the mentor of the elite. Victoria
had snubbed Gladys Deacon. What would
bs the course of George, her son, and
Mary.
London still Is waiting
for that question to be an
swered when Buckingham
Palace Is opened for the Win-
ter functions.
K n o w in g
Quien Mary's avowed moral
principles, many predlot that
she will flout tha new Duch
ess as her royal predecessor
flouted her. '
But friends of the new
Duchess of Marlborough dw
clare she Is aot worrying.
8he knows she does not ad
vance to battle unarmed.
One of her sisters Is tha
Princess Radslwlll. who oa«
ba of no small help.
She herself wearing thd
lineage of the Marlborough*
whose dukedom dates bacl*
International Photo. ta tha seventeenth centum
and whose ancestry is fag
The New Ducheaa of Marlborough in Her
older and more Imposing
Wedding Gown.
than Queen Mary's or that
of Victoria, hereelf, she. thd
sue!o to prove their friendship. Consuelo, new Duchess,
Is a powreful opponent
bent by the Marlhorougha on the one even for a Queen.
side and on the other by her mother, the
And, no matter what the outcome ef hen
prevent lire O H. Pl Belmont, raged brush
with royalty, Gladys Deacon, Doehaad
despairingly and—gave la.
of Mar! »orough, may hug to hertalf oag
How did Gladys feel?
satlsfa. th,n—she u«l her ievenge.