WAR CORRESPONDENT DEAD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2745, 14 April 1916, Page 5

WAR CORRESPONDENT DEAD

V RICHARD HARDING DAVIS A BRILLIANT AMERICAN By Telesraph— Piece Association—Copyright , Naw'York, April 12. - The death is r recorded, at the age of 52, of Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the/ famous American war correspondent and novelist; of heart failure. - . The late Mr. Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia and educated at Lehigh and John Hopkins Universities'. ■ He was twice married, first in 1899 to Miss Cecil Olark; a well-known lady of Chicago. ' His second wife was Miss Bessie M'Coy, a celebrated dancer, in New York. Only six months ago a eon was born to' him. In addition to ''Soldiers of Fortune" and numerous travel and war books, Mr. Davis was the author of many stories. 1 Some of the most popular are: "Van Ribber and "Others," "Exiles," "The King's Jac kal," "The Bar Sinister," "Vera, the Medium," "The Man Who Could Not Lose," "White Mice,',' and "Once Upon b Time." Among his plays arc "Taming of Helen," "Sanson's- Folly," "The Dictator," "The. Yankee Tourist," and "Who's Who ?."'Mr. Davis was well known not only in America, but in all English-speaking; countries as a most brilliant short-story writer. "Soldiers of Fortune," published I in- 1899, earned him'a great reputation and established his' popularity. 'When the war broke out he was in Belgium, and was there captured by the Germans. Tliey charged ( him with espionage, and he was able to prove ,his innocence only by showing that bis hat and clothes bore the name of a .New York 'maker! He had -been a war correspondent before, acting for the "New York Herald" and London "Times" in the Spanifth'-American, South African,? Kusso-Jaoanese, and Balkan wars. In the Russo-Japanese War he was with Mr. Ashmead-Bart-lett. In the present war, as a corres•pondent for the Wheeler News Syndicate, he was a loyal supporter of the Allied cause, ne hated the Germans, for be saw the atrocities they .commit, ted in Belgium, and narrowly escaped being himself a victim of their methods. His accounts of what he saw in' Belgium undoubtedly helped the Allied cause. With Mr., Aslimead-Bartlett he was present in Reims when . the. Germans commenced tbair work of destruction on the famous cathedral. After spending some time in the West, Mr. Davis went to the Balkans, and, he was 'at Salonika quite recently. He had the good fortune (as a war correspondents to get into, hot corners. His arrest by .the Germans hasbeen mentioned. In 15)14, when Mexico was causing America--trouble, Tie was one of a party of newspaper writers (he represented *bo "New York World"} to bo taken prisoner, and rather sovorely treated by the Mexican forces!. The incident almost ,lod to an open breach with the United States.