A BEAUTY’S TRAGEDY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9125, 21 April 1908, Page 7

A BEAUTY’S TRAGEDY.

ACTRESS’ BROTHER SHOT IN DOMESTIC QUARREL.

' Great interest's shown in Paris in the case of M. Paxil Boy, son of a hig horse dealer, of Nemlly, who is accused by his wife, the beautiful American actress, Gracia Caila, of gbbpting her brother in a duel, (jracia Cal la was a sensation of years ago, young patricians vying with each other in homage to the American beauty. She was there years with her mother, both stopping at the home of her Sister, the Baroness von Orendorff, in the Rue Hamelin. gifted with a fine voice, she decided to make an attempt to obtain an engagement at the Paris Opera, and studied assidnonsly nnder Professor Dnvernoy, of the Conservatoire. M. Joberfpainted a large portrait of her, which was much admired in the Paris Salon in 1903. ' This very nortrait at’the time, gave rise to a romantic story, a French count feeing said ,to have fallen in love Tfith her at first sight of her picture at the saloon, and haying made great efforts to obtain an introduction to her. But the count denied the story as far as he was concerned, flrhioh, however, did not prevent it from making the round of the press. Miss Oalla suddenly returned to America, and nothing more was heard of her till some days ago, ■when despatches the extraordinary story that she had been married to Paul Roy, and that during a quarrel between herself and her husband in her residence at Bayside, near Newington, New Hampstead, her brother intervened, with the result that a duel was fought, and her husband shot her brother. The death was at first said to have been accidental, and it was only after her husband took the steamer for France that she accused him of shooting her brother. M. Paul Roy has been found in Paris, and has given a full account of the affair to the French journals. After his marriage, he explained, he went to live in a country house owned by his wife in New Hampshire, his wife’s mother and her husband fay second marriage, Mr Kelly, living near. In December his brother-in-law, Mr George Calkins, came to live with them. After spending New Year’s Day in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, his ; hrother.in-law returned on January 2nd, and all three dined together in the best of spirits. QUARREL OYER A HAT.

After dinner his wife, who was to go to a concert, went to dress, and asked her hnsband to accompany her. Mr Oarkins was also asked to go, but declined, as it was a stormy night, and snow was falling heavily. His wife had put on,one of her best costumes, and was about to dou her hat, when her husband remarked that it was too big, and that ;Bhe would be very uncomfortable with it in the automobile. His wife persisted in wishing to wear that particular hat, and a dispute followed, in the course of which, M. Roy alleges, she used isome very provoking expressions, which roused his temper, and he told her that she would have to go with her brother. His wife went .■away angry to tell her brother, who was in a large room used as .a iitchen at the back of the house.

7 M. Roy says that he waited ten mjinutes, and, thinking that she anight have quieted down, he went where his wife and her brother were conversing. His wife then, he alleges, taunted him, and he replied in French, whereupon she dared him to repeat the word in English, which he did, and no sooner had he done so than Oarkins pulled out a revolver and fired at him. His wife threw up her bands in horror, and ran screaming to the next'room. Meanwhile M. Roy had taken out his revolver, and both men fired at each other until their/'revolvers were empty. As rhe last shot was fired he saw Oarkins fall. M. Roy afterwards learned that his brother-in-law had just been able to draw himself into the next room, where the last words he said were, “Peach, I am dead.”

M. Roy says that he went to his .father-in-law’s place to tell 'him what had happened, and intended to give himself np to the police, but the family persuaded him that it was best not to tell the truth, and to make out that Oarkins had committed suicide.

Mtne. Paul Roy, who is now only twenty-seven, 'avers, bn the contrary, that her married life has been marred all through by her husband’s hot temper.” He not only quarrelled with her, -but there were continual disputes between her brother and him over most trivial things. The fatal ■quarrel began in [her bedroom, and was all over a hat. She went to the kitchen with her brother, and her hnsband followed. She continued: “Hot words ensued, and I then said I would not go at all. Thereupon Roy turned.to my brother, and observed, ‘lt’s all your fault.* My brother pushed me out, and a moment later several shots resounded.

“My brother staggered out, saying, 'l’m shot. ’ The statement that there was a duel is absurd. That • may be what the French but if my brother had a revolver he used ' it only in self-defence. The pase was reported as one of suicide, but after my husband left Now York I consulted a lawyer, who informed the authorities what had actually happened. ’ ’ I On the strength of Mrs Roy’s ■ allegations, the body of Oarkins was exhumed, and two bullet wounds in the back were found. REMARKABLE THEORY. ' a remarkable "statement, throwing a new light on the/shooting of Mr George A. Oarkins, at Bay |Side, Newington, N.H., has been made to a correspondent of the New York Herald by Colonel Henry Mapleson, who expresses the belief that Mr Oarkins was not Miss Oalla’s brother ■at all, but her first husband, and M. Roy was her second, he having been introduced to her in France three years ago. He says that three years ago when selling a beautiful property | at Etrerat called “Blanc Castel,”|ho met a young and pretty woman, who said she was Mine. Sergius. She -introduced a young man as her hpshand. They agreed to the . property. On going to the notary to . draw up the deed of sale, Mnj. . Sergius admitted that her first hps- , "band, Mr Oarkins, was still alive, ■so the lawyer made the deed out in the name of Gracia Oalla Oarkins f, “Some months afterwards, lon ; ;going with a friend to M. Roy’s pig Uiorse establishment in Paris, I »w

M. Roy’s son, and the impression left upon me is that he was the man whom I had previously known as M. Sergius. I now see that M. Paul Roy has killed Mr Oarkina, who, if my snrrnises are correct, would be Mrs Oalla Oarkins’ husband and not her brother. ”