AMERICA'S RICHEST HEIRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 23 November 1907, Page 4

AMERICA'S RICHEST HEIRESS.

o MISS VANDKKIULT TO MARRY AN AUSTRIAN NOBLEMAN. .New York, October 2. It is announced unollicially that Miss Gladys Vanderbilt, the' youngest daughter of the late Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, is engaged to be married to an Austrian nobleman. An ollicial announcement by the family will probably lie made next week. The name of the nobleman, has not been divulged.

Miss Gladys Vanderbilt has been styled "America's richest heiress." Her personal fortune, including inheritances from her father and mother, is esimated at more than £(i,000,000. Miss Vanderbilt, who was bora in 1885, is the youngest of the five children of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt, who died eight years ago.

More than five hundred American girls have married titled foreigners, but Miss Gladys Vanderbilt is the richest of them all. The following table, which was compiled by a New York newspaper, shows the estimated fortunes of ten Americans ,\vJio married English noblemen;—

Duuchess of Marlborough , £2,000,000 Lilian Duchess of Marlborough 800,000 Duchess of Roxburghe .. 2,000,000 Duchess of Manchester .. 400,000 Duchess of Marlborough .. £2,000,000 Chester 200,000 Lady Curzon 1,000,000 Cora Countess of Strafford.. 200,000 Countess Craven .. .. 200,000 Countess of Donoughmore ~ 100.000 Countess of Yarmouth .. 200,000

The total dowry ol' 'the American girls who have married titled foreigners is estimated at £33,000,000. ' Miss Anna Could, daughter .of Mr. Jay Gould, is said to have been worth from £1,200,000 to £1,000,000 when she married Count Boni de Castellane. Not more than £200,000, however, was over under the individual control of the Count.

Miss Grant, daughter of General U. 8. Grant, married I'rince Cantaeuzcne of Russia in ISOO.

Miss Susan Whittier, daughter of General Charles A. Whittier, married Prince Serge Beloselsky of liussin. Miss Marguerite Stone, of New York, married Count Beroldingcn, of Austria.

Miss Helen Morton, daughter of the late Mr. Ixivi P. Morton, married the Due de Valencay, of France. Other American wives of titled foreigners arc the Princess Colonna (Miss Mackny), the Countess' Festetics (Miss liaggin), Princess ilatzfeldt (Miss Huntington), each of whom had a dowry of £200,000. Miss Margaret Taylor married Count fmperatori, of Italy, while the latter was playing in an orchestra at Sherry's Restaurant, New York, and Miss Emily LMoekel, of Brooklyn, married Count Ferrari, also of Italy, when he was a waiter at the World's Fair, Chicago. The most melancholy case was that of the Baron Takaes de Kis-joka, of Hungary, who marircd the daughter of Mr. Charles Hart, of Cleveland, got only £BO for the honeymoon, and was afterwards put or. an allowance of £l6 a month. - —..