HEIRESS' MARRIAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 261, 25 March 1911, Page 9

HEIRESS' MARRIAGE.

TALE OF DISILLUSION. ALLEGED BOGUS BARON. The shattered romance of an elderly lady of «reat wealth reached its final chapter in the' New York Supreme Court, before Mr. Justice Garretson, when Mrs. TI Louise Ewen von Koenitz applied for the annulment of the marriage which she contracted after a "whirlpool courtship" in the spring of 1009 with a young and handsome German, who said he was the proprietor of ancient baronial castles in the Fatherland. In a subdued voice the applicant, who is one of the daughters of the late General Ewcn, narrated the story of how she yielded to the suit of the young German. She was heiress to a fortune amounting to some £OO,OOO, and at the *ge of 25 attended an entertainment given at the Piaza Hotel by the Travel Club. One of the guests was "Baron von Koenitz," a dashing gentleman of 27 summers, who, she alleged, devoted himself to her with such assiduity that she invited him to her home in New York. He appeared to be immensely wealthy, and, it is asserted, professed that he owned vast mines in Mexico as well as large estates in Germany. His wealth, distinguished manners, and seeming disinterestedness fascinated Miss Ewcn, and, disregarding the advice of her sisters and friends, she drove one night to Jersey City, and there married the German. lie promised, she related, to take her on a honeymoon to Europe, but instead went to Florida, where, with her money, he is alleged to have purchased two motor ears, one for her and one for himself. He speedily became popular among the wealthy holiday-makers there, invited many ladies to join him on motoring trips', and neglected his wife completely. "He failed even," she asserted, "to recognise me when ho passed me in the street."

Chagrined beyond endurance, Mrs. von Koenitz returned home alone to New York-, where, she stated, she discovered that her husband had ordered in her name jewels of great value which she had never seen. She engaged detectives and learned, it was stated, that his portrait was in the "rogues' gallery," and that just before his marriage with her he had completed a two years' term of hard labor in Trenton Gaol for theft. The whereabouts of the "baron" are now unknown, and the Court reserved its decision.