WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 225, 21 March 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") POISONED WIFE. HUSBAND AND GTRL CLERK . Allison Macfarland, a civil engineer, lias been convicted of poisoning his wife, Evelyn, in their home at Newark (U.S.A.) ont October 17. The jury found a verdict of murder in the first degree after deliberating for 13 hours. Macfarland's crime was remarkable, because it would probably never have been detected but for the fact that another crime of the same sort was attracting public attention. Mrs. Macfarland was killed by cyanide of potassium placed in a bottle similar to that containing "headache drops," which she was in the habit of using. The poison was taken into the house by the husband, and was left in a cupboard where the "headache bottle" usually stood. The wife took the poison while Macfarland was absent on business in New York. When the Coroner was summoned to enquire Into the death, he found Macfarland at home, imperturable and selfpossessed. The cause of his wife's death was then uncertain, and the Coroner confessed himself puzzled. Macfarland objected to having a post-mortem examination to determine this. "Couldn't you make it heart disease, and grant a certificate ?" he asked. The Coroner declined, and subsequent investigations showed that the wife had undoubledlv taken ; the cyanide in mistake for the' ''headache drops."

The killing of the choir girl, Avis Linnell, by the clergyman, Richeson, in Boston a few days previously by the same poison caused the authorities to make a rigid investigation, and this disclosed that Macfarland was infatuated "with a girl who had been his stenographer. The girl produced letters beginning "Dear Bumue," in Which Macfarland promised her to divorce his wife and marry her.

The case was pressed to trial, with the result that Macfarland was convicted with far less delay than is usual in murder cases here. He heard flie verdict With his-usual imperturbability, and, extending his hands to the detectives to be handcuffed, walked out of Court without a tremor and without glancing at his vhite-haired uncle, who had been his main support throughout the trial.

WEDDING OF LADY'S MAID MADE A SOCIETY FUNCTION. Toi be "wed in true society style" was the distinction accorded at Newport (England) recently to Mr. John Carr, chauffeur to Rear-Admiral McCrane Winslow, and Miss Catherine Dennejr, the pretty lady's maid of Mrs. Winslow. It has been the fashion for some time past among the plutocrats of Newport to set the cedent of loyalty in their servants by; giving them, once a year, a grand ball,, «o; that they may know the pleasure of dicing in their employers' polished ball-, rooms fcnd of drinking, with full permission, their employers' champagne. Admiral and Mrs. Winslow docided.on \ new departure. Learning that the chauffeur and the lady's maid were betrothed, they caused St. Mary's Church to, be. lavishly decorated with the most beautiful flowers,'as though for a real society wedding, and invited their friends and their friends' servants to be present at the ceremony. After the ceremony the couple were driven by another chauffeur to the residence of Admiral Winslow, where Mrs. Winslow presided over the wedding breakfast in the main drawing-room. A motor car was lent to the bridal pair for the honeymoon. After a two weeks' tour the bridegroom will return to his duties as chauffeur, and the bride will become again the dainty lady's maid.

| UNLUCKY JEWEL. I AMERICAN LADY DEFIES SUPERj STITION. ! ! London, February 7. The famous "Hope" diamond, which has such a tragic history, and which has long been regarded as the world's unluckies.t stone, was worn for the first time for years in Washington this week, lhe occasion was a reception to the Russian Ambassador given by Mr. and Mrs. E. B. McLean. The diamond was worn by the hostess as a pendant. Mr. McLean bought the diamond last year from a famous Parisian jeweller, on the understanding (according to a New York paper) that if the stone brought misfortune within six months it could be returned. _ Mr. McLean desired to return it within the stipulated period, but the jeweller declined to receive it, and a lawsuit followed, which has now been amicably adjusted. Mrs. McLean agreed to retain the diamond, and the price of £52000 has been paid. The reception afforded a fitting setting for the exhibition of the famed gem. More than £6OOO has been spent for the decoration and the collation including £IOOO for 4000 English lilies specially ordered from England. The McLeans are the parents of the "billiondollar baby," so called because he is expected to inherit the vast wealth of his multi-millionaire grandparents, Mr. John R. McLean and Mr. Thomas F. Walsh. He will be the richest child in the world. The Hope diamond was brought froni the east by the French traveller Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV. Tavernier's son ruined his father by speculation. Fouquet, Louis XlV.'s famous Minister, borrowed the stone and met with disaster It was given to Marie Antoinette, who died on the scaffold. The Princess de Lamballe, who occasionally wore it, was torn to pieces by the Paris mob. In 1830 Mr. Henry Thomas Hope, from whom it gets its name, bought it for £IB,OOO. He escaped disaster, and it seems to have remained quiescent until 1901, when Lord Henry Francis Hope sold it to a London merchant, who resold it to New York. The New York jeweller promptly became a bankrupt, and in 1908 a French broker got it for £60,000 and sold it to a Russian prince, who gave it to a beautiful actress. He shot her from a box the first night she wore it. and was assassinated by revolutionaries soon afterwards. The broker went mad and committed suicide. The next owner, a Creek, came to a violent death a few da\s after lie sold it to the then Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey, who lost his throne.

A DECEIVER OF WOMEN. Woven sorely deceived women marched into the Vienna Lower Criminal Court to give evidence against a man who had piomised the entire batch marriage and had borrowed money to the extent of about £I2OO from them. Prisoner, Karl Trilby, 42, belonging to an itinerant band of musicians, smilingly acknowledged that he had been solemnly betrothed almost equal to marriage in Austria \to all the women. The judge asked which one he had intended to marry. He said that he had not thought of marrying any of them, as he had already one / wife at home in his native place! Tie V was sentenced to 3</ s years' itnprisonI ment.