Richmond times-dispatch. [volume], April 18, 1920, Image 62

About Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
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TF7f?? Is the Secret That Explains the
Death of Bliss Jeanne Be Kay,
Long Vanished Daughter of the
Spectacular
American Multi
Millionaire9 in
the Cold Waters
of Lake
Michigan?
After Having Disappeared for Four
Months and Being Searched for
Throughout the World the Body of
Miss Jeanne De Kay Was Found in
th?- Cold Waters of Lake Michigan.
t ^iGUR months ago Jeatmo De Kay. liifc
young daughter of John W. De Kay,
^ tho multi-millionaire packing ftni:.
vnnislied from the world's sight and knowl
edge as completely as if (hp Chicago street
c.n which she was last seen had suddenly
opened b?ncath her feet and swallowed
After a world wide search, her body has
Just hern found floating in Lake Michigan.
But tho finding of the girl's body has not
dispelled the mystery. Indeed, a disap
pearance that seemed to be. as strange as
that of Dorothy Arnold, the New York
society girl who dropped out of sight sev
eral years aro. turns out to be far stringer
For the possible explanations of Miss
Arnold's disappearance are comparatively
few and ull quite simple. But for the
Iragody of Jeanne De Kay there arc many
possible explanations?some of then more
surprising than any novelist or playwright
has told, vet all possessing elements of
plausibility that are most convincing.
Wiia she a victim of morbid vanity?
fler face was scarred by smallpox. Over
this is is known that Miss De Kay brooded.
It is even said that those scars had caused
her to ho disappointed in lore. Driven
mad by morbid regret for lost beauty, did
aae throw herself into the lake?% Many of
her fri"iids belie\e this may lie true.
Or was poor little Jeanne De Kay the
victim of the international political in
trigues in which her father has long played
a prominent part? There are many who
think so. They believe cither that she was
murdered in revenge for some real or
fancied grievance against her father, or
that terror of these agents, who she
thought were pursuing her, drove licr to
suicide.
Still a third theory hold that Jeanne De
Kay's disappearance was caused by a sud
den disgust for the lifo of ease and luxury
sr.e had hitherto led. and a feeling that
she could find true happiness by earning
her living, as .so many other less fortunate
.girls had to do. Acting on this impulse she
may have renounced her claims to wealth,
have changed her name, and then have
lost herself among the working women of
Chicago- either as a nurse, a sl'.opgirl or
a humble domestic servant.
But. these friends argue, this sudden
transformation may have proved too dif
ficult. In the sphere of life so strange to
ber sbo may have failed to find the happi
ness that she sought. Too proud to go
back to her old ways and confess herself
defeated, might she not have sought death
as the easic > way out of her perplexities?
It seems very unlikely that Jeanne Do
Kay could have had her mind fixed on sui
cide vlien she walked out of Hull House
on the night of December SO. If so, why
wa-? shn u! such pains to take along her
toothbrush? The thought of suicide?if
such it war must have come later, after
who knows what strange adventures and
hardships.
Whatever the answer, it may now never
be> known Murder or suicide? th? secret
Is locked up in the dead brain of the blue
eyed, unhappy girl who?e body the crew
of a police boat saw floating upon the icy
waters of the lake not fur from Chicago?
as though it were striving to make its
way back.
Anl here enters another factor of the
royetery. How long the body may have
been in the water cannot be definitely tt?!d
within a period of a month Outsido of
that all must be guesswork. The 'otnpera
ture of tho waters has been so low that no
real difference could bo discovered be
tween a corpse* submerged within them
four months ago and one within a month
ago.
Identification of the body ;\as made bv
Miss Gertrude Howe Hritton, of Hull
House, in which Mies De Kay wa- a worker
?when ehe vanished. Mi.js Britton has been
one of the most unremitting searchers for
:be girl.
Thero are, has been s?id. a great
number of possible explanations of tho
utrange fate of Jeanne De Kay. Which of
them would you seloct as the answer to
her.
Was She the Victim of the Ven
geance of Her Father's Mexi
can Entanglements?Kidnapped
and Sent to Her Death in
Cruel Reprisal?
Miss Jeanne De Kay, the Long
Missing Heiress of Millions, the
Discovery of Whose Body Has Just
Ended a World-Wide Search.
the ridlle If you wrro a detective charged
with the task of clearing tip the mystery?
Before you could reach a derision you
would need to know as much as possible
about the girl herself?Iter personality,
her ambitions, he: past life, and particu
larly what she had been doing immedi
ately prfcPilius her disappearance. And
you would also do well to Rive more than
a passing glance at the tangled web of
intrigue and adventure which lias for
many yearn woven itself about her father.
When a young man John W. De Kay
drifted from the editorship of a small
Illinois newspaper to Mexico. Tiie warm
friendship which he formed with Presi
dent Diaz enabled iiim to obtain conces
sions that quickly tilled his pockets with
millions. Uo gained almost a comnlete
monopoly of the Mexican meat business
and wa? known as "The King of the
Packers "
But when Diar. died and Madero came
into power Do Kay lopt the political in
tiimnce that had made him wealth'-, lie
sold his Mexican holdings for $C>.OOO.Orto
and wont to Ruropo to livo. There, it is
said, he - erved as Huerta's confidential
agent and bought for him latge quantities
of rilles and cartridges.
Much importance is attached bv those
who believe that Jeanne I)e Kay was mur
dered <>r that Bhe was driven to death by
fear of being kidnapped and held as a
hostage to the important role her father
i,as played in the Mexican plots and coun
ter-plots of recent years. The bitter enmi
ties that animate Mexico's rival factions
would not, it is thought, atop at the mur
lor or kidnapping
of an innocent
girl in ordei 10
be revenged on a
fon or to force
some concession
from him.
It such desper
a te conspirators
tlieru were they
doubtless know
tho girl well, for
she had spent
many v ears in
? Mexico. And t!if y
know, too, that
she was her fath
er's favorite child
and that they
roul d strike no
harder blow at
h i in t h a n b y
bringing her to
harm.
It was while living in the City ot Mex
ico that Jeanne | Kay was stricken with
smallpox. The disease loft her taco badly
pitted. The greatest specialists were ap
pealed to in vain?nothing that science
could suggest \va; able to restore the
satiny pink-and-whlte beauty of her cheeks.
For years after this Jeanne was a sad.
lonely cirl. forever brooding over the ugly
disfigurement she waq doomed (o carry
through life. Although more recently slw
had st'cmpil more reconciled to her afflic
tion. keen .students of feminine character
believe tha.t she Mt i 11 nursed her sorrow
in secret. Finallv. they think, it. beramo
so unbearable that it drove her lo .suicide
after, perhaps, i vain attempt to find for*
<Ci l!'in. R&Viitc Service. Inc.
Dorothy Arnold, Whose Inexplic
able Disappearance Is Less Strange
Than Miss De Kay's Vanishing and
Mysterious End.
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get fulness in 'he
workaday world.
There is reason
to believe t h a t
her vanity's
v.- o u n d s were
made Mill more
grie/ous by si
shattered ro
mance. in France,
just after tho
signing of the
armistice. Jeanne
is said to have
met a young
Ameiican officer.
It was a case of
love at first sight
on her part, and
for a time it
seemed to be so
on h'.is. I5ut 3oon
(ho officer's in
terest in the hcjr
ess began to wane: she siiw him le^s and
les-s; finally even his letters stopped com
ing: and presently sh<- beard that he was
to marry a Parisian maiden.
Jeanne was broken-hearted, ller over
sensitive nature convinced her thai it was
because she was not like other sirls- be
cause her face was pitted?that her lovo
had not been returned. She could not
bear to remain longer in Kurope with only
idle luxury to distract her mind, so she
obtained her father's reluctant consent to
come to Anteric.- *ind engage in ?eltli*
lnent work under the famous Jane Addams
at-Hull House. Chicago.
Griet over this unhappy love affair, add
ed to years of brooding over her lost
Great Ilntain Rij'-V Reeerred.
beauty?may tins not nave provco a bur
den .<o intolerable that death seemed wel
come?
Exactly the i-amo causes, it is argued,
mipht have led her to seek obilvirn in life
rather than death. Finding it impossible
to live longer whore there would always
ho everything to remind her of what might
have been. is it not quite posfcible that she
divided to seek forgetfulncss by cutting
herself off from family, friends and for
tune and joining the great army of work
ing girl.-?
Hid the enemies who sought through her
to h.-i-m her father finally encompass her
death? Or was she driven to suicide by
l.er iiilure to And forgotfulness in the way
she had expected?
In support of the theory that before she
found her way into the cold waters of Lake
Michigan she had tried for a time to fi^ht
the world single-handed and alone, asso
ciates of Jeanne at Hull House recall how
eager she was to do the most menial kinds
of housework?tasks which an heiress
would harllv be expected to enjoy. The day
before she disappeared she bought herself
aprons and dust caps an'! pleaded to be
allowed to take over the duties of a man
who cleaned the ifbrary.
Jeanne undoubtedly inherited from her
father ninny of his socialistic instincts. It
was to satisfy these that she took tip her
residence at flull House and began an
apprenticeship in social service work un
der the guidance of Miss Addanis.
Perhaps her brief experience at TIull
House convinced her that she could be of
greater service to humanity by biding her
identity under an assumed name and go
ins out to work alone and unaided among
the poor and afflicted. Such a spectacular
and daring move as this would be one that
would appal most girls, but it is nothing
more than might be. expected from the
daughter of a man of John \V. He Kay's
temperament.
His career, not only in finance and in
ternational politics, but in literature aa
well, has always been characterized by a
pas.-ion for the surprising, the unusual.
Among his literary achievements is a play
entitled "Judas." which he wrote for Sarah
Bernhardt and in which the betrayer of
the Saviour is raised in the most astonish
ing fashion to the place of hero. This
drama proved so shocking to the religious
sentiments of the American people that its
production in this country wafc forbidden.
Hut what of the life the little heiress
was leading just before she faded so
strangely from the world's sight? Is thero
p*-, Brooding: Over the Scars o
Smallpox That Disfigured Her, Dii
She Become Insane and Throv
Herself Into the Lake? Again, n.
Shown by the Picture on tlie Left
She May Have Hidden Under An
other Name, Worked Among th
Poor and Afflicted, and Failing t
F ind the Happiness She Had Hopei
For, Fearing to Confess Failure
Have Destroyed Herself.
in the events of those few weeks vo clei
to her death?
Jean no De Kay left Europe on the Ita
Ian steamship Duca d'Aosta and landed i
New vork December 19. She was accon
pained by her brother John. who. afte
escorting his f.|Fter to Chicago, was t
enter ihe tnlversity nf Virgbiia.
The twenty-year-old heiress and be
brother were subjects (0 a searching e:
amination by the agents of the Depar
rr.ent of Justice who met tho steamshlj
fhis was done, so tho secret service me
said. becauso they believed De Kay, th
father, had been an extensive buyer c
munitions and also the author of severr
radical books. Hut the young people nav
a satisfactory account of fhemse'ves an
were allowed to go on to Chicago.
Jeanne settled down with npparent ei
Joyment to her work at Hull House. Marl
In the evening of December "0 she wa
seen to leavo the house, and from th:
moment all trace of her is lost. Searc
of her room revealed that besides th
clothes Pho wore .slio took none of he
personal belongings otheV than a sma
purse containing $2 and a tooth inrush.
After the girl's disappearance be
brother recalled tho fact that, on the vo;
age to America Jeanne had become ver
intimate with two Rumanian ladies
Mrs. Krnestlno Salter and her daughtr
Did'-. When Ecr.rch for them was Inst
luted it was found that Mrs. Salter ha
already returned to Rumania. Didy, wh
was finally located in New York afte
considerable difficulty, denied any ,w.now
edge that would throw light on ??ann
He-.Kay's whereabouts or the rcaF<?ns fo
her disappearance.
nut while the police were searching to,
the aalters there came into their hands .
cablegram from the father of the missin
heiress, which said among other things
' Very anxious. Jeanne confided In Ri
manian lady. Stop."
What was the precious Informatlor
which Mr. De Kay believed lit? daugbte
had given away? Whom was he so ant ;
ious to stop?
Curiously enough, the relatives one)
(loscst, friends of the missing girl wen."
not at all agreed as to whether she wa
aiive or dead or what had become of her
Judge Thomas Z. Lee, of Providcnce
R. I., the attorney who represents Join
W . De Kay In this country and undoubt
edly echoed his client's own belief, wa.vij
confiden :hat the. girl committed suicide
A_ cousin of Jeanne?Charles Do Knyf
the distinguished New Vork art critic
was equally positive that she was
alive and well and was keeping out 05,
sight of her own volition. "She's r clovox
little miss, he said, "and ;>ho will reap-'
pear when she has made good at whatever:
she has set her mind on."
The brother, John D Kay. Jr., was of the'
same opinion, but he thought it was worrv
over her facial blemishes rather than the
desire to demonstrate that a pampered
heiress can make her way In the world'
winch impelled her to run away. "If she
bad been going to kill herself she would
never have bothered to take along her
toothbrush." the young man arguel
.Mrs. Gertrude Ifowe Britton, a'social
worker who was closely associated with
Jeanne at Mull House, was until the dis
covery of the body unable fo make up her
mind whether the girl was alivo or dead.!
Her hope that tho former was tho case'
was based largely on the eagerness she
constantly showed for an opportunity to
work with her hands."
Can it bo that the answer to tho riddle
nf unhappy little Jeanne Do Kay's fato
will some day be found in a Mexican ban
dit camp or in the secret archives of sora*
European Government?
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