The Washington times. [volume], January 04, 1920, FINAL EDITION, The American Weekly, Image 31

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

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"7/^" HH
Persistently Hide Her Real
?rove Her to Self
entries are made in the space* allotted to the bride'a
father's name and rank.
Her age on the certificate was entered as thirty. If
this be correct it contradicts her claim to Hapsburg
paternity. The Meyerling trag
edy took place, at stated
above, on January 30, 1889.
Had Mrs. Steane been the
daughter of the Baroness Vet
sefa she must have been born
before that date, and would
consequently have been nearer
thirty-one years old than thirty
at the time of her marriage
with Captain Steane. On the
other hand, of course, the age
given on the certificate n\ay not
huve been correct.
She alleged that after the
Meyerling tragedy she was sent
out of Austria by the Govern
ment in charge of a priest, who
took her to America. After
ward she was cared for and ed
ucated in various convents,
most of her girlhood being
passed in Toronto, where she
was known as Alma Vetaera.
It was while Alma
was in Toronto that
she m$t a young cadet
of the Royal Military
College, Kingston,
and, with the wonder
of the great world
outside the convent
walls hardly out of
her eyes, she married
him. His name was
George Osborne
Hayne.
After Alma'a mar
riage to Mr. Hayne
the two lived in Mon
treal at the Windsor
Hotel, and were .received at many of the best houses in
the city.
At this time Alma waa only seventeen years of age,
and she showed every promise of being a very charming
and winsome woman. Her beauty and attractive manners,
together with the faint shadow of sadness which even then
occasionally darkened her generally happy temperament,
all combined to make her the pet of Montreal society.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayne visited Austria and tried to obtain
from the authorities recognition of Mrs. Hayne's claim to
be the daughter of Crown Prince Rudolph. Their effort?
failed, and during the same year, 1911, the Austrian Gov
ernment isued an official pronouncement stating that a?
ho child was born as a result of the infatuation of the
Crown Prince for the Baroness Vetsera no person could
genuinely claim such ancestry.
After a brief period it became apparent that all was
not roses in the married life of the young couple. A little
( boy was born to them, and very soon after this event Mr.
' Hayne went to New York, leaving his wife behind in
1 Montreal.
During her husband's absence Mrs. Ilayne met a young
man named Justin R. McDougald, who lived in Montreal,
and the two became close friends.
Mrs. Hayne decided to institute divorce proceedings
against her husband, and for this purpose she went to
New York Young McDougald followed her and re
mained in her company. Mr." Hayne took counter-pro
ceedings This was followed by the return to Montreal
of Mrs. Hayne and young McDougald.
On their return to that city the young man's father
interposed. He induced his son to accompany him to St.
Benoist Joseph Asylum at Longue Point, and had him
detained in order to give him time to reflect over his
conduct.
While there he wrote several piteous letters to Mrs.
Hayne, telling her of his plight and imploring her to
assist him to escape. This led to a most exciting fight for
freedom.
Through the connivance of Mrs. Hayne a file was
ksmuggled to the incarcerated young man by means of a
[ box of candy.
i A night was decided on for the escape. The bars
^that kept McDougald from freedom were to be cut, the
young man was to lower himself quietly to the grounds
below, where a conveyance waited at the asylum gate to
bear him away to the woman he loved.
The attempt proved a failure, however The sound of
the file against the steel of young McDougald's prison
bars was heard by the keen ears of the asylum warders,
and the bid for freedom was frustrated.
Further piteous letters were sent from the prisoner
to Mrs. Hayne, begging her to discover some other way
to help him out of his plight.
A second attempt was made. On a dark night a few
days later a high-powered motorcar bearing three or four
friends of the young couple travelled to Longue Point to
reconnoitre the place, with a view to making an effort to
release the young fellow on the following night.
Shortly before midnight of the appointed day a big
touring car containing five men arrived noiselessly on the
?oene. The guards of the asylum, however, were not
aatoep, and noon the ehallenge waa given to those who
A graceful
photograph
of tha
mysterious
suicide
taken a few
weeks
ago
in London
Pretty Alma Vetsera, as she called her*
aelf, in a recent photograph taken
at the photograph studio of
?>allle Charles, and her little
son, "Bunny" Hayne
were seen to be croucbmg in the shadow of the asylum
gate.
No satisfactory answer being given, the guards opened
lire on the party. This was returned by the would-be
rescuers, one of whom emptied a chamber of revolver
shots on the custodians of the institution.
A general alarm resulted; lights began to appear about
the grounds and reinforcements beat off the attack. The
would-be rescuers clambered back into their car and dis
appeared into the darkness.
Accepting the hopelessness of quixotic rescue. Mrs.
Hayne decided to appeal to the law to assist her oause,
and applied for a writ of habeas oorpua demanding the
asylum authorities to "deliver up the body of Juatin B.
MeDougald."
When the case was called the asylum brothers did not
appear, but Mr McDougald, Sr., was in' court on their
behalf. The case was adjourned so that the brothers
might appear.
After the adjournment Mrs. Hayne appealed to the
young man's father and agreed to accompany him to the
asylum. What transpired on this journey has never bee*
revealed, but on the way Alma agreed not only to make
no further fun about the young man's incarceration, but
even agreed .to persuade him to remain there of his own
consent until his father agreed to his release.
A new romance of a different type entered Mrs. Alma
Vetsera Hayne'a life after her divoree and her removal to
New York. It waa then that she met and married young
Donald Shields Andrews, a aenior student at Yale, eon of
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Andrews, of Clet*
land, Ohio.
Shields wu at the time engaged to MiM
Elizabeth Strong, of his own city. Social
history says that Mrs. Hayne first met the
young man through his fiancee, Miss
Strong, whose friendship she made while
visiting at Camden, S. C.
At Camden Alma Vetsera heard all
about Miss Strong's engagement to marry
the young Yale undergraduate, Donald
Shields Andrews. The trusting Ohio
fiancee was unreserved in her adoration of
her charming and brilliant guest. When
Alma Vetsera left for New York it is said
that Miss Strong wrote to her fiance, giv
ing a glowing description of hlr new
friend, and ended:
"Be sure you call on her. You'll find
her a perfect love. Your devoted Bess.''
Young Andrews proved to be an obedi
ent fiance. He called on Mrs. Hayne at
her studio apartment, Central Park South,
New York. He found her attractions
quite up to Miss Strong's specifications.
About a week after the meeting /which
little Miss Strong engineered they went to
Mamaroncck and were married there on
April 27, 1915, and sailed for Europe.
Two month* later the deserted little fiancee learned
that Donald Shields Andrews had returned from Europe
alone; that he did not return to Yale to be graduated
with the rest of his class, but that he did have a heart-to
heart talk with his father and was later found doggedly
at work in the paternal copper mines in Michigan.
Again divorced, Mr*. Hayne became a permanent resi
dent of London, and het social popularity increased rap
idly. Her various matrimonial experiences were consid
ered no bar to her admissitp in the highest circles.
She dressed in exquisite taste and without regard to
cost. One woman who kne* her estimated that she did
not spend less thai* $50,000 a year on her
clothes.
And here lies one ol the many mysteries of
her life. From her earKest days, even before
f*\ any of her numerous marriages, she had been
abundantly supplied -with money. She once
told a friend that the late EiKneror Francis Jo
seph of Austria had furnisha< $1,000,000 for
ber maintenance and education on conditioiflhat she should
be taken away from Austria and that the secret of her
parentage should never be revealed. y
It was no secret that some of the most promihent yoking
noblemen of England and officers of the army, i^cu of ?
superior type to those noblemen who offer their hfearta to
Gaiety girls, were ardent suitors for her hand. Captain
Cedric Sebastian Rteane, although a handaome young loan
of wealth, several years younger than herself, was by no
means the most distinguished of her suitors.
With characteristic impulsiveness the married him
soon after he appeared in her circle, leaving the rest of
her friends and admirer* amased at her auddenneas.
And then aha killed herself for home undiaeoverablt
reason withiu three months of an idyllic houeymoao.