Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-01-13
WOHS Or AMERICA'S
RICHEST FAMILY.
THB SERIES OF DEATHS THAT FAVE COME
NAFEW YEARS TO TEE ASIORS
Mstor.unss In a Group-Daughiers Carried Away
by tho Grim Rsapsr-Ihs Husbands Death
The La,ss. Of the Series Of Calamihss Is
The Death Of Mrs William Waldorf
As.or.

sorrow knocks at the palace OF the
rich rs well as st the howell Of the poor. 3"
IL is true to-day, as il was in the days
of Horace, aud it will DO true as long as
life has hopes, and loves, and fears.
We are apt 10 forget that, back OF the
millions, the costly jewels and the
goUdly raiment, are warm, loving, hu-
man hesrts. with beartaches and heart
breaks like our own.
Mrs. William Astor, who reigned as
queen over New York society for TWEEN
" years and more, has been crowned
with sorrow during the past five years.
So gracious and wOmanly and sweet is
this lovely woman that one cannot
iathOm the meaning Of the troubles
which have crowded down upon her.
The first great sorrow came Yeas
ago. Upon the walls of the Astor
drawing rooms hung the paintings Of
four lovely fresh young faces, the
daughters OF the house. The fairest
face is that OF the eldest daughter, Rose.
When she was bud Of Is, the JOY Of
her fathers heart, she fell in love. as
maldens do, and James j. Van Allen,
the we'll known society man, then a
dashing young fellow OF one and twenty,
was the lucky young man. But her
father bitterly opposed the marriage.
There was no personal objection 10 MIR.
Van Allen. but there had been feud of
long standing between the families, and
Mr. Astor would neither forgive nor
forget lie babe his daughter choose
between her lover and her father, and
she married the man she had chosen
out Of all the world.
Mr.. Astor made her an allowance OF
$4,000 year upon the condition that
she would always live out of New York
city. She and her husband went TO live
1T Newport, where they had a magnifi-
cent cottage "WaksburSt" where
Mr. Van Allen and her children still
live. Their winters they spent abroad,
for her husband was q very rich man
and gra,ided the slightest whim OF his
wife. After eight years OF happy mar
ried lie, but always with the shadow
OF the great sorrow OF separation from
all o. her home people hanging over
her, she died and is buried iG far Off
sunny France, aud the real cause of her
death was broken heart.
JOHN JACOB ASToR'S ILLNESS.
Five years ago John Jacob Aslor the
second, father Of William Waldorf As
tor and brother Of William Astor, died
after a sudden illness in his old fash
Toned mansion on Fifth avenue aud
Thirty-third street, the site OF the
Waldorf Hotel. Mourning for him was
laid aside after a year for the grand
wedding OF John Jacob Astor the
third to Miss Ava Willing in
Philadelphia on the 18th OF February.
1891 just at the close Of the year,
when little new life cane full
OF promise into The Aston household.
the young father. John Jacob Astor,
was on the border lane between life and
eternity, but the dread disease was van
pushed and this sorrow passed them
by.
10 1892 came the terrible Coleman
Drayton scandal, which created the
greatest sensation on both sides Of the
Atlantic. William Aston, Mrs. DTay-
toms father, was fer from we'll at the
time, and the worry and grief FASTENED
his death, which, by strange fatality,