The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-11-23
THE PRINCESS ELOPES.
Clara Waid Runs Away With Hun.
garian Musician-her Husband
will Bring Suit for Divorce.

Paris Nov 22-The Princess of Chi
may and Caraman, wife of Prince Jo-
seph of Chimay and Caraman, Belgium
has eloped with a Hungarian gypsy
musician, who was accustomed to play
in the Paris restaurants. Prince Jo-
seph will bring suit against his wife
for divorce in the Brussels courts. The
princess was formerly Miss Clara
Ward and was born in Detroit Mich.
She was married to Prince Joseph in
Paris in 1890, and Is the mother of two
children.
Clara Ward is not yet n years old,
and from the time she was IL she has
cut swath that indicates power or
elbow and impulse not readily to be
exhausted. The wonder of the Ameri-
can colonies in Europe at the infinite
variety of her girlhood changed to as
tonishment when she married Prince
Joseph Chimay, fourteen years her ell
der, but their interest in her meteoric
fight was not allowed to lag after the
nuptals The Princess Chimay's
brother worked into notoriety which
aided in keeping the family traits be-
fore the public, and he wound up by
eloping, as his sister now has done.
Their mother, in their infancy, had
startled the sober-minded Of Michigan
by Offering for $50,OOO the stocks and
SUdTtS-WHlCI dltcl "alu iSoii<Su
600. .OOO-that had belonged to her hus-
band, who had dropped dead in the
street. The man whose end was so sud
den was eccentric all his life. and his
eccentricities had furnished conversa-
tional topics to his Wolverine neignbors
in as great plenty as his children sub
sequently afforded themes to Euro
peans.
He was Captain Eben b. Ward. a
Canadian, who had come over to Michi-
gan without money. He started sail
ing on the great lakes IN 1896. In two
years he took to shipbuilding. and in
course of time he came to be called the
king of the lake ship owners. TIE built
two boats year-tney We're side-wheel
steamers--and by 1913 had laid the
foundations of a fortune. He settled In
Detroit in that year, and bought up
Michigan pine lands, and later on built
iron works in Wyandotte and in Chi
cago and Milwaukee,.
Among his odd leanings was an incli-
nation toward spiritualism, so strong
that the mediums, according to report,
made victim of him. In the early
seventies his fortune was estimated at
$l2 1000, 600 to $15,0OO,OOO, and he was one
of the biggest men of Michigan, but he
would never hold office. although he
could probably have had any office in
the state. He was unlettered, but was
of indomitable energy and will He
was caught short in the panic Of 73.
carrying too many enterprises on too
small a cash reserve, and some Of his
property was sacrificed to carry him
through. the result being a shrinkage
of several millions that had not been
retrieved when in 1875 he fell dead
His first wife, by whom he had seven
children. had died long before him,
and he had, at the age of 6l six years
before his end, married woman of
2S who became the mother of two chill
dren Clara and her brother. BY the
terms of her husbands will Mrs. Ward
received all his valuable holdings. but
his other relatives, who got nothing. In
sttuted a most vigorous contest and
she was obliged to defend lawsuits
that extended over nineteen years. She
was victorious. however. and, a very
wealthy woman. She married Alexan-
der Cameron. another Canadian. Her
daughter. Clara, then Princess Chimay,
celebrated the partition of the estate
and also her own twenty-first birthday
in February, 1894. by a grand dinner at
her home in Paris. The young girl was
very beautiful, as well as of great gay
ETY. Of spirit The title of Princess Chi
may was not in her keeping alone, an
the wife of the Due de Bouffrement, of
scandalous memory, whose name was
connected with some of the most sensa-
tional times of the Third Empire and
who died a few years ago.
The Princess Clara's brother. young
Ward, four or five years ago became
notorious in a scandal, and when his
wife sued for divorce he tossed over to
her lawyer a package Of papers repre-
senting property from which she has
received $4,000 annual incom. He af-
terward eloped with her maid and went
to Paris to live.
When Prince Baldwin. the heir to the
Belgian throne, died in a mysterious
way the name Chimay was connected
with the occurrence in the gossip of
the day. which had 1t that the Belgian
heir, whose profligacy was notorious.
had declared when 10 years old that he
would win the Princess Chimay. of
whom ne had become enamored at
sight. Gossip said that he was shot by
Prince Chimay