The record-union., 1896-03-07
VICTORIA MOROSINI.
The Beauty Who ElOped With Her
Fathers COaChman.
The Remarkable Infatuation of This
New York Society Belle Story
of Famous Disappearance.

VI IduOUs LISA PCd1 dACC'
Victoria Morosini, daughter of Banker
@. p. Morosini, is now living in the Con-
vent of the Sisters of st. Joseph, corner
of Meadow street and Convent avenue,
Rutland, Vt AS Mrs. Ernest Huels-
kamp pSchilIng, wife of her fathers
coachman, it will be remembered, she
figured as one of the most mysterious
disappearances the press of New York
has ever tried to fathom. Her elope
ment with SchiIling on September 8.
1884, and her subsequent appearance as
a choir girl at the Casino and then her
strange departure, in what direction no
one could say, were successive chapters
in an always interesting story of met
ropolitan life. Additional interest was
given to the case from the wealth and
high business standing of Giovanni P.
Morosini who was an intimate friend
and associate of the late Jay Gould.
The discovery of Victoria Morosini is
beyond question or doubt, as the fol-
Lowing details will fully establish
Schilling's own search for his runaway
wife, carried on as it was under great
difficulty, was followed by the public
with dramatic interest. Many persons
volunteered to aid him, but sentiment
and sense of fair play proved feeble
weapons against money and the social
prestige of one of New York's leading
families.
The detective instinct of scores of per-
sons who have followed this case as Poe
used to run down the thread of a tragic
mystery, led in almost every instance to
the doors Of a cloister. %nis refuge
seemed to be the most natural one for
her, and when Victorias mother died,
December 3, 1898, and the funeral was
delayed four days, many of those who
went to the little private chapel of the
Sisters of Charity in Mount Saint Vim
cents Convent, where the funeral serv-
ices were held, hoped to identify the
daughter in the crowd of praying nuns.
But the solemn day passes without a
sign of her. That Victoria attended
the funeral there is little doubt. She
had been living at Rutland for about a
year, under the name of Miss Baldwin.
and was in the habit of visiting her
family at Riverdale-on-the-H Hudson
once or twice year. So that the recon
ciliation was, as had been guessed, a
reality
The day seemed impenetrable as the
Morosini's mystery when the repre-
sentative of the Sunday World en-
tered the State of Vermont having as
a clue the chance remark of a Massa-
chusetts woman of fashion that she
had seen Victoria out driving with a
young lady in East Dorset, VT, and
that she was later seen with a sister of
the Order of st. Joseph in Vermont.
There are in that State three converts
of the Order of st. Joseph.
THE RUTLAND CONVENT.
The reception-room of the Rutland
Convent is at the left as one enters the
building on the first floor. In the rear
and at the west is a schoolroom where
children from the city are taught by
the nuns, who are always dressed in
black, except for the white band across
their forehead
In the rear to the east is the nuns
private chapel, which has an exit to the
east lawn A stairway leads from the
right of the main entrance to the Sec
ond floor. In the northeast corner of
the second floor is the main music
room, connecting with other and sim
liar music rooms.
The most praeticed eye would fail to
discover in the building anything be-
yond the simple outfittings of con-
vent, with parochial school accommoda-
tions.
There must be at least eight pianos
in the various music rooms, and one
of them was notably finer than the rest.
This fact was noted as the first break
from the monotony which characterizes
the institution.
Several of the boarders' chambers are
Boarders are girls who are there to re-
ceive an education and are rarely over
II years of age. The convent contains
seventeen or eighteen boarders at pres
ent.
SHE TEACHES MUSIC.
Tt was learned later that a woman
boarder in the convent owned the ex-
pensive piano in the music room, and
that she taught music to both day pu-
pills and nuns. In passing back to the
head of the stairs a second view of the
piano disclosed a white rose dropped at
the side of the manual It was mute
witness of the story Of Victoria Moro
sinis life This piano was hers, and she
was in the convent-a boarder and nuns
teacher, and a lover of flowers and chill
dren.
nun. There is no evidence that she in
tends to. She lives at the convent,
dresses in black exactly like the Sisters
of st. Joseph, except for the white fore
head band While her convent life is
as plain. isolated and uneventful as that
of the strictest ascetic, she is not sub
iect to the discipline of the institution
beyond her wish. She has grown some
what stouter since the days when she
danced in tights with mandolin and
song at the Casino, while her German
husband made 50 a day as a Sixth
avenue conductor.
Her hair, the glimpse of it one can
see behind her black VEIL is still brill
tant and without trace of age or grief.
Victoria often walks out with a nun
or the Mother Superior, and occasionally
alone. A popularity of her head dress
is that she wears no covering but a
black veil Until within year this veil
has fallen over her face in the public
street. but latterly she draws it about
her face - as TO completely cover her
hair. She usually wears colored glasses,
although stin having perfect eyesight.
In spite Of this disguise, her clear
complexion and fine features only show
10 better advantage. Her life Of social
distinction is gone. but her beauty has
not been shrouded. even by the nun