The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-23
A VERY ROMANTIC AFFAIR
NORWIOH MAN RENIARRIES WIFE
OF HIS YOUTH.
Had Been Divorced for Twenty Years, and
Both Had Been Married Since-Their
Son Brought About a Reconciliation.

bOth hHu been Married Hihce-' heh
Son Brought About Reconciliation.
New York Herald,(
], de Trafford Blackstone and the
Mrs. Blackstone "who was and is to be"
will leave the Waldorf next Thursday
for Philadelphia, where, after a sepa-
ration of twenty years they will be re-
married Both have had matrimonial
partners since. Under the Connecticut
law Mrs. Blackstone obtained divorce
from her first husband on the ground
of incompatability of temper They
have become reconciled because they
never really fell out of love with each
other, and because Of the good offices
of their son, now a youth of twenty,
who occupies high place in their at
fections.
There will be brief wedding trip,
and then Mrs. Blackstone will go to her
husbands home in Norwich, Conn, his
bride for the second time.
J. de Trafford Blackstone is the son
Of Lorenzo Blackstone, a wealthy
manufacturer of Norwich. The author
of "Blackstone's Commentaries" was
his great-great-uncle, and the founder
of the American house of Blackstone
was of the first settlers of Boston. Mr.
Blackstone was graduated from Yale in
1858. He saw something in life before
and after he left college.
He owned horses and yachts and
made frequent excursions to New York.
In one of his visits to the metropolis
he met Miss Elizabeth A. Whitaker,
Who under the name of Lillian Os-
borne, was the reigning stage beauty.
She was the "Lillie Dean of THE
| Mighty Dollar" the play in which Mr..
w. j. Florence had caught the town.
Miss Whitaker was born in Halifax.
She spent her girlhood years in Spring
field, Mass. She was a brilliant and &C
complished young woman She was
proficient in music and painting, for
she had studied under the best masters.
She had her crowd Of admirers and
then she was queen.
Young Mr.. Blackstone fell in love
| with her and proposed marriage. She
accepted him.
The young couple were first married
| in this city, and made their home in
| Norwich. The next few years were
memorable ones in the history of Nor
wich Mr. and Mrs. j. de Trafford
| Blackstone became leaders in the So
ciety of the New England city. He had
| Mayflower ancestry. an honored race
and money She had beauty and clev-
| a, Tom ri a G c Z
managed the musicals she conducted
| the art clubs which she organized are
still the talk of Norwich.
| Rumors began to reach the peopl col
Norwich that young Mr.. and Mrs
| Blackstone We're not as happy as they
| seemed These rumors We're confirm
| ed when in 1877, Mrs. Blackstone lief
home and went back to her relatives II
New York, leaving her infant son witt
his father
The courts of Connecticut, under the
| ''incompatibility of temper clause
now repealed, granted a divorce to Mrs
Blackstone shortly afterward
Mrs Blackstone was married in 1871!
to Samuel S. Sondheim, of the firm O
sondheim Brothers, brokers, at No. q
/
then twenty-nine years of age, ant
| Mrs Blackstone twenty-five years o
age. Mr.. Sondheim. in his love for her
threw aside all differences of creed
They We're married by the Rev. DR.
lGottheil, of the Temple Emanuel. The.
went to Yonkers to live. where MI
Sondheim furnished a magnificen
house They did not live happily.
Mrs. Sondheim was expected at din
ner given by her mother-in-law in New
York one evening seventeen years age
She did not come. Her husband foun,
brief note on her dressing table say
ing that she had gone away not to re
turn. She took her jewelry and $100
he had given her for household ex
penses" She went to Paris, where sh
mingled in the society of arts and let
ters Mr. Sondheim procured dvorc
and has since been happily married.
Before she married Mr.. Sondheir
Mrs Blackstone had made an effort t
get possession of her son, Lorenzo, VIII
was then at his fathers house in Nor
witch. She made a rapid sally into tn
town one day in the absence of MI
Blackstone and bore the boy in trump
to the New York boat. He was the
two years old There were all manne
of habeas corpus proceedings after tina
and finally, after several months of lit
CATION the courts gave the custody @
the boy to his father. In all thes
years the mothers affection for tn
boy has never waned.
After the second divorce she wa
known as Nine. Blackstone. She be
came a favorite in Paris. Her salo
was thronged with men and wome
known the world over. She had man
admirers-artists, authors, a Russia
prince or two; yet she never marie
again.
She became a pupil of Madrazo, tn
portrait painter. She is a woman {
unquestioned artistic talent. Her pi,
lures were accepted by the Frenc
Salon in 1890 and for thp Ia Of elk Vea1