The age-herald., 1898-10-25
Mrs. Augustus Van Wyck Was
 A Southern Belle and Beauty

A recent sketch in the New York Times gives very interesting glance into the home of Justice Van Wyck, the democratic candidate for governor of New York. In that home reigns Mrs. Van Wyck, a gracious presence. Mrs. Van Wyck is a native of Virginia, having been born in Brunswick county. She was Miss Leila c. Wilkins. daughter of the late pr. William W. Wilkins, of Brunswick.
 There is no childish batter of footsteps In the house of Van Wyck, as there is In the house of Colonel Roosevelt says the writer in the Times. The children have long since passed to the estate of womanhood and manhood. Both are married, and the daughter is a mother. The Van Wyck home not only had the romping Of children, but the ceremonies attendant upon young ladyhood." Miss Leila Van Wyck some half a dozen years ago blossomed out into a belle. A typical southern beauty, none the less southern for her Brooklyn birth, she became not little of parsonage in Brooklyn society.
 Then the Van Wyck house was very gay indeed The judge had perforce to enter ex- clusively into Brooklyn social life. Miss Leila Van Wck ruled her little coterie as Miss Leila Wilkins years before had ruled hers in Virginia, finally picking Augustus Van Wyck from her retinue of suitors Like mother, like daughter. Both were wonderfully attractive women, the mother in her time perhaps fairer. This can be judged from an oil painting that hangs in the judges parlor of Mrs. Van Wyck in the quaint costume of civil war days.
 It was not to be supposed that even a supreme court justice could keep at home forever girl like this young southern beauty. Miss Leila finally married, and is the wife of P. W. Osborne, assistant dis trict attorney of New York. She lives in the Borough of Manhattan, and the justice has recently became a grandfather. His William NVynI tba judges father. old New Yorker of many parts, is married as well.
 Thus the home at 172 Hancock street is quiet nowadays. It is an old home, for all 1t appears fresh and new. Some fifteen yeara ago Judge Van Wyck built it. being the third man to build on that block, pio- neer in New Brooklyn.
 The parlor is notable chiefly for the DOT traits of ancestors that peer down from the walls and for Mrs. Van Wyck's harp. Un- known even to amateurs of the musical world Is this ladys skill on the most TO- mantle of all instruments, and yet she plays charmingly. From the parlor steal often sweet strains to the man behind the doors and in the room beyond solving complicated questions of law. Besides her harp play ing, Mrs. Van Wyck, 1t should be said, is a forceful woman who is a good hostess and fond of society and public life.
 The portraits mentioned depict genera tions of Van Wycks Mavericks and Will kinsons. In them may be seen the inter- mingling of southeron and Dutch burgo- master blood in this household. Augustus and Robert Van Wyck are themselves half southerners. They were brought up in North Carolina. The Mavericks were their mothers family.
 Judge Van Wyck would be seldom seen in the world of society, in fact, were 1t not for his wife. Mrs. Van Wyck is never so happy as when in the midst of rout or function. The Van Wycks' favorite sum- mer stopping place is Saratoga. One hears much of them there.