The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-01-03
MARY ANTYNETTE.
STORY REGARDING FRENCH
QUEENS WATCH,

How 1t Wandered From Her Hands
When on the scafOId and Yves UIti-
mately Carried to America Where 1t
Was Discovered.
Louis Zeltner, the Whirlwind Wire
less News Wizard of the East Side, was
sitting In his Office opposite the Essex
Market court yesterday afternoon
mounrfully munching his mustache in
sorrow. Things had been going bad in
the news line.
Suddenly the wheels of the wireless
machine that the wizard always car
ries around with him began to go round
and round, buzzing and Sizing at a
great rate Hal git it; keep on. It
is a story; all right" calculated the
wizard, biting off both ends of his mus
tache in his eagerness.
What is it? Mary Ann? Oh, Mary
Antynett-the French Queen / re-
member now. There's a story in that,
sure. Her watch-dug UP after more
than century on the East Side of
New York? Sure, it's story" And
turning off the wheels, the wiz went
forth to spread the wondrous tale,
BY the time he had narrated the
yarn to the third or fourth subscriber
to the Wireless Wizards News Service
1t went something like this:
"Once pom a time there was a.
French Queen by the name Of Mary
Antynett, Who was she? I don't
know, except that she belonged to the
Limburger family, that of Austria
Well, she had watch. Fine watch
with pearls all around it. For some
reason or other they chopped her head
off. don't know why, and it does
seem funny way to do with queens
chop their heads off.
Well, she was great pals with a.
Portugeezer He was an ambassador
or something, by the name of Branco,
and great pals, as I said, with Mary
Ann-we'll call her Mary Ann for
short, Ell? Well, there's the scaffold,
and there she stands, al ready to have
her head chopped 5ff-with regret, Of
course, with regret-and of a sudden
she pulls this here watch out of her
dress and hands it to Branco Here,
old pal, here's something to remember
me by she says.
well. Branco takes it and puts it
away in the family safe. That's a
long time ago. Now here's the funny
part of it,
II happen to know Portugeezer
by the name of Branco He's a great
friend of mine. We were walking
along Canal street right by Abbey
Feinberg's pawnshop and I stopped to
look in. I've been looking for pair
Of solid gold link buttons to wear on
Saturday for about ninety-eight cents,
and | thought I'd see If any in Fem
bergs window had been reduced to
that yet. Well, was looking at them
marked $3.4S-looking and wishing and
Wishing and looking. All of a sudden
Franco grabs me by the arm. The
heitioan uf my family he says, point
ing to little watch set in a sort of
harp or Tyre with pearls all over it in
the window And then he tells me
this yarn. He's the great-grandson Of
this Branco, the queens pal, he says.
tAnd to-day made up my mind it's
true. Anyway, 1 can furnish you with
photographs of the watch"
BY this time the wizard was begin
ming to believe the yarn in every de-
tail. He dropped dark hints To some
Of his friends In the fish market along
Ridge street. The market was in
stantly in a futter with tales of the
treasures that had been discovered ON
the East Side. One story had 1t that
large slice of Captain Kids treasure
had been dug up In excavating for a
tenement somewhere along East
Broadway, and that the finders were
going to make hundreds of thousands
out Of II.
All that time a tiny watch, set in
golden Tyre for a frame, the whole set
with pearls and suspended by slen-
der chain from q small gold ring, was
reposing In the top drawer Of the desk
of David Bytton, of Bytton Bros,
South American exporters, with offices
in the Pulitzer building.
u am sure do not know whether
the watch belonged to Marie Antoi-
nette or not" said Mr.. Bytton. my
friend Freitas de- Branc1, of Madiria
Portugal has confded it to my care,
and all 1 know of it's history he tells
me. I suppose Mr.. zeitner has heard
one Of the versions of that story.
"Branco says that the watch was
once the property of Marie Antoinette.
She gave 1t to one Of her ladies of
honor somewhere around 1888. 1t re-
snained in the possession Of that lady's
family until 1910. In that year it was
given to his great grandfather who
was ambassador from Portugal to
France. 1t was taken TO the family
home in Funchal, Madeira and re-
NAMED in the safe there until about
fourteen years ago. 1t then disap-
peared, and we never knew what had
become Of 1t until two years ago, when
q Portuguese who had emigrated to
America returned and told us that one
of our servants had taken the watch
from the vault and gone to America
with it.
''Braneo, who is a great traveller.
came here a week or 50 ago, and net
ing on this mans information found
fI,a man who had fine iaUcl n mi at a