New-York tribune., 1910-03-07

nanaSerS III Inc country. Mr. Blaine said
of him in Twenty Years of Congress:
He is business man of great personal
popularity. He has an aptitude for public
affairs, and is n man of influence in his
state. lie is no debater. but has strong
common sense and q quick judgment of
men"
In 1871 Mr.. Platt became president of the
Southern Central Railroad and in 1855 presi-
dent OF the Addison and Northern Pcnnsyl-
van!a Railroad: neither OF these is now in
existence. He was also director OF the Ches-
apeake. Ohio S5 Southwestern Railroad and
the Florida Central & Western Railroad.
He served. in order. as secretary, director
and president of the United States Express
Company. In 1876 Yale conferred upon him
the honorary degree OF 4. NJ.
Mr. Platt married Miss Ellen Barstow, of
! Owego. in 1852 For nineteen years Mr.. and
Mrs. Platt lived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel
every winter. although Senator Piatt al
ways maintained a voting residence in Ii
oga County. Mrs. Platt was the daughter
Of Charles Rollins Barstow. who went from
Stockbridge. Mass. to Tioga County. y. V,
in 1909. TO live with his uncle. DIR. GaTaaliel
Barstow. who was a state Treasurer and
Senator. and otherwise prominent in early
New York political affairs.
England early in the seventeenth century
and settled at Hanover. Mass. Her mother,
Charlotte Corurn. was granddaughter of
Jonathan Plat. an officer in the 4th New
York Regiment in the Revolution. Her
mother was a cousin of Senator Platt. Miss
Barstow and the Senator went TO school to-
gether and were Sweethearts early in their
teens
Senator and Mrs. Platt attended the Mar
bie Collegiate Church. in Fifth avenue.
Formerly they went to DR.. Parkhurst's
church.
Senator Platt's first wife died in Febru-
AIRY. 1901. and ii was not long after that
Mrs. Lillian r. JaneWay. then employed in
the Congressional Library, began TO be
known as the fiancee of the Senator.
He had obtained place for her in the
library soon after the death of her lius-
band, DIR. Theodore Janeway, of New York,
who died in 1897. Mrs. Janeway's maiden
name was Carrie Thompson, and her first
marriage was To a travelling salesman
named Snow. She divorced him about two
years later and came TO New York with
a daughter to live. While living here shc
became critically ill and was attended by
Or Janeway. whom she married shortly
after her recovery. AT the time Senator
Piatt became acquainted with her she
changed her first name from Carrie 10 Lii
liam.
When the rumors of her approaching
marriage to Senator Platt became numer-
Gus Miss Mae <. Wood, who then held a
s1,400 place in the Postoftico Department.
announced herself the future Mrs. Platt
Finally Mrs. Janeway publicly announced
her engagement 10 the Senator, and the
news was Immediately confirmed by him.
She had left her place in the Congress
sionaI Library and had gone to live in a
handsome house near the Army and Navy
Club in Washington.
Miss Wood was in Europe when she
heard of the announcement, and came back
Immediately with a satchel of love letters
alleged TO have been written by the Sem
ator. She reached New York, however,
Just twenty-four hours after the marriage
ceremony had been performed III the Hol-
land House on October II, 1908. the we'd
ding having been soemnized four days be-
fore the date which had been set.
After brief and admittedly unhappy
life the couple, widely separated from the
beginning by their variant ages, executed
on November i, 1906, a deed of separa>
ton, which was made public a few days
later
In the mean time Miss Mae c. Wood
had been continual thorn in the side of
the aged Senator, and finally, on May -,
1908. her suit for divorce. on the ground
that he had been married to Mrs. Janeway
after the alleged marriage to herself, was
begun in the Supreme Court before Jus
tice O'Gorman. On May 21, 1905, Justice
/ O'Gorman dismissed the suit for divorce
and announced his belief that the plain
tiffs evidence as to the alleged marriage
was "a most wicked attempt by forgery
and perjury to establish marriage"