The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-06
GOTHAM GOSSIP
CRy Francis Phillips. Copyright 1910. by the National News Service. N. Y.)

N0W IOfks Jan. 6.-EufCQ6r ISSu- mony Indicating the close relations ex- isting between Robert Hoe, the mil lionaire printing press manufacturer, and Mrs. Margaret Johnson Johns, his ward has been brought out here in de- positions made by former servants of the woman who is suing the Hoe es- tate for $200,000 worth of bonds said to have been given her by her wealthy admirer. These depositions related to experiences in London and New York the family of Hoe and the executors of his will that the couple were more than cordial rn their friendship.
 The servants who made them swore Johns, then the legal wife of Lewis F. Brown, maintained a house rented for her by Hoe, the latter always occu- pied an apartment adjoining that of stopping at the same hotel with her and her young daughter, the printing press manufactures was regular call CT there and invariably remained until late in the evening. On these occasions the witnesses averred that they and the daughter of Mrs. Johns by her first husband, were invariably sent to an other part of the building. Both wit nesses corroborated each other in much of their testimony and declared that they voluntarily quit the employ ment of Mrs. Johns, because they did not consider her actions with Hoe proper
 Those who imagined that her star had set and would. never again loom large enough on the celestial canvas for any one to see it, were treated to a startling surprise this week by the Baroness Blanc, who announced her the matrimonial sea The man in the case Is a New York and Stockholm importer.
 When the former beauty who once 5-tr- Id ing picture emporium last spring in a side street off Broadway and sold tickets herself at the door, the know ing ones who were acquainted with her in the days of her glory, said she was down and out. But sk was only in eclipse and while adding to her storehouse of experiences, was medi- tatkng new conQGests. Twenty years ago the Baroness was the best dress ed and most talked about woman in New York. She was just the kind of a woman Dumas delighted to write about. Hostess and entertainer, f7s- ofnator and charIner of the most fa- nous dandies and high flyers, for fif- teen years she WAS the most con- spicuous queen of hearts in America. In London she attracted the attention of the late King Edward.
 The Baroness has been four times married and there have been forty taught Fred Youngling. son of a mil- lionaire brewer, the art of going some'' when he was stEIl a boy. Young1ing died in the prison ward of Bellevue Hospital in 1909. In turn she has had as husband Alfred Lee Riegel, rich and highly connected young Philadelphian; Baron Frederick Blanc, rich and sensational spend CT; Lee Vaughan Waters, son of a New York TGano manufacturer, with whom she lived less than a day and Shirley Onderdong, son of million aire Chicago manufa cturer. After her ap-Ysf. f0 E1anra1 ed her after living with her q year, she went on the stage, backing herself with her own money. The play last ed for just, week. The experiment. of in Paris, where she met Blanc and they were married. They lived to- gether for two years, the Baroness se- curing the divorce.
 All Europe next heard Of her when she went on a three months trip to Nice, Cannes, Paris and London with the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, and Prince George Of Greece in her trat n. Her chaperon was the Princess Skobe- Ioff. The party journeyed through Eu- rope in regal splendor and cut up high jlnks according to the newspaper re ports of the time. For time after her return here J. Waldere Kirke, known as the 'tKing of Dudes," was enmeshed in her smiles, but after a short time became a mere incident in her career. For two or three years her exploits drifted into Broadway from various parts of the United States as mere rumors. Everywhere ments could be traced by Burning money"
 If it was one of those pestilential mi crobe incubatorS upon which beWhis- kered and be-Spectacled scientific men pour out their hearts devotion for the up1ift of humanity, L1isa Tettrazzini, the worlds most famous soprano or,,l5 r,ot haua rnada r.1iokrer diSDnSf. tion of the do lar presented her the other evening by an agent of Oscar Hammersteins Hammerstein wants her as witness in suit between himself and Meyer Resnick over a ser ies of concerts in which the latter in violation of prior contract alleged to have been made by the songbird with him., starred her in concert. The subpoena servers who had been on the trail of the singer for days had great difficulty in serving her. They fn- ally cornered her aHghting from her carriage at the stage door of the Met ropo itan Opera House on the even ing she was scheduled to make her first appearance there As she start ing man handed her the paper and a bright new dollar bill
 An, it was such a joke, the dollar Just Ike Americans. She was to be haps it was for luck. She opened the paper and read. Then she nearly tainted. And [ am arrested" she ouivered, trembling with emotion ''Oh, it is awful terrible!"
 Although treasured by her secre- tary and the apologetic Gatti-Casaza, the frightened singer almost went into mysteries. It was some time before she could gain enough composure to appear on the stage '.Ze dollar which I get last night-I hate heem. I give heem away to bellboy for tip. He is unlucky,' she said nervously in de- scribing her feelings. 'I shiver all over Ike that And she shivered for il- iustration- ttAlso, something sticks in my throat and I think am to lose my voice"
 stOne must be a singer to know how it feels to get a shock and fright on the moment before first appearance.' broke in her secretary .aThe throat becomes dry and the voice will not come. The .heart beats fast. You cannot breathe. As madame told me last night, she felt like dyIng.'"
 Mrs. Vada Van va1kenburgh. who. prior to her marriage to Philip Van Valkenburgh, was known as ''the ten