The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-12-30
Miss MOllie Chatfield, Form
erly of BrattlebOrO, a Sui
eide i'm New York
BROTHER SAYS SHE
HAD DELUSIONS

Her Sister, Bessie, Who Died Last |
June-Wrote to Friends in This
Town Saturday
NEW YORK Dee 3O-TLe door Of
studio apartment on the sixth tloor Of
an old-fashioned building at 400 West
Twenty-third street was opened yester
day afternoon when repeated knockings
had brought no response, and few
few feet beyond the portal was found
the body Of Miss Mollic C. Chatfeld.
She was an artist in a peculiar line
that Of binding books for the wealthy.
Shn Had plunged into her heart Il
metal leaf cutter which She had
sharpcned in some fashion 10 needle
point.
4 lotc left behind, written in ir-
regular fashion and blood dyed. read as
nearly a. could be dcciphercd;
Mrs Howard Cor it may have been
Harmed OF Hayward j, responsible for
this.
No one knew who could remember
shat she had ever been intimate with
woman Of amy such name = Mrs
! Howard seems to have lived only in
her imagination.
The police could find no one who
remembered having seer Miss Chat
/ field alive after 80 Saturday evening.
! The suicide was discovered when Mrs.
4 G. l.. Taylor. wife Of Il high official at
the Hotel Martinique. called at the
studio at ll.}o Yesterday morning with
some books Sire wanted bound.
T. Getting no answer to rings ana
knocks. she told the ianitor and he
entered the studio with q pass key.
4 They found the body lying near a
I divan. Later the police found the leaf
cutter by il and the note about 10
feet away 1t WAS bloolstaiued and
they thought She had written il after
stabbing herself
Surgeon Schrock OF the New y orll
hospital said the woman had been dead
for hours.
The coroner : office was satisfied that
the ease was one Of suicide, and per
nit was issued for the removal Of the
body to the Campbell underta hing
place in Twentvthird street. near
Eighth avenue.
just before il was taken away q
brother ST the suicide, Who said hc was
Harvey ). Chathcld, also IN artistic
bookbinder ut l03 East Fifty third
street, appeared 1T the studio and
broke into tears. He said;
= For three wears. until 1911. my SIS
ter aud myself had bookbinding stu
dio at 37-45 West Twenty second street
She and | supported an invalid sister
Bessie, who had tuberculosis.
81 married about two years ago ant
L. b.4
then that She had to 20 to SaranaI
lake Mollie went with her On june
! Bessie died. Molle came bach
shortly afterward
But her mind was apparently af
fcctcd by her sister death She ha,
delusions of hearing voices day an,
night. The reason she picked out this
studio was that it was ON the top lloo
OF old building, and she thought
: no voices could reach her. She Otter
told me that She heard Bessie 5 voict
2 and heard the voices Of other personi
| whom She did not know And She fel
) obliged to do whatever these strang
: voices told her to, she said
!, lie declined to say anything abou
himself. his wife. or ''rich aunt
: who, according to talk that reache,
the reporters, had bcfriendcd him AM
his sisters
The New York Social Register TO
1913 shows that Harvey s Chatliel
marricd Florence G.. Lathrop and live
at 265 Central Park West.
Miss Chatiicld had done work 10
many collectors of rare books in an
around New York. Robert j. Collie
!. Of T. I. Collier 4 Son, publishers, wa
} one of her frequent customers.
Miss Chatfield was a member of th
c class Of 1883 in the Brattleboro hig
:, school. Her father was - New Yor
q lawyer and her mother, who lived her
= number OF years, was an author G
Il some note. Her older brother Gu
Chatticld, died nearly - years ago
Il 4 New ork hospital from fever COZ
:, tracted while at work with survcyiu
$ party IN Nicaragua.
% Miss Chatfeld, because of her han,
ID some face and figure, was selected
one OF the 10 women who were painte
i as the muses. on the inside of the GOV,
! of the l00,000th Steinwav piano which
in the east room at the White Hous
This piano, which has been admired |
: thousands, was built at 4 cost of S2(
900 and the expense Of making Il
paintings was $500.
Of Miss ChatIcld visited i'm Brattlcbo
ut the time of the Valley fair and !
: newed acquaintances with many of h
II former schoolmates. Letters which 81
IA wrote Saturday were received
friends here Sunday. In these lette
ct she wrote cheerfully and spoke of {
i