The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-26

ent re affair from an Insignificant do
mcst.c nniehlll into perfect mountain
Of natioral Importance. Mrs. William
Waldo.f Aston was deeply distressed
by all the publicity in connection with
the affair, while her husband was almost
beside himself with irritation at being
constantly called upon by the news
papers for an explanation Of alleged ut
terances of his own, or OF his aunt's,
bearing on the incident.
This, however, was mere tr!tie COM
pared TO what followed Immediately al
terward. A burglary in Bay Ridge in
the later sos resulted In the shoot
ing and capture Of several of the
thieves. One Of them, fatally wounded,
made a more or less authentic con-
fesslon before his death to the effect
that he had been one of the gang that
had kidnapped Charlie Ross in 1874 and
that the stolen boy was no longer in
the land Of the living This led to GER
tain newspapers in New York opening
their columns to the inquiry as TO
what would he demanded OF Mr.. and
Mrs. William Waldorf Aston should their
son Waldorf be abducted and what
would they probably be willing TO pay?
This was worked up into all sorts Of
forms of inquiry for many weeks. Arti-
cles, letters, interviews and discussions
hlled the columns Of the press through
out the country, with the result that
Mr.. and Mrs. William Waldorf Aston
were bombarded with letters Of advice
and of warning, with sensational COM
munications from cranks, with threat
ening demands for money and with ap-
piications for interviews. The disserts-
ions about the matter in the news
papers even had the effect OF melting
several attempts to kidnap young Wal
dort and finally the health of Mrs. Will
am Aston completely gave way under
tho strain and she became a nervous
md physical wreck, literally distraught
" the ever haunting terror OF losing
ner child. She had been a seven
teen-year-old girl at the time when
Charlie Ross was kidnapped from his
home in her native town OF Philadel.
phla and the thought that her boy
might share his fate was more than she
could bear.
1t was because she believed that there
was no safety for her children In Amer
lea and because her husband was
warned by her physicians that COM
plete change of scene and surroundings
was necessary for her recovery that he
transferred his homo from the United
States to England.
Mrs. Aston never entirely recovered
True the change from America IA
Europe soothed in a measure her ter
rors. There was no longer tho almost
hYsteric condition of dread for the safety
Of her little ones. But in its place she
developed . melancholia which was in
hnltely pathetic, especially 10 those who
we're aware of its origin, and to which
she succumbed before many years had
passed.
Ii | write with feeling about the sub
iect It Is because ] knew the William
Waldorf Astors both prior and sub
sequent 70 their marriage was present,
indeed. at the Assembly ball at Philadel-
phia at which Mrs Aston, as Mamie
Paul. made her debut, the fairest de-
hutante of many a year, in a city SO
Justly renowned for the loneliness Of
rs women.
1t was the spectacle of his wifes suf-
ferings and the sense Of the cruel loss
which he had sustained through her
death, when he attribu 81 to what he
denounced as newspaper persecution
and invasion of the privacy Of his home.
that smbittered William Waldorf Aston,
who was passionately devoted to her, so
strongly against the land ot his birth
that he sbjured his American allegiance