The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-12
LOSES CHANGE TO
 RECOUP FORTUNE, DRESSER SUICIDE
New York Banker Ends Life At Bad News of Sudden
 Reversal

New York. July 12.-A crushing blow to Daniel Le Roy Dresser's recently brightening hopes of recouping his fortune was responsible for the former hnancier's death by suicide at the Delta Psi fraternity house, 434 River side Drive, on Saturday afternoon.
 According to his relatives and friends his late efforts to re-establish himself in business after more than ten years of misfortune met with a sudden and unexpected reversal on Saturday. That made acute the nervous strain which in his last note to his friend and at torney, Claude S. Gould lie said was too great for him to bear.
 When he realized the fruit1essness of his last enterprise-an effort to exploit g. new steam generator in which oil would be substituted for coal as fuel, it was said-Mr. Dresser sat down at the library desk at the clubhouse and whote a short note to MT. Gould and a Hong letter to his wife, Mrs Marcia I Walther Baldwin Dresser, who for the last month has lived with her mother at 131 Woodbine street, Brooklyn. Mrs. Dresser's sister, Mrs. Albert Sterner, wife of a well known artist, said the letter, finished a half hour before Ores ser, fired a bullet into his head, was the tenderest misstve she had ever read.
 He did not tell his wife in the let ter, said Mrs. Sterner in her home at 142 East Eighteenth street, that he l conten plated ended his life but that thought could be read between the lines It was the continuation of a series of financial reverses that drove him to it. He had built great hopes on a new business venture which re- lceived an unexpected setback yester- day morning. He simply told his wife 1 that his n1isforune had become un- bearable: that he was at the parting of the ways and i'd not know which way to turn.
 Much in Love With Wife. We have known him for years, MT. Dresser was much in love with my 1 sister. used to tell him they acted silly in public I think, too, that his love for his wife aggravated his financial failure. He wanted to give her the best of everything. They were about to move into an apart ment on Seventy-severrth street which he had just furnished for them They were here day or two ago and were enthusiastic about their new home. I think they planned to move in after a few days passed at Newport
 Returning to the letter MT. Dresser l wrote to his wife. the second Mrs. Dresser, Mrs. Sterner related how the former. ffnancier had described their
 
 days; that he had lost sleep for two nights nursing the pet and that Gary would be all right in a day or two. I While Mrs. Sterner was speaking, sobs could be heard from an adjoining room. A nurse had Mrs. Dresser in hand yesterday afternoon. Mir. Dress l CT had intended to take her to New port on Saturday afternoon. Mrs. ster- her said.
 Neither Mrs. Sterner nor Mr. Gould l who passed most of the day at the Sterner apartment. cared to give de- tails of MT. gDresSers recent work ex- cept to say that it had to do with a steam generator. It is understood l that MT. Dresser could not get the f. nanciaI backing for a company, in spite of the eagerness with which his | friends followed him in almost any venture little more than ten years ago i Tt was a new scheme, said MT. Gould and MT. Dresser found difficulty in | getting people interested in it.
 His Own Invention
 The generator is said to have been MT. tDresser's own invention. He is
 believed to have displayed the me- according to one report yesterday, The was to have dined with MT. Schwah l this week to discuss the matter. MT Dressers mother-in-1aw, Mrs. Henry l Walther, said in Brooklyn last night that one of nose interested in the en- terprise was a, Frenchman who had promised to invest in it. According l to Mrs. Walther he was called to the war front. MT. Dresser heard from l him several times early in the year, l but whether further word came from 1 him recently could not be learned.
 Mrs. Sterner and MT. Gould secuted l various rumors which arose at once l fa a1& l his second wife have been living apart flor the last month after they return ed from Newport It is said that MT l Dresser had arranged to meet his wife at the Great Northern, hotel on Sat
 urday afternoon and go with her from | there to Newport for a few days
 Mrs. Dresser talked with MT. Gould at the hotel yesteHday afternoon be- fore going to her sisters home. MT Gould said there was absolutely nc truth in the rumors which were 1 broached to him.
 Plans for the funeral were not com I plete last night. The once powerful I financier's sisters, Mrs. George w Vanderbilt, Mrs. John Nicholas Brown
 and Mrs. George Merrill, have been l out of the city, but were expected tc
 return last night today. MT 1 Dresser's first wife, Mrs. Emma Louise Rurnham Dresser, who divorced him in 1908 and has lived with their two children, Susan and Daniel Ee Roy 1 Jr., at 142 East F'ortieth street, had gone to Babylon, L. L, for the sum- mer. She had not returned last
 night, but was expected.
 1 They had struggled hard to make l 8 home for themselves said, the first 1 Mrs. Dresser, when told of MT. Dress CTS death. sI suppose there was noth- l ing else left for him to do. He had | been trying to exploit a new inven- ton of his for the last few months in l an effort to recoup his losses. I know too, that he suffered from nerv- 1 ous prosfration three or four times ' Mrs. Dresser said last night that | Mrs. John Nichols Brown had te1e- phoned from Newport requesting thai 1 Mr- nressIer,s hndv he hurried in tLe