New Britain herald., 1917-10-18
COULD NOT GIVE TT UP.
Daughter of Distinguished Lawyer
 Lingers on in Mansion She Was

Lingers on in Mansion She Was
 Too Poor to Keep.
 Ghosts haunt the old brown stone house at 343 West Thirty-fourth street ghosts of the past on the inside, aGd ominous shapes of poverty threat~n- ing the door. The latter take a coH monplace aspect being surly men wish summonses in their hands, but th%y are none the less terrible to Mme. Tagliapietro, formerly Margaret Townsend.
 She sits inside amid the dusty, fad ing furniture and pictures and relics of old timers, remembering the bril- liant days when Edwin Booth and Jo- seffy and many another great are3St came to the Sunday evening musioases in those great rooms. Not thing has been changed there, scarcely chair moved from it's place since the Christ mas dinner 20 years ago when John D. Townsend, distinguished lawyer, rose from his seat at the table, and said, Margaret, I don't feel well'- and fell dying on his daughters shoulder.
 From that day to this, she said yes- terday, things have gone badly with her in the worldly sense. Her mother lived on, dying seven years ago, and neither woman knowing much about business, securities melted away and the comfortable estate John D. Town send thought he left his family shrank to nothing. Margaret married an Italian with a beautiful voice, but slight huskiness which the doctors can't charm away has kept the voice from being marketable for seves~l seasons. Now the trustees of p,N Marquard estate, who have long hsa& a mortgage on the old Townsend home. have declared their intention of foreclosing imm ediately uussH xte- faults and principal are pajd, and that would take $5,OOO
 Mme. TagNapietro says she knows she should have moved away, but shs just couldn't bring herself to do 51. II have lived here since I was ( lAAe . girl," she unused, looking .A the a.x< nished chandeliers and She gs%%& piano now closed and 01Aet neM which Joseffy's hands once drew mu- sic.
 Everything has some ssociation. That quaint old table of Sa6No pe4nAs- go mahogany was my 1<va4~S1sAt- greatgrandmo others. TWA1 sa4 oa pate-surpate"-she poin~s4 to ny vases and 8 bowl with wor.d~ytua 6.yk- cate bas-relief figures-"my father took that in part payment for m services in the famous B1ske and Stokes case. He defended Stokes. n is beautiful set, but wien I w~a& to dealer to ask how much it ws~.& bring he said, It should br4nx . good deal, but the trouble Is to nkd f ic, rSyif !, 1t cost good deal, but wo+41 Dsts,( almost nothing. l lie awake all aG1 with the horror of this home batns torn apart and scattered"
 Old portraits cover the walls. In the rear of the reception room is q considerable library, though the greater part of John D. Townsend's books have been sold. One of the volumes Is a genealogy of the Town send family, which dates from May flower days in this country aec V connected with the Townsends ef England. The late Frederick Marszn was a cousin of Mime. Tagliapi-srx and James Bliss Townsend, master of the Glen Arden Hunt-oh, any num- Der of Townsends-are her relati~sa Mme. Tagliapietro, however, ha4 drawn more and more away frsm everyone as the poverty clouds set tied down, and now when 8 litf1g lift would save the old home she doesn't know where to turn.
 Elhu Root Elbridge T. Gerry, Recorder Golf and Joseph H. ChoMe were confreres of John D. Townsend, and MT. Choate was about to take up the case of the mortgage on the old house, in an effort to save 1t for the daughter, when his death occurred.