New-York tribune., 1919-04-06
Getty Has Become a Ravish-
ing Belle,' He Says, but
He Doesn't Believe Wom-
ems Costumes Are Sane
New York Reborn i'm Art
Likes Town After 10 Years
That Is, All but the
Iniquitous Lunacy Laws


slipped through the city disguised ir
a handkerchief in 1900, following his
escape from Bloomingdale Asylum at
White Plains. Since 1901 he has lived
on his estate, Merry Mills, Gotham
Va, carefree save for his endless tasks
of reforming the lunacy laws and get
ting control Of his fortune. He is here
under the guarantee of the Supreme
Court, to prosecute libel action
against an evening newspaper
Nineteen years have done a lot for
New York, Mr.. Chaloner said, but have
had no effect at all on the iniquitous
lunacy laws. SO far as the lunacy
laws are concerned, Mr.. Chaloner be-
lleves as he did when his name was
Chanler aid he wrote "Four Years Be-
hind the Bars of Bloomlngdale, or the
Bankruptcy Law in New York" that
the -Four Hundred" is at the bottom
of his trouble.
AS for the city-art reborn and rein
vigorated by the Western World has
swept it into the foremost metropolis
of the earth. But Mr.. Chaloner can't
say that the Renaissance has affected
feminine styles favorably. 1t seems to
have gone to the womens feet, he
thinks, and skipped their skirts en-
tirely. AS for their hats-pure Boil
shevism in art!
The Virginia squire who stumped
Sheriff Bob Chanler, his brother, with
the query, "Who's looney now? ?" gave
ms views on municipal and feminine
architecture, on high justice, middle
justice, low justice and justices of the
Supreme Court, the "400" and other
matters at the Hotel Brevoort, where
he is staying.
"When l was sent to Bloomingdale,
that 'Bastille of the Four Hundred
lSee "Four Years Behind the Bars"
etc, John Armstrong Chaloner, New
York showed some promise of becoming
a beautiful city, he said. "Now I find
her ravishing belle, wellnigh perfect
in symmetry and beauty.
"New York society and I do not jibe
I like the plain people. The -Four Hun
dred' are back Of the lunacy laws Of
this state, which are as rotten as the
bottomless pit"
In footnote in his interview Mr..
Chaloner admitted at this point that 40
per cent of the forty eight states were
not much better off than New York in
the matter of lunacy laws, and that he
was an authority on the subject, being
the author of "The Lunacy Law of the
World"
81 am New Yorker of New Workers. :"
the exile continued. 81 was born here
and on my maternal side my ancestry
rs traced to Peter Stuyvesant No one
mas better right to critise New
! ork or to show his pride in her arch
lectural progress than I. know Paris
and London almost as well. I hold
New York the equal of them both
ruth Avenue is more magnificent than
the Boulevard des Italens. It has
more originality.
I'm 1891 walked up Fifth Avenue
from Twenty-third Street to Central
Park with Benjamin Constant. the
french artist. | asked him for his
candid opinion. He swept at a glance
the endless rows of brownstone resi-
dences and exclaimed: 'Sacre chocolate
lie was right. Architecturally, Fifth
Avenue was like a sewer. But now
now 1T is the reality of a dreaml"
In another footnote Mr.. Chaloner
explained that "chocolat" didn't mean
sewer" strictly speaking, but that the
appreciation also was most appropriate
in 1891.
WOman's Costume Not C.,
Somebody mentioned New York fem
lnlnity. The woman of it was charm
ing. said Mr.. Chaloner with enthusiasm
But God help her costume!" he ex-
canned, with equal enthusiasm. "Whcn
! went to Bloomingdale women had
both busts and waists Now thov havo
neither. Strangely enough, thew seem
almost ashamed Of their natural con
tours, but show no shame in wearing
pobtalled skirts, which accentuatc the
size of their feet. AS the poet said
(anothcr poet, woman's feet were made
to peep in and out like mice from be-
meath her petticoat.
Bobtalled skirts and bobtailed hair
are as undignifed as bobtailed horse.
Nothing that is bobtailed is dienifed
Right here let me say that the Froncb'
man who sets the styles in millinery to-
day is Bolshevist of modern feminine
dress. tie is in the same category with
1hc futurlst in art. Both are in revolt
against truth and beauty. Their crea-
tlons are ugly, weak and brutal"
Silenccd by Lawyers Glance
Ihe invcctive against the bobtail. or
something else, reminded one of Mr..
oha!oner's audience of q question. He
wanted to know whether Mr. Chaloner
was was going to have anything to do with
sheriff" Bob Chanler, or Winthron
Astor Chanler or Lewis Stuyvesant
Chanler, his brothers, during his visit
to New York. ''-'
here's wide gulf between me and
members of my family" Mr.. Chaloner
began, and stopped abruptly at glance
from his lawyer. George M. Curtis ir.
1t was the only subject introduced
upon which Mr.. Chaloner did NOT talk
freely. lucidly aRd without interruption
by his counsel. The apparently rambling
character of his conversation was due
largely to his eagerness to answer all |
queries put to him. After the silent
admonltion of his lawyer he got back to
the safe and familiar ground Of tho |
law WV
For twenty-five years." he said "I've
bcen hghting the lunacy laws Of New
York State-not the courts, mind. Tve
no malice against the judges. Justice
Giegerich, for instance, is n fairy pod-
father Of mine. He gave me s25, 900
year income from my estate and he
gave me an automobile besides"
Prohibition--and Lunacy
Inc night against the lunacy laws, he
sad, had made him cynical. and he
added that "a cync was far from ho;nn