Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-12-04

DOnE ue C0Stett0ne Photographed IN
1928 as he posed for portrait by the
artist Van Dongen.
Our eyes met. our hands met our lips met
and then our lawyers met"
Whether not he actually said that doesn't
make much difference, for that very nicely de-
scribes what happened. Lawyers representing
the Goulds conferred with lawyers representing
Boni, and the marriage settlement was arranged
Boni was to endow his bride with an ancient
and honorable title, and she to endow him
with youthful but exceedingly useful fortune;
and so it arranged.
The wedding took place in March 1895. at
the Gould mansion in New York. 1t was one
Of those important events that society likes
to 60 ga-ga over. There were great many
guests and everything was very stylish and daz-
cling.
The ceremony passed off very gayly and the
count and the new countess presently sailed
for France.
THERE Boni bought vast mansion on the
Avenue du Bots de Boulogne and furnished
it tastefully and extensively. He began to throw
elegant parties for the we'll born of Paris. One
such party it is said, cost 100000. Some of
them had as many as 1000 guests.
The marriage, altogether lasted IL years and
during that time Boni spent upwards OF $780,
900. Then, in 1906, came trouble.
Anna Gould was not long in discovering that
her titled husband was not a one-woman man.
While she was installed as the patrician mistress
Of his great mansion, bearing him three children
and trying to fit into the somewhat difficult
niche that her marriage provided for her in
naughty French society," Boni was out having
fun.
She put detectives on his trail They came
back, at last, with the report that he had five
butterflies established in sundry Paris apart
ments. In addition, they said that he had been
having f1irtations with something like 40 other
charmers.
All Of this, naturally enough, landed the count
and the countess in the divorce courts, where
Anna Gould had little difficulty in getting a
divorce. Count Boni protested, to be sure. that
the charges against him were sadly overdrawn.
He remarked, IF had been 200 years old I
should not have had time to commit all the
acts that they charge against me-" But enough
of the evidence stuck SO that the decree was
handed down in short order.
Boni was now regular grass widower. His
ex-wife occupied the gorgeous mansion on the
Bots de Boulogne His children were with her
Boni started by bringing suit to try to get GUS
tody of them himself.
[ Err lawyers fought the move-it was alleged
! ! that the count wanted them chiefly so that
he could supervise the spending of their very
generous allowances, for the ex-husband of a
millionaire's daughter can be painfully hard up
at timeS-and Boni lost out.
But he was still the glass of fashion, and If
people jbed at him mirthfully in America, Pa
risian society still took him with deadly Sc
robustness. He was dubbed the "arbiter of ele-
gance" the prince of extravaganza" and the
king of the boulevardieres" and his waistcoats
continued to dazzle the sturdy French bour-
geoise. In addition to his heilotrope ones by
the way. he also had waistcoats of pale blue
and vivid red, although the heliotrope ones were
his favorites
1t was necessary for even a titled parsonage
- have an income however end after the d.