Evening star., 1936-09-05
Katherine Elkins Hits Death
Closes Era and Lost Romance
West Virginia Beauty.
Th,uarted LOve Gaze
Start to Empire.
BY MARK BARRON.
Associated Press Stan Writer.


Associated Press Stan Writer.
NEW YORK, September 5.-The
requiem of a romance that inspired
an African empire was intoned today
across the bier of Katherine Elkins
Hit in Washington. d. c.
The death in New York hospital
Of the daughter of the late Senator
from West Virginia wrote the final
chapter to the lost love Of the late
Duke of Abruzzi, cousin of King Vic
tor Emanuel Of Italy. 1t was the
Duke of Abruzzi who, 80 years ago,
was forbidden by his king to pursue
his courtship Of the proud, lovely
daughter of Senator Stephen B. FL
kins
Heartbroken, the tall, lean noble
man plunged into his explorations of
the deserts and jungles of Somaliland
and Ethiopia, made everlasting friends
of the Sidamo and Borano tribes OF
savages, established his Utopian COL
ony of the Villagio Della Ducca Del
Abruzzi, and died there in 1888.
SpUIy LOU III hITICdu nut
Moving up with the Italian troops on
the Dolo offensive that resulted in
the capture of Neghelh last February,
this correspondent camped for a night
in the Abruzzi village, and there heard
for the first time the story Of the
thwarted romance of the American girl
and her royal Italian courtier.
0,,lxy I-x LoT l.
the village with detachment of the
Aosta Lancers, the native hospital had
received an automatic refrigerator and
other gifts from the "Signorina" FL
kins, but when I filed a story that
night telling of the receipt of her an
nual gifts there was doubt in the CEN
Sor's voice.
His majesty Is still sensitive about
the Duke of Abruzzi's romance" he
explained as he blue-penciled the copy.
From 1908 to 1910 it was though.
almost certain that she would wed the
Duke of Abruzzi at a time when it
was reported he would be crowned
King of Albania. Neither was to be,
however. and he went away to East
Africa to continue his explorations
| and to build his model colony along
the crocodile infested Webbi Scebelli
River.
Village Flourishes Now.
Today, on the brink that separates
| jungle and desert, Abruzzi Village
| flourishes there. with its wealth of
| nNtfno v,1o -
that the duke imported and expert
mented with from the far corners of
the earth.
His house in Abruzzi Village stands
untouched just as it was the day he
died in 1888. and when I walked
through it last December there were
only two pictures on the walls of the
living room--King Victor Emanuel
and the late Katherine Elkins Hit.
The two met when the duke, the
Prince Luigi Amedo of Savoy -Aoata,
came to America in 1908 as COM
mander of group of Italian warships.
Here was no ordinary, swarthy,
foppish Italian nobleman," Evalyn
Walsh Mclean wrote in her auto
biography. This was q man who
seemed to be the essence OF nobility"
He Never Did Marry.
He was a man who had explored
the Arctic regions, plunged across
the high mountains of the Himalays
and Alaska, and in the end, had
chosen the jungles and deserts of
East Africa as his exploration fields.
there to forget or remember the
stately, lovely girl from West Virginia.
He never married.
In the lush, jungle fields Of Abruzzi
Village are evidences of his brusque,
untiring work in an effort to forget
the American girl he loved, but who
was forbidden to him by his cousin
and King. Besides the bountiful crops
Of cotton, sugar cane, rice, bananas
and other produce, there are even
a few small factories manufacturing
soap, molasses, tools and sugar.
In 1913 Miss Elkins married Will
liam F. Hit, son of former Illinois
member Of Congress. In 1921 she