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Show ; lLf I - .v taw B&r 'T ,' wiillik J&HHftHKaMHr . sslwil r - -: I-' -Mil WRM f if' m 1 Lut'.T Drexel Dahlgrcn, "Who Astounded (he Social World by Taking the Tei and Retiring to a Coinent for the Remainder of Her Life. '' Who can explain the strange para- i dox m the lives of Lucy and Katli- ; enue Dahlgren? Descendants of the famous Drexels, in whose blue blood runs high pride aud social haughtl- j ncss, these girls have upset family ; tradition to a startling degree. Lucv has renounced the world for I the convent, -while Katherine has shocked her aristocratic antecedents J by her wild antics in a high-powprcd motor car. : Tlie glaring discrepancy between J the cloister and the speeders' court ' has set all the East asking why. i It has been a paradox of the most I sensational form. One girl turns her !'. back upon the world (and a very I pleasant world it should have been I for her, what with wealth and high !L society at her feel), while the other I maiden violates the canon of dignity j- which the old, old Drcxel family ' cherished and gets "pinched" (plain, ordinary pinched) time after time. i s ex s mos forei g to drqcels. J'. With Lucy suddenly seeking solace ' in religious seclusion and Katherine :l hunting wild thrills in desperate and : reckless auto plunges over counlry j! roads, it is no wonder Iho social elect ;' are asking what can be responsible. ! The Dahlgreu sisicrs arc graud- jr daughters of Joseph Drexel, head of the house universally noted in fiuan- cial and social circles. They arc I members of a family that has the 1 bluest of Philadelphia blue blood, the most cherished traditions of I scrupulous dignity and quietude. f Sensation played no part in the I annals of the Drexels until Lucy I Diexel Dahlgrcn suddenly sought : divorce fiom her husband, Eric B. Dahlgreu. The complaint came like S1 a clap of thunder to society, accus- ! lomcd as it was to holding up the Drexels as the paragons of modesty and as exemplifying the blessings y of seemly demeanor. All the world knew that tho Drexels' proud- , est boast had been that it had ncv- , er had a divorce among its members'. SOCIETY STOOD AGHAST. That was in 1912. Boforo the edge was off the keenness of this bright piece of gossip another of the Drexel daughters went into the divorce court. Explosive comment and excitement ex-citement was redoubled. Mrs. J. Duncan Emmet, younger sister of Mrs. Eric B. Dahlgreu, asked and obtained marital freedom "What is the dignified old family coming to, any way?" asked tho exclusive ex-clusive society folk of New York and Philadelphia. Now, three years later, echoes of this pair of divorces have come rattling rat-tling back upon tho "400." Two daughters of Mrs. Eric B. Dahlgren have performed startling acts, tho responsibility for which in-. in-. timate friends of the Drexel family ' attribute to the shattering of ..tradition ..tradi-tion in 1912. Did Lucy become discouraged wun the evil in the world, become set against man and his infidelities and so kill and bury her social future by resigning herself to the innermost sanctums of a convent? Did Kath-erlno Kath-erlno grow reckless and unrestrained unrestrain-ed when tho old family reputation for dignity vanished and so turn into a. wild "speed" crank, burning up tho New England roads in her racing rac-ing car? Miss Lucy Drexel Dahlgren, tho eldest of the daughters, is studying In seclusion for the final vows that will make her a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament, destined to go down into tho most miserable hovels of the negroes ne-groes In southern states and bring relief to tho wretches there. Two years younger than Lucy is Katherine, "Katherine the Madcap'," they call her. Even at the moment her elder sister was meditating in solemn solitude Katherine was setting set-ting all the countryside, about Lenox, Len-ox, Mass., agog with her wild automobile au-tomobile escapades. DKOTE OFFICERS OF LAW FJU'TIC. The village constables grew frantic fran-tic at her defiance of -all laws and regulations. They arrested her for speeding no less than six times, fined her often, warned her again and again, and finally had to take her license away. Once they got wind of her proposed race with a motorcycle speed fiend and dragged her into court again to receive an official of-ficial tin eat. Finally they were compelled tr ie-move ie-move her permanently from tho steering wheel. Tho poultry and live slock of tho rural roadsides were threatened with extinction and Dobbin Dob-bin and the old shay -were afraid to venture forth upon tho highways. To all of these admonitions, fines and restraints of the law Katherine laughed. At her mother's pleadings she laughed, too. At public indignation indigna-tion sho laughed. "When the drawing-rooms first resounded re-sounded to these reports the cld-time cld-time intimates of the Drexel family threw up their hands in amazement. "Since those two divorce trials things haven't been the same. When the Drexel reputation of freedom from divorce or scandal was broken Lucj' Dahlgren went into a convent and Katherine becamo a harum-scarum harum-scarum auto speeder." You may now hear just such statements state-ments as these made in the inner circles of society In the East Furthermore, Katherine has developed de-veloped a peculiar fondness for eccentric ec-centric and bizarre clothing, affecting affect-ing flowing Grecian robes and a jeweled fillet about her brow that is in marked contrast to tho Quaker-like Quaker-like demurlly of her family's traditional tra-ditional attire. You must make up your own mind whether or not the divorces are responsible. re-sponsible. These are the facts as ihoy havo occurred in the chaiu of incidents lying behind this opinion. MADE imiliLIAXT MATCH. In 1S90 Lucy Wharton Drexel married mar-ried Eric B. Dahlgreu. Their wedding wed-ding was a brilliant ono socially. She, daughter of the financial lord, Joseph Drexel, tho heiress to cot less than ?20,000.000; he the son of Admiral Dahlgren, celebrated civil war hero and inventor of the widely used Dahlgren gun. Each had been reared in an atmos-phero atmos-phero sternly opposed to divorce or to any action that savored of a desire de-sire for publicity. Mrs. Drexel and Mrs. Dahlgren, mothers of the marriage mar-riage principals, each strongly opposed op-posed woman's suffrage, feminism and worldly activities for women as being immodest and unladylike. The strictest code of morals, mt-itably mt-itably puritanic rules, commanded the Drexel family. There had nev.or been a divorce in it and there never would be, decided Mrs. Drexel. Her two daughters left at home were married later, one of them to John Duncan Emmet and the oilier to Charles Bingham Penrose. Tho young Dahlgren couple wcro happy, so the world thought. Eight children chil-dren came to them. All are living. Lucy is 23, Madeline 22, Katherine 21. Ulrica 19. Olga 17, Eric 11, Joseph Jo-seph 12 and Eva 11 years of age. In March, 1912, the divorce papers were brought out In court. Eric Dahlgren was accused of having been guilty of misconduct with a Mrs. Bradley. He admitted having dined her at Hector's and having taken her to her apartments along in the "small hours" of night. ' He claimed, however, that the wine he had consumed overcame him In the apartments and that he fell aown In a stupor, from which he did not recover until 6:30 the next morning. The complaint charged merely that detectives had seen him dancing with Mrs. Bradley upon the street as they wound their way homeward home-ward and that ho had lavished many endearments, upon his companion during the leisurely journey, oud that she had responded in like manner. man-ner. ! , DACIXGLED ' TO IJITORCE A' v The court decided in favor of the. complaining wife and gave her both the decree and the custody of the eight children. A peculiar feature of the case was' tho departure of Mrs. Dahlgren with her daughter Lucy for Europe--upon tho same day that the complaint was filed. Thoughout the trial the girl, the only mature one of the'chil-dron, the'chil-dron, remained with her mother, counseling and sustaining her in all the difficulties. When tho separation was complete com-plete Mrs. Dahlgren took her family and settled on tho estate "Bel Air," near Lenox, Mass. From this homo tho two daughters, Lucy and Katherine, Kath-erine, went forth upon their errands, so strikingly different. Did tho heartaches and miseries caused by the divorco proceedings turn Lucy Drcxel Dahlgreu against the world? Did she lose all desire for love and marriage when she saw tho sensation and gossip that the separations of her mother and aunt occasioned. Also, did this break-up of a proud tradition make Katherine Drexel Dahlgren say, "I don't care?" Did sho suddenly develop "speed" manias ma-nias and dashing daredevil manners because tho century-old habits of the Drexels wcro removed? Did sho feel that the rcstra'int of living up to a strict namo was lifted and that She could do what sho liked? These nro tho question that are agitating tho "100." Kathcrino lightly dismissed parental pa-rental control in this wise: "Mamma doesn't want me to take such risks, but dear mama doesn't know that I'm perfectly safe no matter mat-ter how fast 1 drive, because I kuow the loads perfectly. "I couldn't tako a dare. Anyway, I havo driven my yellow roadster better than sixty miles an hour lots of times." Lucy is now Sister Maria Lucia. Until tho summer of 1S13, when sho suddenly took the vows, she was looked upon as one of the most brilliant bril-liant of tho society girls of Now Yoilc and Philadelphia. She was brought Into the world of society by her aunt, Mrs. Penrose, in 1910 and for two seasons was feted and sought for. Sho was good looking, accom- ML M H Katherine Drexel Dahlgren, Who Has Shocked Siaid Old Sew England by Jler 3lnd Drhing of a High-Foneicf I j M Unciiii' Car. . IH plished and wealthy. Following her mother's divorco sensation, however, ' sho withdrew herself gradually from society and completed her severance of ties with the elite by accepting the veil in the Convent of the Blessed Sacrament at Cornwclls, Pa. The life she elected to lead hohis nothing of comfort or convenience. It is a grinding, harrowing life, one (hat will necessitate tremendous calmness of mind and reliance upon faith, for it is centered in tho lowest slums and most miserablo mountain hovels that can be found. Indian and negro paupers will be her especial espe-cial subjects of ministration. Often the "400" has awakened of a morning to find that one of their number has gainsaid tho laws of conventionality as laid down by their J ,iH neighbors. Iu most cases a ready J ,' jl explanation was at hand, as hercdi- j M lary traits wcro named as tho cause i of (he fall from grace. I H In the case of tho Dahlgrcn girls, ! ' M however, the'. time-worn ready an-. j -1 swer cannbtcygiven, and so society f H knits its brown in perplexity. I jH (Copyright, -1915.) H |
