OCR Text |
Show LETTER CAUSES SOCIETY DIRGE New Angle of Stillman Case Adds Further to Sensation NEW YORK. Maroh 22 Jimes A. Stlllman'S divorce charges against Mrs "Flfi" Stillman and his attaek on the legitimacy of 28-mohths-dld fiuv still-j man are baaed partly on a "long, pit-, iful letter, substantially 'i confession he wrote to him two months before. Buy w ; i B born. News of the leltoi cnnio Monday from unquestioned sources. The letter let-ter contained the name of Ferd Beau-vals, Beau-vals, and Mrs. Stillman made a strong plea for forgivenness without specifying specify-ing any particular act for which she craved condonation. l'or almost two years Stillman did nothing about the letter. Then. In March, 1920, Mie multimillionaire-hanker multimillionaire-hanker prepaid the divorce action, naming Keauvals. Canadian Indian guide of the Stillman summer camp at Three Rivers, Quebec, as co-respond-: ent. TAKES PAL6E N UttI About the lime Mis Stillman wrotn "the confession letter;" Stillman, it it charged, assumed the name of "Mr i Leeds of the secret service, and be-1 gun hll relations with Mrs. Plorsnoe Leeds,' child of the tenements and daughter of a plumber, when Leeds, now Identified as Stillman. met Mrs. Leeds, she was .i "playing card girl' In a musical vevne Luxurious apartments, apart-ments, automobiles and riches becume her? Then came Jav Leeds, now 30 months old, and Mr.'. Stlllman'S conn-, sel hopes to proVi that Stlllnaafl is the father that Whll6 be attacks the legitimacy le-gitimacy of Guy Stillman. he Is the. rather of the baby of a Cornier child oi the tenements. Attorneys lor Mrs. Stillm.in expect) his lawyers will try and use the 'con-: fession" letter at the alimony hearing in White Plains N. Y.. Wednesday,, and they arc preparing to exhaust every ev-ery legal means to keep it out of the records fluctuating reports regarding the possibility of Btlllman being forced out of the presidency of the National City bank by the divorce scandal seemed to veer to BUllmans favor. MAY D06E POSITION. m the eve of a board of directors' nieetlrig the only official comment ciimc from rhnrles V. Rich, one of the executive managers of the bnnk. 'Mr Rich Is among those in lino for 'the presidency In case Stillman Is outvoted out-voted by the other shareholders, or resigns Mr. Rich Is quoted as saying: say-ing: l Stillman resign now" No' Stillman leaves this bank only over my dead body. That Is how we feel nhout It I We are hack of him to a man lie h In fine fellOW and It's too bad all this (should happen " Lawyers informed of the letter and Its alleged ''substantial eunfetsion" Were of the opinion that supporting .proof of it. and evidence of the truth 'of allegations connecting "Mrs. Klor-jence Klor-jence ii. Leeds" and StlUman, would ! result In the proceedings being ad-JUdged ad-JUdged the legal equivalent of a draw. Neither side, attorneys explained, would be entitled to a decrre of divorce, di-vorce, because the law requires that "both parties came Into court wtth clean hands." This conclusion of the case, it was added, would still leave the pntcrnit lof Guv Stillman assailed 81 11 6 Of IN 1 WT. DUl, uiium u d Willi a,, .vim k vi Poughkeepsie N V , guardian ad litem of the child, no end can he written to i the Stillman case that falls to defl-i nltely establish tho legal status of the! infant. Mr. Mack announced that he would be on band Wednesday at White Plains, when, according to other sources sour-ces then Is a possibility that an effort ef-fort may be made to Introduce the letter in relation to tho motion to fix counsel fee and alimony. According to one narration of the history of the. letter. Mrs. Stillman sat diiwn one spring afternoon alone In her boudoir, In "Mondannc," the Stillman Still-man mansion on the Pocantico Hills i estate, and penned It. At the time she wrote it, only a few months separated sep-arated her frOm the (jrc.u trial of womankind, wo-mankind, and. it v.as said, remorse and a strongly developed scr.6e of "fair play" actuated hor o write the allege,! surprising worded communication. communi-cation. PLEADED IOM I INESS nlv one act of wrongdoing dealt with In the letter, it wcs said, the main text of which in rather rambliiu: fashion, outlined the loneliness loneli-ness that bad resulted from SMUman's long alienee from home. And In thh; neglect and In other matters the wife was represented as having found the foundation for the plea for forgiveu-ness forgiveu-ness with which she Closed 'he letter. Apparently, however, no "scene ' resulted re-sulted So far as could be ascertained, ascertain-ed, the banker and bis wife were never known to have disci. r(j the letter Whether or not tHey did Fred Beauvale shortl) itterward left the Btlllman estate, where he had been engaged In teaching woodcraft to J .s tl'iid) Stillman. 17-year-old son of the con pie. and went to work for. the sporting goods establishment c,r .viei-cromMc .viei-cromMc v- pitch, In New York Cit) Another development In the tangied marital affair of the James a Btlllman Btlll-man famllv was the information that H. Phelps Claw8on, son of John L Clawson. millionaire merchant of Buffalo, Buf-falo, N V , would appear as a witness in behalf of Mrs. BMllmah, His evl-dence, evl-dence, according to lawyers, will of-! of-! rer decidedly strong opposition to Stlllman'S churge against the paternity of lirti flUttf Clawson, it was said, was a guest at the Stillman home in Pocantico' Hills on in- about January 26. 1918,1 nine or ten months before Guy Stlll-Ittan Stlll-Ittan came into the vn( Id ThV Buffalo Buf-falo man Is said to have offered to testify that Stillman and Mr Btlllman were living under the namo roof at this time and that he saw no evidence. Of estrangement |