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Show When Walter T. Candler, the Multi-millionaire I Soft Drink King, Entertained Aboard the i Berengaria in Mid-Ocean the Pop Was I Heard Clear Around the World Mf I With Startling Consequences ' I and There Are Still More ) - I Surprises to Come z&l ll ' ntk iai y After the opening of the Kf things began to happen I! Sir liifl whirlwind rapidity I fc SBhB until they reached a climax c. v ' tfl Mrs. Byfield's staicroom $yV KS with a furious battle be- j twecn her husband and rTAflE great fcean ' liner speed; through the darkness of the night, her cabin i windows and portholes port-holes ablaze with i bright lights which gild the dancing jjjH waves ahe cleaves. The knots fly by for she is a fast boat, and the life aboard her I seems to keep pace. "There 1s a Bound of revelry by j; night" from one of the salons, sa-lons, where a gay party i.i H gathered around u festive b K board. Agilo stewards attend l I the diners dexterously, and a laughter floats out on the sea breeze. The party has lasted into r: the wee sma' hours of the .d ;. 10 Walter T. Candler, with Mrs. Candler, from whom he later was separated, and Mrs. VI' to Clyde Byfield I. i t ia the last night at sea, nd to-morrow the liner will make port li France. She has made a pleasant trip cross the bounding main from "dry" America, the land of prohibition, and hough presumably she has taken on no iquor there, her bins have been full mough Lo meet all the demands upon hem of the crossing. Many of her American passengers dropped the Yol-itead Yol-itead act on the three-mile limit. The 8tewTards with the merry party in he salon bend over napkin-wrapped bottles, bot-tles, cold from a bed of ice. They peel he foil and wire from green-glazed leeks and pry at the corks with their ;humbs. Pop! Pop! Popl Pop! Foaming, Foam-ing, golden champagne flows into the thin-stemmed glasses and it? mriad bubbles burst in flurries of spray. And would you believe if the noise f the popping of those corks and the bursting of those tiny bubbles came to be heard throughout the South in fact, throughout the whole United States! And perhaps the sound of those corks nd bubbles will go echoing all the way to the Supreme Court. The host of that gay party on the 8. S. Berengaria was Walter T. Candler, Can-dler, banker, oi Atlanta, Ga., and by a trange paradox of fate a millionaire manufacturer of soft drinks. Among his guests were Mr. and Mrs. Clyde K. Byfield, of the same city. Mr. Candler, who had been separated from his wife, was taking his two young daughters by a former marriage on a pleasure trip to Europe. Mr. and Mrs Byfield went along as his guests and as such he paid all their expenses. As a return re-turn for hn hospitality the charming Mrs. Byfield was to "mother" the two : Jittle girls. )Si . V"-h:n ,h" cornoarativ. !;. i:iu..v. !,, S its of the -h p the -angL-M" romm-nced QjA ic' K,UUP theinrelv int.. i.h.. tnarirle. tVtjS ,;anla!"- u-vidation of which came LfJi E the pPPine of the champagne corks Mei away. 0fm Thrr" v 'He rich man, with his ls f many millions and the sense af lmost 7 u iii inn itu juhi'i wiiii u iiiucii muiie.v brings its possessor. Perhaps "money can't buy everything." but it can, say the cynics, buy almost everything. Nevertheless , discontent and unhappi-ness unhappi-ness had come into his life. He had separated sepa-rated from his wife and the separation was expo ted to result in a divorce. Fitting into another angle was Clyde K. Byfield, n young Southerner, not well endowed with this world's goods. Already Al-ready under obligations to his friend, the soft drink millionaire, each day saw him deeper in his host's debt. And then the woman in the case. Sarah Byfield, the young 'wife, only twenty-one years of age and of the most ravishing type of Southern beauty. Explosive elements in very truth, And the spark that set them off came after that merry affair in the ship's salon, where the lights glistened in the sparkle of champagne The world knows that the frantic screams of a womnn sounded from the Byiield stateroom in the early morning hours and the noise of men fighting furiously It knows, too, of the outcome out-come a $100,000 suit for damages filed against Walter T. Candler by Mrs. B field. According to the legal language of tho suit in which Mrs. Byfield is the petitioner, peti-tioner, language which fails, however, to rob it of its intensely dramatic qualities, quali-ties, the happenings in tho stateroom were as follows : "Finally petitioner (Mrs. Byfield) and her husband left the party and went to petitioner's stateroom to retire for the night. After getting there, petitioner'3 husband suggested that they had left tho party somewhat abruptly and, they might think, rudely, so he stated he would go ba k and stay with the party for a while. ' When petitioner's husband had left her the stateroom door was closed, the light was turned down and she was prepared pre-pared to sleep. "A short time after petitioner's husband hus-band had left her said Candler opened the door, tore the bed covering off her, disheveled her clothing and grabbed her in h.s arm1 "Petitioner screamed, a-.d Y eontinu- d 1 scream, unt 1 r. i r t . ' d 1 . , into the room and immediately engaged en-gaged in a terrific light with said Candle And then the story of v the husband, against whom Candler filed a peti-tion peti-tion to restrain him from collecting . CO", noo - is-i il , i a iu,vvv nuiv wnicn me oanKer said he had given him, along with cash, for a $25,000 check which he declared Byfield had "extorted" from him as a result of the .statement incident. This is the story taht Byfield told: "I did not even have a pocketknife as a weapon, but with my bare hands I did my best to kill Walter T. Candler when I found him struggling with my wife in the stateroom. I loat all reason, all sense of right and wrong, and to my shame, forgetting that my wife's criea had called me to tho room, I assaulted as-saulted my wife as well a6 Canadler. "With my bare hands I seized Candler by the throat, maddened at what I. saw. I should have killed him and done harm to my wife, too, had not passengers, stewards and officers of the ship broken into the cabin and separated us. I want to deny that I had ever suspected undue friendliness between Candler and my wife. "After the bnttle was over and Mrs. Byfield had locked herself in the cabin I had visions that I would be left stranded strand-ed in France by Candler. I didn't ask him for a cent. "After it was all over Candler came to me cringin'ly and cowardly and begged me to let him. as best ho could, make amends for his wrong to me. Ho reminded me thnt as a result of the night's horror my business would suffer and that $25,000 would be no more than just compensation." Candler's brief statement is at onco a defense and an attack: vv! -3 is now suing f1 I - Valier Candler fo; I f as a result of whet 'd W. . .. ; occurred in he;- stale- H :- tgwra- ' . ' ' - . -7 t com after the event- h - "i 'l party on the H j& JT Berensarin p "I have already stated everything that took place in my petititon to cancel the note Byfield held," said Mr. Candler, after being informed of the suit. "I never touched Mrs. Bylield and nothing4 of any improper nature occurred. This suit is utterly unfounded and is in line with Mr. Byfield's past performances to et money out of me, and it will be answered at the proper time. "If Mrs. Byfield suffered any injuries on the ship it was from the terrific beating beat-ing her husband gave her, which bloodied blood-ied her face and caused her to stay locked up in her stateroom all the next day." And then there is the statement of August Dreyer, a lawyer, who was a pa enger on the Berengaria: "The whole thing started in Atlanta, when Candler suggested to Byfield that they take a trip to Europe. Bylield said he had no money and Candler gave him $2,000, taking two notes from Byfield for $1,000 each. Candler, Byfield and the latter's wife then came to New York Otty. In New York Candler suggested that thi3 was a good time for Byfield to make arrangements for securing the Atlanta agency for the Cadillac car and offered to pay his expenses to Detroit for this purpose. Byfield refused. "Everything went smoothly aboard the ship until we arrived near Cherbourg. There was a booze parly that lasted until 3 o'clock in the morning. Mrs. Byfield suddenly complained that she had a bad headache and Byfield took her to her ' .r. .r"...m i rirr.ed, n;.d fjfl J i Miort time later ' ar.dd r Wmf excused himself, saying he V fy was going to the washroom. W FiVe, ten, fifteen, twenty min-f min-f utes passed, and when Candler did not return Byfield's suspicions were aroused. He went to his wife's stateroom state-room and opened the door. When he did Candler fell to the floor of the stateroom. state-room. Byfield saw his wife lying in bed. He then gave Candler a beating and also beat Mrs. Byfield. "Pier screams were heard by a watchman, watch-man, who came to the stateroom and witnessed the subsequent events. A statement was then drawn up in the stateroom, to w hich the watchman signed his name. The statement set forth thct Candler said the whole thing must be hushed up and that he was willing to p.ty $25,000 to keep it quiet By-field By-field refused this sum at first and then agreed to accept it. After he m had taken a check for this amount from Candler Byfield said 'All right, now, I'll keep this as evidence.' j "The following morning we all got in a tender to go ashore. Candler came to me and said: 'I'm in a hell of a fix; what can I do?' He had learned that I was a lawyer from some of the other passengers. passen-gers. I suggested that we talk it ovlt, and when we arrived on land and took a train we all went to the observation platform plat-form at the rear of the train and I endeavored en-deavored to arbitrate tho matter. By-field By-field said to Candler: 'If you can prove to me that you did nothing wrong to this wfeman I'll call it square, but you'll have a hell of n time proving it.' "While we sat there Candler asked to have his check back and offered $10,000, $15,000, and finally $20,000 for it. Ky-field Ky-field refused. "Candler came to me and said fe must get his check and a statemiut from Bylield By-lield exonerating him from all blame. Meantime Bj field was without funds. Mrs. Byfield had told her husband that she would not return to Atlanta any more, but would stay with friends in New York City when she returned to the United States. Finally, because ho was Mrs. Walter Candler, who was sep- & aratcd from her millionaire hus- band, but is now said to be fe, hastening from Honolulu to m) rally to his support g broke, Byfield gave Candler a state- ment, witnessed by me and signed by Br me, exonerating Candler. For this Can- jfc ' dler gave Byfield $2,000 and Byfield re- : turned a note for this amount. Byfield gT then turned over the $25,000 check to ,p ' Candler." ft- And finally, from far-away Honolulu, ? ' came this word from the wife from whom jgfcf the millionaire had been separated: ' "I'm going back to help him fight it K out," Mrs Candler declared as she '8 : sought passage. "This looks like a de- liberate attack upon the honor of my jfv I husband. He shall have my entire sup- EfrV port." 3p' |