April 1903: Emma and Derrick Andrews
have been invited to the wedding of her cousin Reggie Vanderbilt and heiress
Cathleen Neilson at the Bellevue Avenue Mansion, Arleigh. Their hosts are a
popular young couple who are leasing the home for the summer—Harry and
Elizabeth “Bessie” Lehr. Known for his practical jokes, Harry is the toast of
parties, earning a reputation as the court jester of the Gilded Age. However,
as Emma soon learns, behind closed doors he is dead serious.
Following the wedding, Bessie comes to Emma for help, insisting that her
husband is cruel to her in private, telling her outright he married her only
for her money and finds her repulsive. Divorce is unthinkable. Now she believes
he is plotting to murder her and make it look like an accident: a broken
balcony railing she might have leaned on, a loose stair runner that could have
sent her tumbling down a staircase, faulty brakes in the car she uses . . .
Some would say being trapped in a loveless marriage is a fate worse than death.
Not Bessie—she wants to live! Unsure if these situations are mere coincidences
or add up to premeditated sabotage, Emma agrees to investigate and determine if
Newport’s merry prankster is engaged in a cold-blooded game of life or death. .
.
Bessie Lehr (who really existed), one of The Four Hundred—a social standing still prevailing at the turn of the century—comes to Emma for her investigative prowess. She claims her husband is trying to kill her and there are past incidents that seem to substantiate her claim. Having witnessed a conversation that proved Bessie and Harry Lehr’s fairy-tale marriage a falsehood and since Bessie doesn’t want the police involved, Emma agrees to investigate.
Please welcome Alyssa Maxwell back to WWK! E. B. Davis
The automobile is taking over in 1903, and opening up whole new industries. Why does Emma have a problem with cars? Will she get a driver’s license?
While Emma accepts that automobiles are here to stay, she would prefer not to have them overrun Aquidneck Island. Life there, in her view, has always been influenced by the tides, with a certain rhythm and a methodic ebb and flow. Cars were noisy and smelly. Rules of the road were still being established, and fast, reckless driving wasn’t uncommon. Her own cousin, Reggie, exemplifies the problems cars brought to the island. It’s said pedestrians and livestock alike were in danger whenever he got behind the wheel. Emma would like to preserve the tranquility of island life – that is, when murders aren’t being committed!
Because of automation, mankind’s relationship with animals also changed. (I always feel sorry for horses and donkeys.) Automation usurped their function in our society. Did Emma feel indulgent keeping her horses when she no longer had to rely on them?
In 1903 we’re still a couple of decades away from automobiles completely replacing horses. There were basically three types of cars at the time – electric, gas-powered, and steam-powered. None of them were particularly reliable, were prone to breaking down, and most people considered them a luxury, not a necessity. So no, Emma doesn’t at all feel frivolous about keeping her horses or continuing to use her carriage. One of the horses, Barney, is too old now to pull a gig, so keeping him might be somewhat indulgent, but she feels she owes her old carriage horse a happy retirement.
Emma and Derrick attend the wedding of her cousin Reginald (Reggie) Vanderbilt that was weirdly located at Arleigh House, which was being rented that summer by Bessie and Harry Lehr. Reggie was on the outs with his family, although he had already inherited. So, it seems plausible to have the wedding at Arleigh House rather than at The Breakers. They later find out the why, but how did the Lehrs come to lend their albeit temporary home to Reggie?
Actually, Reggie was his mother’s favorite – and always would be – so it’s entirely plausible they could have held the wedding at The Breakers. But traditionally it’s the bride’s family who makes the wedding arrangements, and apparently Cathleen’s mother accepted the Lehrs’ offer. Why the Lehr’s specifically? For whatever reason, they were able to be in Newport for the April wedding, when most other members of the Four Hundred wouldn’t have opened up their summer cottages yet. Most weddings of the Four Hundred would have taken place in New York City, but as I’ll discuss farther on, Reggie had reasons to avoid being in New York at this time.
Bessie has what today would be called a teacup dog. Did tiny dogs exist at this time? Most dogs were “working” dogs. Why would they name their dog Hippodale?
I don’t know the exact story behind the name Hippodale, other than Harry Lehr named him, and that wealthy dog owners at the time often chose fancy, unique-sounding names to lend their pets a certain cachet. It’s true that so far in history most animals worked to earn their keep, especially in rural areas. But with industrialization and automation, fewer working animals were needed and the idea of keeping pets became ever more popular. However, lapdogs have existed for centuries – we see them in portraits ranging from the Middle Ages through the present day. Papillons are an old breed, as are Pekinese, Pugs, and even Chihuahuas. Most small dogs weren’t bred for work, but rather to be cuddly companions, as they are today. I was glad Bessie Lehr had such a companion; Hippodale must have brought her comfort when she needed it. But since Harry named the pooch and did take part in caring for the animal (as I read in Elizabeth Lehr’s book, King Lehr), I surmised the two of them must have had an affinity for each other.
Whereas Emma thought long and hard about marrying Derrick, Bessie wasn’t a widow long before she married again. Why would she do that, especially considering that she was in control of her own fortune? And in real life, as per your author’s notes, after Harry dies, she marries again, and again the marriage isn’t a joyful one. Did Bessie never learn?
Unlike England, in the US women had the legal right to have their own money. Harry didn’t have any legal or ethical way to take Bessie’s ownership away. Why did Alva Vanderbilt, Tessie Oelrichs and Mamie Fish (all real people) encourage the match?
Those three ladies, as well as others, adored him. He was a charmer, a flatterer, and the life of every party – a grifter by today’s standards, actually – but Harry barely had a cent to his name and they were determined to remedy that. They wanted the best for him, wanted to see him maintain the extravagant lifestyle he had come to enjoy. Hence their enthusiasm to see him married to a wealthy woman. Did they know Harry was gay? That’s hard to say. It would never have been openly acknowledged, but it’s possible they suspected and wanted to help him conceal the truth by seeing him safely married.
When Emma asks Bessie why she won’t divorce Harry, Bessie says her mother would be heartbroken. But when we meet Bessie’s mom, it seems she is more about power and control than religious beliefs. Why did Victorian parents get so overly involved in their children’s lives?
In the story, Bessie’s mother declares that her daughter would never find salvation if she divorced her husband. I have no doubt the real Lucy Wharton Drexel, a staunch Catholic, firmly believed this to be true. But parenting was different in those days. There was no democracy within the family structure: parents commanded, and children, even adult children, were expected to obey. So yes, power struggles did play into parent-child relationships, sometimes to the point of nearly obscuring the true issue, in this case that of religious conviction.
Did men still have the right to incarcerate their wives in insane asylums? More than one woman says to Emma that Bessie is a “flibbertigibbet.” Is this a code word for mentally unstable? Would this give Harry the right to commandeer Bessie’s fortune?
By flibbertigibbet, Bessie’s friends were merely implying she could at times be fretful and a bit flighty. But they would have gained this impression from Harry himself, wouldn’t they? As for her fortune, the fact that Bessie remained in control of the finances after remarrying suggests her husband’s and father’s wills were written in such a way as to protect her interests, along with those of her son by her first marriage. Having Bessie committed would probably have left Harry worse off, because the money would have gone into a trust for her son.
You mentioned that the city of Newport played a role in slavery. Were slaves brought into the country via Newport? Was it an open practice or were they smuggled in? Are there tunnels under other cottages?
First let me say the tunnel depicted beneath Arleigh is entirely fictional. As for slavery, yes, Newport played a large role in slavery during colonial times. Slaves were brought to the city and sold from there. Some remained in Newport and the surrounding area, working on farms and in households, while others were transported south. This was done openly, as at the time slavery was legal and generally accepted. Many Newport sea merchants made their fortunes in the Triangle Trade where slaves were transported from Africa to the Caribbean to work on the sugar plantations and in the production of molasses. The molasses was then distilled into rum and sold throughout the colonies. There was an old rumor that tunnels existed below Touro Synagogue, used to smuggled enslaved people out of Newport and to freedom, but it’s been proven that no such tunnels ever existed there. Other tunnels may have been used to elude the British tax collectors before and during the Revolution.
Was the Canfield case real? Was Reggie involved?
Yes, the Canfield Case involved illegal gambling practices and the swindling of patrons at a casino in Saratoga Springs, NY, in 1903. Reggie was involved and was subpoenaed to testify for the prosecution, but as a witness and a victim, not as a culprit. Not wishing to become any more involved than he already was and wanting to avoid the publicity of what was a very public trial, he fled New York to avoid the summons. This is why he and his young bride, Cathleen, married in Newport and not in New York City, as would have been more fashionable.
There were two facts you presented in your notes that brought this story full circle. The first was that Reggie was Gloria Vanderbilt’s father, but the woman he marries in this book isn’t Gloria’s mother. What happened?
The other fact, which I looked up in Kindle—Bessie eventually wrote a book about Harry after he died in 1929. It also must have been after her mother died, wasn’t it? I can’t imagine her outing so much publicly, and yet she did. The book is titled, “King Lehr” and the Gilded Age. Did she pose that Harry was homosexual? Do you know the public reaction to the book?
King Lehr and the Gilded Age was published long after Bessie’s mother had died. In it she implies that her husband was gay, but only in so many words. But while it’s never clearly stated, the reader is left in little doubt. I’ve read that at the time, the book was termed “devastating” in the press, and that it “depicted the extravagances of a society which can now seem only empty and a little vulgar.” But WWI and the Depression had changed society drastically, chipping away the gilded veneer to show the scars and warts beneath. Twenty or thirty years earlier, this book undoubtedly would have shocked, scandalized, and enraged members of society. But by 1935, the year of publication, people had become pretty disillusioned and world-weary.
The real Arleigh House no longer exists. Who was it owned by and what happened to it? Are you running out of “cottages?”
Although Arleigh is a lesser known Newport Cottage, it has an interesting history. Originally, a different house stood there and was known as Parker Cottage. A Mrs. Mary Matthews (the longtime mistress of Isaac Singer of the Singer Sewing Company) bought the property in 1893 and replaced the old house with Arleigh, designed in the Queen Anne style. Unfortunately, she died before the house was completed and her daughter, Florence Ruthven-Pratt, inherited. She and her husband didn’t care for Newport society, however, and so the house began a long history of being leased by a series of illustrious tenants, including the Lehrs, until the early 1930s. At that time Mrs. Ruthven-Pratt simply stopped paying the taxes on the property. The house was sold at auction and almost immediately – and suspiciously – burned to the ground. Today, a nursing home occupies the property. You ask if I’m running out of cottages. Not yet!
What’s next for Emma and Derrick?
Their adventures continue only several weeks later, in the summer of 1903. Silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs, or Tessie as she was known to her friends (yes, there’s Bessie and Tessie), holds her glorious “White Ball,” where not only are the elaborate floral decorations pure white, but the gowns worn by the women guests as well, with most men sporting white vests and bowties. This all-white theme – thought up by none other than Harry Lehr – included swans in the fountain and white yachts floating offshore beyond the cliffs. The evening is magical, until an uninvited guest makes an outrageous claim about Tessie and threatens to topple her well-ordered world. Did I mention there’s a fountain on the property? By the end of the evening, there’s more than swans floating in its bubbling water.
As Emma investigates to find the culprit, she finds herself struggling with the wealth she now enjoys as the result of an inheritance from her Uncle Cornelius and her marrying Derrick. The events at Rosecliff lead her to question whether wealth will change her values as it has for so many members of the Four Hundred, who often seem shallow and insincere to her. It forces her to look deeper at her own life and theirs, and perhaps draw some new conclusions. She’s also running into resistance when it comes to the new school for girls she and husband Derrick wish to build. Many in town oppose the idea of teaching girls the same curriculum as boys; they also resist the idea of Emma, a woman, taking the reins on the project rather than allowing Derrick to handle things. How will she find an architect willing to work with her? Emma is nothing if not resourceful, and she certainly never takes no for an answer!
Bio:
Alyssa Maxwell is the author of The Gilded Newport Mysteries and A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mysteries, with over twenty books in print. The Gilded Newport series was inspired by her husband’s deep Newport roots, which go back numerous generations. Murder at The Breakers, the first book in that series and a USA Bestseller, has been adapted for television by the Hallmark Mystery Channel. Maxwell and her husband recently moved across the country from Florida to California, where they continue to enjoy their favorite activities: antiquing, bike riding, and hiking (sort of) in nature preserves. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. For more about Alyssa and her books, please visit http://alyssamaxwell.com and the following links:
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