Monday, Jan. 26, 1925
Born. To Mr. and Mrs. Frederick vf Manning (Helen Herron Taft, daughter of Mr. Chief Justice William H, Taft of the U. S. Supreme Court), a (second) daughter; in New Haven.
Engaged. Francis Grover Cleveland, youngest son of the late President Grover Cleveland, to Miss Alice Erdman, daughter of Dr. Charles R. Erdman pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Princeton, N. J.
Engaged. William Harrison ("Jack") Dempsey, world's champion pugilist, to Mrs. Ida Estelle Peacock (Estelle Taylor), cinema actress, who a fortnight ago secured her final decree of divorce from Malcolm Peacock, Philadelphia bank clerk. Pugilist Dempsey plans to become a business man, to devote his time to managing his real estate interests.
Sued for divorce. Alexander Carr, famed Mawrus Perlmutter in Potash and Perlmutter and Business before Pleasure, by Mary Carr, actress. She charges that he struck her, off the stage as well as on.
Died. Mrs. Ellen Key Howard Morgan, granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, famed writer of The Star Spangled Banner; in Lexington, Ky.
Died. Henri Geeraert, 61, sluice-keeper who stopped the German advance on Calais in. 1914; in Bruges, Belgium, after a long illness. Geeraert kept the sluices of Nieuport. He knew that German armies were plunging across Belgium to the sea. He opened the locks. Into the flat country flowed the water; within 48 hours the ground was spongy, soon it was a marsh in which German soldiers struggled with plunging horses, foundering field-pieces. Gradually the water rose, until it became a lake two miles wide, barring off the Germans from Nieuport to Dixmude. The Belgian army, which had been retreating in disorder, had time to remarshall; Geeraert was credited, doubtless justly, with having helped to save it from destruction. Last Christmas Day, when he seemed at the point of death, he was decorated with the Order of Leopold.
Died. Harry Furniss, 70, famed caricaturist; at Hastings, England. He cartooned for Punch and the men he drew "came to look more and more like his caricatures"--Mr. Gladstone adopting a high poke collar, Mr. Balfour's legs growing longer and longer.
Died. Thomas F. ("Big Tom") Foley, 73. Tammany sachem; in Manhattan, of pneumonia. Next to the late Charles F. Murphy, he has wielded the greatest power in Tammany Hall in the last 15 years.
Died. Eleanor Franklin Egan, authority on the problems of the Far East; in Manhattan. (See Page 6.)
Died. Marie Sophia Amelia, ex-Queen, wife of the late Francis II, last of the Bourbon Kings of Naples; at Munich. Married at 18, she was deposed before she was 20. In 1860, Garibaldi conquered Naples; and although she rallied her forces, flag in hand, Gaeta, the fortress of her last stand was betrayed and capitulated.