Education: Socialites’ Solomon (Cont’d)

In Manhattan last week Supreme Court Justice John Francis Carew put the finishing touches to his decision giving possession of 10-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt to her aunt, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney (TIME, Nov. 26, et ante). “Calculated to destroy her health and neglectful of her moral, spiritual and mental education,” Justice Carew ruled, had been Gloria’s life with her glittering young widowed mother, Mrs. Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt. “Fit, suitable and appropriate” to his mind had been the child’s life for the past two years at Mrs. Whitney’s Old Westbury, L. I. estate.

Apparently to forestall an appeal, Justice Carew neither sustained nor dismissed the writ of habeas corpus by which Mrs. Vanderbilt sought to get her daughter back from Mrs. Whitney. Instead he made Gloria a ward of the Supreme Court of New York, appointed Mrs. Whitney her custodian as the Court’s representative. He ordered Mrs. Whitney to continue the child’s schooling, maintain her “in a manner suitable to her fortune” ($2,800,000), provide a Roman Catholic governess who would instruct her in her mother’s faith.* Gloria should never be taken out of New York State. She should visit her mother every week from 10 a. m. Saturday to sundown Sunday, the entire month of July and from 10 a. m. to 6 p. m. on Christmas Day. This arrangement should continue until Gloria was 21 unless any party concerned should meantime show the Court good cause for change. With the decision Justice Carew and Mrs. Whitney were ready to call quits but not young Mrs. Vanderbilt. Pale against the Japanese wallpaper of her Manhattan livingroom, with photographs of herself and Gloria on the piano, on every table and every lampstand, she received the Press. “I shall carry this case,” she announced, “to every court in the United States and to the highest court, whatever that is.” Into Surrogates’ Court last week marched Lawyers George W. Wickersham and Thomas B. Gilchrist, co-guardians of Gloria’s estate, to urge that Mrs. Vanderbilt’s petition for joint guardianship be denied on the ground that she was “not a proper party.” Guardian Gilchrist intimated that Mrs. Vanderbilt’s allowance from the estate might be cut. Into Appellate Court marched Mrs. Vanderbilt’s attorney, obtained an order requiring Justice Carew to show cause why he should not be compelled either to sustain or dismiss Mrs. Vanderbilt’s writ of habeas corpus, thus opening the way for an appeal. Growled Justice Carew: “I’m not interested. The order I signed is all right as it is. [But] if they want me to amend it, I shall amend it.” Counsel for both sides agreed that Justice Carew would probably dismiss Mrs. Vanderbilt’s writ, thus giving sole possession of the child to Mrs. Whitney. Meantime at Old Westbury small Gloria Vanderbilt, threatened with harm in a letter signed “Catholic Communist,” pursued her daily rounds under guard of twelve Pinkerton detectives.

* Commented Episcopalian Mrs. Whitney: “I am used to Catholic nieces. I have six in whose religious upbringing I am interested.”