"GODS OF ILL WILL."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 4, 6 January 1933, Page 12

"GODS OF ILL WILL."

CRASHED INTO SOC' l^ ;; DEATH. OE: TITANIC HEROINE.":.. Mrs; Margaret -Tobin-. ] Brown—"The Unsinkanl'e Mrs. heroine of toe Titanic disaster, who has just died in New York, was for more than 30 ▼ears-one of the -most* spectacular and turbulent figures in international 8 oci€ tv« With a fortune of £7,000,000, which her husband, 'Ojeadville .Johnny", Brown; •wrested from-the gold mines of Colorado, she blazed' a course through the capitals of Europe, spending lavishly and fantastically wherever she went. She met her husband, a miner, at the bottom of a shaft, and married him in three weeks. Although she had started life as a waitress in her father's boardinghouse, she fought her way. to the top of Continental society, making a resounding name by her prodigal philanthropy and her bizarre.clothes and unconventional life. In the"Titanic disaster, where she lost her jewels, she was lowered into a boat with 18 other women and one man, and took her turn at the oars for seven hours. Her courage kept the other women calm, and gained her the name of "The Unsinkable." In. 1927 Mrs. Brown attended a'freak religious service in Denver, where she made a sacrifice to the "gods of ill will." She displayed her amazing wardrobe on an altar, declaring she had incurred "the wrath of the gods." "Bishop" Frank Rice preached on a text from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus," while the congregation were permitted to examine her; rare laces, silk frocks, sables, jewellery and other finery.: A squad of detectives kept watch over the property. She had lived in quiet ■ seclusion inrecent years, indulging in litigation ■which established her claim on her husband's estate, from which she had been cut off in his will. It came "to-light in the. course of one of her actions that Mrs. Brown had been estranged from iher husband for some years before his death, and had, entered into a separation agreement renouncing any claim to hta estate. Mr. Brown bequeathed the remnant of his great fortune to two daughters and a son by his first marriage, and Mrs. Brown brought an abortive suit against her son-in-law charging him with taking advantage of the mining king's enfeebled state of health and with "playing the stock with funds belonging to the