A VIENNA SCANDAL.

Evening Star, Issue 8716, 7 January 1892, Page 4

A VIENNA SCANDAL.

THE SAD STORY OF MRS MAYER'S BABY.

[From Our Correspondent.]

Lonuon, November 18,

The Vienna correspondent of the ' Chronicle' wires that journal some interesting particulars of a sensational case which is at present the chief topic of conversation in the Austrian capital. He says:—." Nearly ten years ago a prominent Vienna lawyer, Dr Mayer Von Aleo-Rusßbach, being then turned sixty years of age, married a young German actress named Elise Schedel. The marriage was far from being a happy one. Matrimonial disputes of a serious nature, fr< quently carried into court for settlement, ended finally in an appeal for a decree of divoroe on the part of Dr Mayer, who, in addition, drew up a will completely disinheriting his wife, Frau Von Mayer, however, who may be presumed to have married her husband for his fortune, opposed the proceeding, and as no children bad been born of the union, she determined to prooare an infant and to represent it as the child of Dr Mayer, in which case it would, in accordance with the Austrian law, inherit a certain portion of the father's property. Accordingly, after an absence of nearly five years, Frau Von Mayer returned to her husband, although her efforts to bring about a permanent reconciliation proved unavailing. The couple again separated, and a few days after she wrote to Dr Mayer informing him that she expeoted in due time to become a mother. He indignantly repudiated all claim to the title of father, but Frau Von Mayer persisted in her statement. Shortly afterwards she went to Augsburg, where she agreed with a midwife of that city that the latter should receive a child which would be brought to her, and register it as having been born in her house and under her care. Frau Von Mayer then travelled about Germany in searoh of a baby suitable for her purpose, and finally obtained possession of a new? born male infant at the Foundling Home in Nancy, for which she paid the mother, a poor widow, the munificent sum of lOfr. On April 30 the Augsburg midwife duly registered the birth of a ohild barn to Frau Von Mayer in her house, and it was duly baptised as Wilhelm Franz Humbert, the names of the three sovereigns of Germany, Austria, and Italy. It did not appear to matter to this partisan of the Triple Alliance that the boy was a Frenchman, and had already been baptised in Nanoy under the more prosaic name of .Jules, Towards the end °f May, Frau Von MayeV announced by letter to her husband the birth of a bod and heir, and at onoe proceeded to take steps to obtain for 'her baby' the customary alimony. Dr Mayer, however, had in the meantime obtained from a midwife in Metz, whose honesty Frau Von Mayer had in vain attempted to tamper with, very accurate information respecting hio wife's proceedings, He replied in his turn by taking out a summons against her on the charge of conspiracy and attempt to defraud, The lady, not feeling safe In Germany or Austria, fled for refuge to the third of the allied kingdoms, and concealed herself in Milan under an assumed name.. On March 3, 1891, Dr Von Mayer died, and his wife imprudently gave vent to her feelings in several joyful letters addressed to friends in Vienna, But her triumph proved to be short-lived. By a mere accident the Vienna police obtained a Slue to her name and place of residence, ihe was promptly arrested in Milan, and delivered over to the authorities. Now she has been brought to Vienna to be tried, Frau Von Mayer pleads not guilty, persisting that the ohild is her own. The trial is being oonduoted with closed doors, and will last three days.