Strange Times 63: Minister Wants to Learn About Men

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Today brings a curious pastor and a Vanderbilt cousin who threw excellent parties but made a terrible neighbor. Crank up your violoncello for…

March 4, 1921

• Turned off by the promise of a "simple" ceremony, few spectators journey to Washington to witness President-elect Harding's inaugeration today.

• A protest against high bread prices in Detroit turns into a riot, as 200 flood the shop and destroy the bread. 

• Fearing that by 1946 one in five marriages could end in divorce, Boston reverend J.I. Corrigan says that, like alcohol, divorce should be prohibited. 

• For the first time in weeks, Caruso is without fever and feeling well as he awaits his brother's visit in hopes of joining him on a trip to Atlantic City.

• The Weather: Fair and much colder today; Saturday, fair, rising temperature; strong northwest winds.

Everything about this is very, very good. I would watch the hell out of a period rom-com, The Pastor & The Foreman, about the inevitable factory romance.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 3.—The Rev. Joseph Meyer Jr., pastor of the Budd Park Christian Church here, arranged today to lay aside his ministerial garb and enter a factory next week as a laborer that he might learn about men.

The minister's resignation was placed in the hands of his congregation last night. He explained that he believed a close association with men who toil physically would make him a better pastor. 

This is a feast of society drama, all set in one of those stunning midtown apartment houses built to let the wealthy play at being bohemian. (Yes, the city has been doing that forever—I strongly recommend Elizabeth Hawes’ excellent history of the New York apartment house if you want to learn more.) Bow before So-Rich-I-Just-Don’t-Care visage of Mrs. Richard T. Wilson!

The story of a dinner party and musicale given by Mrs. Richard T. Wilson, a sister-in-law of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, in her studio at 130 West Fifty-seventh Street, will be told in the West Fifty-fourth Street police court this afternoon when Mrs. Wilson answers a summons demanding that she reply to a technical charge of disorderly conduct made by Francis Newton, who occupies the apartment beneath her. 

Mrs. Wilson is fond of music and at msot of her entertainments has had prominent singers and musicians entertain her guests. Mr. Newton and Childe Hassam, the artist, fellow tenants, have objected to the sound of 'cello and violin after midnight. Mr. Hassam, in particular, has been upset about Mrs. Wilson's musical inclinations, and on several occasions has either sent or caused to be sent by an officer of the co-operative assocation, which owns the apartments, notes asking Mrs. Wilson not to do it again.

The climax to these complaints came on Sunday, Feb. 20, when in the midst of a musicale attended by socially prominent persons two policemen knocked on the door and announced that they were from the West Forty-seventh Street police station, and that as the result of a complaint the fervor of the musicians must be restrained. They remained for some time, during which the music was subdued to the suggestion of tragedy, and the guests conversed in carefully modulated tones.

Mrs. Wilson was both indignant and amused yesterday when she admitted receiving the summons to court, and told of the series of incidents which led up to it. She said that it apepared to her that some one was a bit peevish, and that it hardly seemed necessary to drag a woman into a police court when effective protest could have been made in some other way.

"This is my first Winter in New York for some time," she said. "There seems to be no personal liberty left in this country. I think I will go to Italy by and by and spend my declining years there. How any one could object to the music I have had here is a mystery to me. Some of my neighbors have told me that they could not hear it at all, and one told me that she left her door open so she could hear. Several of them are going to court with me tomorrow to support my contention that there was nothing in any of my entertainments to which any one could take the slightest exception."

The gathering of Feb. 20, which was the night of the severe snowstorm, was a large one. Mrs. Wilson's evenings have been popular among her friends, who include many socially prominent persons. Mrs. Wilson, who was MIss Maron S. Mason of Bostonk is related to the Vanderbilts and Goelets through her husband, Richard T. Wilson. He is a brother of M. Orme Wilson, Mrs. Ogden Goelet and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The list of Mrs. Wilson's guests would not suggest that it was an affair which woul call for poilce intervention. At the dinner which preceded the entertainment were Mrs. Horatio Slater, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Hunt, Mrs. James Lowell Putnam, Albert Morris Bagby, Mrs. Chauncy Olcott, Mrs. James B. Haggin, Mrs. Alfred M. Beadleston, Mrs. Oakleigh Rhinelander, Harris Brown, Chester Allen Arthur, Major F. M. Guardabassi and Robert McKee. Those who arrived after the dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Harriman, Frank A. Munsey and other friends.

Musicale Given in Large Studio

The studio is a large one on the ninth floor, and it was in this that the musicale was held. Just above it lives Mr. Hassam and just below it Mr. Newton, who made the complaint yesterday. The musicians were Arturo Bonucci, 'cellist, and Guido Agosti, pianist.

They were in full song, when shortly before midnight there came a ring at the door, and to Mrs. Wilson's amazement, she found that two apologetic policemen wre there under instructions to stop the "noise." There was nothing to do but invite them in, Mrs. Wilson said, which she did, and asked them to make themselve thoroughly at home. The policemen seemed to be much more put out than did Mrs. Wilson.

"They stayed here," she said, "and after that our music was barely audible. We sat around and talked in low tones until the party broke up. Frank Pollock did a few imitations, which helped pass the time. The policemen who stayed did not seem at all happy, and one of them, I believe, went down and helped some of the guests reach their cars through the snow. It was a miserable night, as you may remember."

Mrs. Wilson was angry at the method taken to protest against her music, and the one who complained to the police did not take the matter up with her husband instead of forcing her to bear the brunt of what she called "peevishness." But she thought the police call ended the incident, until yesterday when she received a summons.

Said It Was "Great Annoyance"

The summons was issued by Magistrate Max Levine at the instance of Mr. Newton, who went to the court accompanied by Childe Hassam. They told Magistrate Levine that Mrs. Wilson's affairs had been a great annoyance to them, and the technical charge of disorderly conduct was made by Mr. Newton. He refused to discuss his complaint last night. After the summons had been served Mrs. Wilson got in touch with Lyttelton Fox, her attorney. 

Mr. Fox quickly found a large number of persons who said they would gladly appear in court in Mrs. Wilson's behalf, and the gathering in the West Side Court today promises to be one of the most impressive socially that unimpressive edifice has ever housed. Mr. Bagby, Mr. Munsey and Oliver Harriman said they would be on hand, as did Miss Elsie Lenssen of 30 East Fiftieth Street, who occupied Mrs. Wilson's apartment last Winter and offended Mr. Hassam by her music.

"Miss Lenssen is an excellent musician," said Mrs. Wilson, "and a friend of mine. She is almost a professional, her singing is of such high quality, and naturally she sings a good deal. Mr. Hassam protested against music in the daytime, I believe, because he paints then and it disturbed him, but there did not seem to be any reason why there should not be music at night. I have been told that he used to jump up and down on the floor when he was disturbed. At any rate, he made it known to Miss Lenssen that he did not appreciate her music. 

"There was another occasion when I had a small orchestra here when I entertained a distinguished Englishman, and I received a note that the music had caused annoyance to some of those in the house. Since then I have not had an orchestra, and I do not see what objection there could have been to the 'cello and piano. If it is impossible to have music after midnight there is not much use in giving entertainments nor in having an apartment of this kind. What other use can I put the studio to?

"I have had some very excellent musicians and friends who sing this winter.… Certainly they would not produce the kind of music which would displease any one who was not unduly sensitive."

Mr. Newton said last night that he preferred not to discuss the charge he had made against Mrs. Wilson. Lyttleton Fox, her attorney, would not discuss the case either, except to say:

"Mrs. Wilson has a neighbor who seems to dislike music, that is all there is to it. The character of Mrs. Wilson's guests is sufficient guarantee, if any were necessary, that nothing disorderly could have occurred in her apartment. She will be on hand with plenty of witnesses."