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His Dead Body Found in the Bay at Bensonhurst.

MAY HAVE FALLEN INTO THE SEA

It Is Not Supposed that He Committed Suicide.

NO EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY

He Was Very Near-Sighted and Might Have Stumbled Off a Pier——His Wife Also Met with a Tragic Death Three Years Ago——He Will Be Buried at Kingston, N. Y.

The suspense of the Vaux family came to an end yesterday when they learned that the dead Body of Calvert Vaux, the 
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Calvert Vaux
landscape architect, had been found in the water at the foot of Bay 17th street, Bensonhurst.

Mr. Vaux had been missing since Tuesday. His health had not been satisfactory and he left the city about ten days ago and went to the home of his son, C. Bowyer Vaux, at 1896 Twentieth avenue, Bensonhurst, to recuperate. He seemed to be doing well, and on Tuesday his daughter, Miss Marian, and his daughter-in-law, the wife of C. Bowyer Vaux, who had been constant in their attentions to him, left him to look after himself for a time, while they took an outing on their cycles. He was not at home when they returned, but no uneasiness was felt until night set in. Then, as the old gentleman had not appeared, a general alarm was sent out.

Early yesterday morning Francis D. Fry, a coal dealer, who was walking along the beach, saw the body of a man in the water and dragged it to shore. A policeman recognized it as that of Mr. Vaux. One shoe was missing, but there were no marks of violence.

After a wait of an hour or more a coroner appeared and permitted the body to be taken to young Mr. Vaux's house. The funeral will be held there to-morrow, but the interment will be at Kingston. It was in Kingston that the elder Vaux found a wife in the daughter of James S. McEntee, a civil engineer.

C. Bowyer Vaux attributed his father's death to the fact that the architect was near-sighted.

"He could Scarcely get along at all without his glasses," said Mr. Vaux, "and he did not have them with him that day. As a result, according to my idea, he must have stumbled while walking on one of the piers, and fallen into the water. He had been going to the piers every afternoon to get the fresh air and enjoy the sunset, and I have no doubt that he was simply following the custom he had established on Tuesday.

"There is nothing to suggest foul play. He had left his watch behind him——in fact, he went without it frequently——and he only had a little change in his pockets. Of course, suicide is out of the question. He did not have a care in the world, except his desire to keep Tammany away from the management of New York's parks; he owed no one a dollar, and his disposition was a singularly happy one. The fact that one of his shoes was missing when the body was found is not strange. He wore lowcut ties and one might easily have been washed off."

The dead architect is survived by two sons, C. Bowyer, who is connected with the American Lithographic Company, and Downing Vaux, who was in partnership with his father; and two daughters, Miss Marian Vaux and Mrs. H. H. Donaldson.

Mrs. Calvert Vaux met with a fatal accident near Englewood, N. J., in August, 1892. She had started for a ride with Mrs. Mason Wells, the horses ran away, the carriage was overturned and the two ladies were thrown to the ground with great force. Mrs. Wells was killed instantly, and Mrs. Vaux died two days later, never having opened her eyes after the accident.

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