Paul's Great Adventure

Paul Rainey Goes on his great Adventure

Noted Explorer and Adventurer Dies at Sea.
Estate is $40,000,000. Millionaire Sportsman
and Big Game Hunter Owned Extensive lands
in Mississippi, With Fine Hunting Lodge.
 

New York, Sept 19. Paul J. Rainey, who knew the far corners of the world as most men know the streets of their own cities, died Tuesday night on shipboard from Southampton for Cape Town,

South Africa and the freedom of the jungle. He died as he had lived, chasing adventure. Announcement of his death was made from the office of his brother, Roy A. Rainey, here.

Radio Messages were received by Mr. Rainey this morning telling of his brother’s death. They were from his sister, Mrs. Grace Rainey Rogers, who, with a party of friends, was accompanying the noted big game hunter, to the East African jungle on a hunting expedition.

The messages said he had died from a sudden stroke of paralysis. The party was aboard the British steamer Sacon. The ship had sailed from Southampton, England, September 17 and was due at Cape Town September 30. The burial was at sea today.

Death Comes On Birthday. He died on the evening of his 46th birthday. It was supposed by his friends here that he must have died immediately after a celebration of his birthday on board the ship. The messages announcing his death were sent at 11 o’clock at night. With a party of his closest friends on the ship it was thought certain his birthday would have been honored by a party.

Mr. Rainey’s lifetime was spiced with variety as those of few men are. For one reason, he was the older son of W.J. Rainey, called "The Cleveland Coke King" and inherited from his father a fortune estimated at $40,000,000. He lived briefly, but at a high pace. In turn he has been prominently in the public eye as a society man, sought after by mothers of eligible daughters; race horse owners with the horse DeMund his best known colt; polo player and member of the Meadowbrook Club team, automobile enthusiast, and rifleman, Arctic explorer and hunter, and big game hunter in the African jungles.

Made first jungle movies. It was in the last capacity that he was best known. He was the first big game hunter to take motion pictures of his hunts. He shot so many lions - once he shot nine lions within 35 minutes - that the British government set a limit on the number which he might shoot. He cut a plantation for his home out of the jungle near Nairobi. British East Africa, His party was bound for his jungle home when he died. It lies in a matted region of the jungle famous for the number of wild beast there.

He was unmarried. At various times after he first came to New York he was reported engaged to Marion Fish, daughter of Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, and other society girls. None of these romances ever got very far. It was said then that it was because of his love failures that he first struck out for the rim of the earth with Harry Whitney in the famous expedition in which he brought back from the Arctic regions Silver King, the great polar bear, to the Bronx Zoo and many other animals and scientific observations.

Mr. Rainey owned or controlled 30,000 acres of land in Tippah County, Mississippi, and maintained a large hunting lodge at Cotton Plant, Mississippi, near New Albany and Blue Mountain. It is known as Tippah Lodge and there Mr. Rainey entertained royally for his friends and was sponsor of fox hunts and various other sports.

MIGHTY HUNTER GONE. Friends of Rainey, Sportsmen, Gentlemen, Capitalist, Mourn.

With the passing of Paul Rainey, America loses her greatest hunter of big game and the south loses one of her most interesting characters. Friends of the man to whom death came so unexpectedly were strong in the expression of this opinion and of their grief when the news reached them in Memphis yesterday.

A man who did not strive for popularity, Rainey was nevertheless fortunate in having a number of those rarest possessions - true friends. His positive character had made enemies for him, but because of this same positive character, a man who knew him well, a magnificent old gentleman, who discussed the death last night, said "I loved Paul Rainey."

Paul Rainey came south two decades ago from the place of his birth, Cleveland, Ohio. He was independently wealthy, having inherited some 20 million dollars from his father, and soon after his arrival in this part of the country he purchased, as a hunting preserve, 10,000 acres of land near Cotton Plant, Mississippi. The purchase was made through Dr. M.F. Rogers, at New Albany, Mississippi.

The charm of the south grew on Rainey, and for years before his death he regarded Cotton Plant as his home. He lived in the east and even in Europe, but Mississippi had come to be the place where his heart was.

He numbered among his most intimate friends in this section Judge J.W. Ross, T.B. King, George Morris, E.L. McKnight, Tom G. James of Sharkey, Mississippi, and Dr. J.A. Crosler. At his request, Judge Ross was making arrangements for a fox hunt to be held at the Cotton Plant preserve, November 8. This meet was canceled yesterday immediately on receipt of the news of Rainey’s death by R.E. Roland. Mr. Roland manages the Rainey preserve and is secretary of the National Fox Hunter’s Association.

"A great many people did not like Rainey because they thought that he had too many peculiarities," said one of his friends last night. "As a matter of fact, had but one peculiarity and that was extreme determination."

"He was a man who, when he set out to do a thing, was not happy until it was done. And what he set out to do, he was determined to do as well as any one in the world."

As an example, this friend mentioned Rainey’s photography. The hunter took up this pursuit as something necessary to his excursions in the "big woods." He went about the study of photography quietly; but he put all else aside until he had mastered the art. And when the war came on, he went to France with his own outfit, at his own expense, and offered his knowledge of photography to the French government.

A small thing served as another example of this trait. The railroad gave him a station for his place at Cotton Plant and telegraph connections were made on premises. Rainey could have hired a hundred telegraphers, but instead he learned telegraphy himself, and veteran keypounders were forced to admit that they were not his masters.

The belief that every man should have one principal interest in life was strong in Rainey. "Every man should have a profession," was a common saying with him. His own chief interest was in hunting big game, and in this pursuit he went to the top.

At his Cotton Plant place he had a building made especially to contain his hunting trophies. The house had one room - about 50 feet by 25 feet. There was not a spot on the walls or floors that was not covered with animal skins or mounted heads, and they all had been shot by Rainey himself - all but one, a great stuffed tarpon which, hanging at one end of the room was a preserve.

Paul Rainey was generous, and yet he was not by any means a spendthfift. "I never knew him to let go a single dollar for which he did not get ample return" said a friend. And a few minutes later this same friend told of how Rainey made him a present of a valuable blooded bull which had just won all the blue ribbons in a southern fair.

Stock raising was one of Rainey’s hobbies, and he had splendid herds of Black Poll and Jersey cattle and some of the finest Duroc hogs in the south. He took pride in exhibiting his cattle.

Rainey was a rich man and perhaps a spoiled one, commented one of his most intimate friends, but he was not lacking in nerve. I have seen him threatened by a man reputed to be one of the most dangerous in Mississippi, and I have seen him make that man back down.

The world knew Rainey principally for the big game expedition which he made into Africa. This was one of the biggest ventures of its kind ever attempted, and was, in addition to its interest to sportsmen, of untold value to science.

RAINEY ROYAL HOST. Mississippi Estate Often Scene of Brilliant Social Events.

Paul J. Rainey, multimillionaire and international sportsman who died Monday owned 10,000 acres in Tippah and Union counties. Tippah Lodge, his beautiful rural retreat has just been completely remodeled. It contains trophies of the chase and is a bit of urbanity in unique rustic setting. It has been the scene of many brilliant social affairs given in honor of celebrities of this and other nations. Mr. Rainey was royal host an delighted to have friends at Tippah Lodge, where he feasted and honored them in old-fashioned style.

His dances were the most brilliant of the social seasons. Special musicians from Memphis, and special trains made them enjoyable for his guests.

Rainey never married but delighted in the companionship of winsome womanhood. He was a graceful dancer and a prince of good fellows. He spared neither time nor money for his friends. He annually gave big plantation picnics for his employees and friends. He took great joy in these himself and distributed prizes and gifts to young and old alike.

He had planned to return to Tippah Lodge after his African trip. His sister, Mrs. Grace Rainey Rogers, of New York was at Tippah Lodge a few months ago and Mrs. May Peters Graham of Memphis was often honoree of his social functions at Tippah Lodge. Both Ladies were with him when he died. Rainey in recent years spent more and more time in his Mississippi estate, to which he gave his personal attention and in which he took great pride.