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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 9, 1905)
!3T 3313 3LEESI2 lETSLIZ iii33.(n)ILlJI3 f V-C- t.K K ROtHFR of Kmlncnce. Mi.. sfirr n series Pi I fif Harding adventures resulting from her jjLJjL I hovel ninl melodrama fed Imagination, will A life I reach the hnppy ending of hit own melodrama next week when she will ln'mme the bride of Arthur Cluxton of Ht. Iuiis. Cluzton a first her here, tnm hrr villain, then again hrr hern for h mv1 hrr from the fate Int which she came niiir casting hersejf because of her wlll Imagination which she had stuffed on cheap novel nnd stage struck fancies aftiT she hud come to imagine Iilm a villain. The happy ending enme In net III., wl Ich In unusual In melodrama, hut this one Ik In real life i.nd the nrtlun took place In Fmlnenoe nnd St. I.nuK The story, wlilrh I best told In three nets, has Just become public propi rry bemuse of the Issuance of the invitations to the wedding ACT 1. (Vene: Eminence. Mo. Time: June, 1IH4. Allrp Rot her. 1H years rid, the daughter of a well to do fam ily. Just out of school, was the belle of the country town. Her disposition is romantic In the extreme, and from childhood on she had been n render of cheap novels Her mother died when she was yet a child, and her father. ovcrlndulgent, sup plied K"r wi ll with mnn-y, permitted her to purchase nil the looks she desired, and took little observation of what rhe nnd. She occupied the Isst seats in the Heater every time a "show" came to town, nnd, although her father did not know It, she walked past the hotel many afternoons, hoping that she mlpht catch a tllnipse of one of the nctors. I Jer brain was fired with a desire to go on the ftnge, to wear the m ar gorgeous gowns that looked like the real thing from the seats In which she sat. The girl's brain, fired with reading of trashy novels nnd by the heroic, nnd villainous scenes portrayed on the staee, wove romances and tragedies In the cloth of her Imagination, nnd she conjured up mysteries to solve, surrounding herself with an atmosphere of romance and mystery In which she herself was the heroine. The girl, in spite of this, was Innocent and unspoiled, and the prettiest young womn.i In the county So the young men of tlie town said and she was a favorite nnd a leader among the young people. In June Arthur Cluxton, a young traveling man from St. Ixnils. reached Fmlnonce, nnd was forced to lemnln over Sun day. He was a leader among the Gideons a religious organi zation of traveling men, a clean cut, energetic young fellow, of good family and excellent prospects. He nttended churoh both morning and afternoon, and Just before the evening serv Ice he was Introduced to Miss Rother by the, minister, sat with her dining services, and utcrwnrds walked home from church with her. i With Cluxton It was . rase of love at first sight, and Miss Rother was strongly drawn to him. Twice within the next two weeks he nrrnnged his route so that he could spend Pun day In Fmlnencc, and. at the end of thu.c two visits, he frankly told the girl of hir. love for her and she, flnttered by the admiration and love of the city man, said "Yes" and wore his ring proudly. Idealise of the short ncnua Intnnce the futher Insisted that the young people wait at least six months before marrying and the date was set for, T'ec. in. ACT 2. Bci-iie: Eminence, Mo. Time : September. The (Iroton Stock company had come to Knilnence for a week at the opera house. It was the best repertoire " com pany that ever had visited the town nnd its coming was an event. But on top of that event there was another, which was MUlte as important to Ali"c Rother becausx or Tuesday after noon she had received a telegram from her lover Informing her that he would Jump from Monett and be with her Wednes day afternoon. Resides she had her new town and new hat and she would go with Cluxton to the opera house and be the heroine of a little romance herself, and be envied by all the girls. The bill for Wednesday evening was " The Detective Rrlde," and she was excited by the strange title, significant of mystery nnd love, so she felt almost as much Interest In the prospect of seeing an exciting melodrama as she did in the coming of the man she was to wed. Cluxton arrived the next morning and :-hc met him at the station. It was the first time that he ever had kissed her publicly and she blushed prettily and drove with him proudly and consciously through town to her father's house, where, for the first time, Jie was to be the guest. All morning nnd most of the afternoon tney sat In the. hammock under the rdiaric of the big maple tree nnd planned their future life, painting beautiful pictures of the future and planning every thing In roseate colors; l.ate In the afternoon rhe laughingly told him to run away uptown as she had to supervise the colored sirl In getting the dinner and finishing up the housework, and he kissed her again and walked away happily while site l!ed, laughing and blushing, up the. stairs. Right there the trouble commenced. Hhe stepped Into the " spare " bedroom, which lie was to occupy and on the man tel she saw the photograph of a man nnd a beautiful womnn. Without meaning to spy rhe stepped towr.rl the mantel and picked up the photograph: Why, it's Arthur?" she said to herself. " I wonder who the lovely lady with him can be?" The seeds of Jealousy wfre sown. Half an hour later he returned f.-nrn his stroll through the toi: and greeted her happily. Sue looked down and he noted a change In her manner. essssesesscsssssssssesss V:.. ,A .'f fit uk Just Like Romance Jim MHts m&w She Wrote Was the R had thought It In the morning nnd she i!ld not for t lie rnv of ilie mlicr it't's In f.icti she Jealous nnd did not know It. Then I lie plot ..f the 1 lay caught lie leaned forward excitedly. It ns a cheap plot the story of a bride wl oe husband cue so nun h is di speriitcly attention and she 1M lc inclovh amat ic a f ilc a nil li donned mans dothl'ig. trailed iilm. tximiil ids villainy, se cured a dlvmce, and linillc niirilcd the nun slic i. illy loved Hut the cheapness and tawdrynrss of ilie thing dl.l not ap peal to Alice Rother, for from It was nun nn Idea That night, after she had coldlv permitted Cluxton to kiss her goixl nlght, she sat by her bedroom window' t'linklug for a long time. Then, ss she turned out the light she suld: ' I 11 do It." ACT 3. Scene: Ht. Louis T'me: 8etember. Alice Rother, disguised is a bov, lias in riv ed In St. l.oti's on the track of Cluxton, her affianced husband. Site has trallid III in to his home on Carondolct avenue and Is watching his t very move. Twice she followed him through the I'ike at the vvorld'r fair, while be, unconscious of hrr neai ness. Is long, lug for her to be with him and share with him the pleasures of tlie fair. The glrlls cot science hints hrr a little as Mic sees him sit down ' ible. alone nfnld tl e gay throng, and write n little note v . , , ., souveuiD postai card. I!ut still she believes liat she will tiao him. On Sept. In, towards vi ninu. she w is watching outside bis home, loitering on the sidewalk ai r e's tlie street, when the saw n mail emerge from the house, diaw Ids bat down over his eyes, and walk hrhkly nvvav She boarded the same car as he did and nxle downtown with iilm On Uro.ulway, near Seventh, the ni.ni imu eagerly scanning tlie street in both din ii..ns, few minutes n tall, handionie woman r.iu;idei The man and woman in t. A few fit nvvav. bearing. Alice Rother. disguised, saw Ilie im breast palpitated with passion. When the oupl d and waited, and within n 1 the corner, almost within ting, and her e started away , aft i i bio, k she fol di inking resort nnd lo'lowcd and sealed ignored her presence. ?ileest ,'onvers.ltlon unable to bear tlie iini. f.ieliin the man, he lnmsted. " And you arms, 1 who Is " What's tlie mutter with my little 1rl7" he asked, slip ping Ids urm around her waist. " O, IlOtillllH " " Tes, tliere Is, sweetheart, dear, must tell nn ." " Arthur," she said, idipplng out of that woman In tlie photograph upstairs?" For a ininuto tlie man hesitated. Then his brow clouded. " It's a sad htory, little ulii, and one I can't tell you now Maybe some day you will hear It." The girl said nothing more and the matter might hive ended there but for tho playwright who wrote "The Ie- tectlve Rrlde." Somehow that evening all the anticipated happiness fled from Alice Rother. Her dress wns not half as pretty as she she was after them like a flash. IMocl lowed, until she saw them enter a low then, hiding her terror in I shame, she herself at a table near tlie couple, who The man and the woman remained in for some minutes, until finally Alice, scene any longer, sprang towards tlicin, Slid "Villain-I have dlseoci red your di.i'h'llv ." The iiieh draninlie iiiihrcnk startled tlie man and the woman and attracted tlie attention of tlie crowd. The girl tore off the soft hit she was wearing a:n! her black hair flowed down over In r shoulders. A waiter grabbed her roualdv by the arms and started to rm'i her towards the door to throw her out upo i the street. The uproar grew with every minute. Tlie man and the womnn remained seeii:iti'' dazed by surpii.e, seated at tlie table. A policeman ran Into tlie place, Hr.d. being told that a woman disguised as a man had caused the disorder, he seized the young girl and started to take her to the door. Her melodramatic heroics cea;ed in nn Instant, nnd, breaking down, she sobliel and called: " O. Arthur, save me end I w ill foni.r you." The man nt the table looked up as if hi Inonly grasping an Idea and started forward Just at that Instant Arthur Cluxton t lib red the place nnd gazed upon tlie scene, lie saw Ids SAicthenrt under ar rest In the hands of the police, charged with starting a brawl In n questionable resort. He saw the man and tlie woman nt the table nnd then the situation Hashing in rnss his brain In an Instant, he stepped forwnrd. spoke easily to the police man, nnd led him aside. A hill pressed into the hand of Ilie policeman settled the difficulty, and, a moment iati r Arthur Cluxton led the weep ing girl In man's clothes i lit to tlie sidewalk, hurriedly sum moned n cab. and, shining her into It. he haped in and they drove away. Kxpbinntlons followed. The girl, sobnlng out tlie story of her melodramatic effort to trace him down, revealed every thing. For a moment ho was angry then, holding her close In bin arms, he told her n story. He told her how Ids twin brother had formed an unfortunate nllliiue with a woman, who. after a year of happy married life, hnri gone astray and threatened to wreck the name of the family unless she was paid money, how Ills brother, still loving tin ltckicss woman, had striven to pay her lo money she demanded, how they all had tried to keep the secret of tlie disgrace and how, on that night, his brother nnd agreed to tin el tlie woman and pay tier a large sum to sign away forevei her claims against the family so as to avoid the divorce court. And when he finished tlie story the girl lay sobbing and repentant in Ills arms. Cluxton, having saved bis sweetheart from public dis grace, took her back to hi r home. For months she wns ashamed to fac e him out. i verv month, be went down to Kmlnenee to see her. Hhe would not receive him, sending word that she was unworthy of hlni, but, nt Christinas tlir.e, he finally surprised her, end, In the long talk that followed, he won his point and she n t a now date for tho wedding. ee: omance She Lived Australian Girl Meets Man She Married Just as She Described the Meeting of the Hero and Heroine in Her Love Story. Was It Accident, or Did She Unconsciously See into Future? DINA KILROl'R.VE, the young ?lrl whn El short stories and sketches three years ugo ere I ated a sensation throughout Australia, and who I was heralded even In Kngland as one of the most promising young writers of fiction In tho Kngllsh speaking world, bus become the heroine of a romance stranger than any of which, she ever wrote or dreamed. The Rlrl. daughter of a well to do family In Adelaide, was married last week and Is now Mrs. John Ijivvrence Ashbridge of County Sterling, Kntfland. whose estates near l.cnnontown are noted for their extent and beauty. The strange part of the whole affair Is that Fdina Kil bourne's first love story the one thut first attracted atten tion to her or in Australia came true when she met the man who Is now her husband, and, stranger than tliat. she met him exactly as her heroine In the story met her husband, and. even stranger, the name of her hero was John I-awrcnoe. The bride and groom, now spending their honeymoon In northern Italy, declare that it was a case of subconscious knowledge; that Miss Kllbourne wrote the true story through some power of seeing into the future; that it was foreordained that they should meet. However it happened, these are the proved and admitted facts of the case: Storf " Flowing In Her Brain." Fdina Kllbourne never was out of Australia until she went to Kurope tin the trip on which she met her husband, and that was three years after she-wrote tru story. Shu never had heard of John I-uwrence. She declared that the story had Just been floating around In her brain " for months before she wrote It. and that she could never think of writing the story without the name John lawrence Intruding Itself. She admits that h wanted a prettier name, and chose one Guy Merrlvale as her hero, but that, after the story was written she wus Impelled by some unknown force to change tlie name back to the original. John Ijiwrence was never In Australia. He never heard of Fdina Kilhourne until he met her in Rome on Jan. 17. l'.too. He in ver read the Home Magazine, printed In Australia. Ho never read or heard of any story in which the name John Ijtwrence appears. Tlie story which came true was written In lrj and sent to the Home Magazine, which printed It. It was a simple, passionate little love story the story of a lonely girl who nu t the man she was to love, and Isith knew It at sitfht. It was not up to the standard of her stories written later, but for a first attempt It was declared jfood leai,t Jt ' a0" cepted. J . Girl's Heart Filled With Longings. The sc.ne of tlie story was laid in Home. The heroine. Mildred Maiden, was the daughter of a retired Knglish mer chant. Reared In luxury, with every comfort, with an e i client education, circle ut young people, happy, bright, and entertaining, who envied her, the girl had fallen a prey to secret longings for a higher, better life a wider sphere. - Surrounded by everything the heart of the ordinary girl could wish, she had been wretched, moping like a caged wild bird longing for freedom. The conventional bonds of her father's middle class estab lishment had galled upon her; the care free merriment of her companions had been as a pang to her. She hated herself for the feeling of disgust she could not coniuer, for the desire to withdraw from them all. nnd. if she could not be what she desired, to tie alone. Year after year the girl fought the de mon, calling it pride. The longing for the love of a man above the clerks and accountants who sought her bund ate Into her In-art. She stifled even that cry of heart hurt, set her face to the realities of her life, determined to do her duty to do as others thought she should do. lly sheer force of will, despite the pain and the heart tor ture, she made herself fit Into the narrow groove of life into w hich fate had thrown her. She stifled her heart screams and coldly decided to wed a man of her own rank, a rising young bookkeeper with a coarse, Jolly laugh, to whom she knew her father wanted to see her married. Refore announcing her decision she determined upon one short, joyous plunge into the life of which, from girlhood, she had dreamed. Rhe could not, she realised, go Into the upper social circles even uf her home town, despite her father's wealth, but she determined to travel through southern Ku rope for thflve months before finally surrendering herself for ever to the dead coininonplaccness of middle class !"- To Attempt to Strangle Her Ideals. The three months were Heating an end. Tlie next day Mildred Maiden was to start for her home to make the final sacrifice to attempt to live down her dreams and strangle her ideals. She. w itli a girl frii nd the only one In tlie world to whom hhe had confided her ambitions and her tortures were sitting together In the balcony overlooking tile little garden below the great restaurant of tlie quiriual. Suddenly a man appeared, moving slowly towards them. Without a word tlie girl aro.e and stretched forth her hinds. The man, as if dazed, approach.! d slowly, stretched out ids bands, and they stood looking into each other s eyes, and without words, understanding that tlie fate which had guided their destinies through life had decreed that they were to meet and love in this way. No One Suspected Her Unhappiness. That, briefly, was tlie story, and it was perhaps the strange Dote of sadiieos, the choked back sob of misery, that ran ttixough it nil to the happy end, that won success for the story, w hich, in itself, did not api ar extraordinary, but there was sonnihing in tlie way that Miss Killurne wrote i' lh.it start d ti ars so Ilie story suecii tb d tiecauee It sounded true and appealed to human nature. Now the strange part comes in. No one in all Adelaide suspected that Kdlna Kilhourne was not happy except one girl friend, to whom she confessed that she had written the first part of the story as a picture of her own longings and her own sufferings. She told her friend she had conquered herBelf, and thut her writing made her happier. Also there was a young business man with a loud, merry laugh, who, tlie young girl's friends In Adelaide said, would some day marry tlie girl. JBRt AuKust Fdina Kllbourne suddenly announced that she was going to take a trip to Kurope, and she Invited Sarah Campbell, the cirl In whom she had confided her secret long ings, to go with her. There were no objections, and Kdlnu stated that she In tended to spend all the money she had made from her short stories during her Journeying. " It's my last flyer," she said, laughing. " It's Just like that girl In my first story. I'm going away to have one big, long good time, and then rornu back and settle down. " Time you did and married Jack." said her father, w ho failed to see the shudder that went through the slrl's slender form. The last night had come. Kdlna KUbourr and Sarah Campbell were In Rome. They were Htoppit. at the Hotel d'Allemagne, but this night Fdina. who was strangely silent, proposed that they go to dinner at the qulrlnal. " I could cry because it is so near over," said Sarah as they were seated on the little balcony overlooking the gar den. " It has been divine. Her Own Romance Comes True. Fdina was silent. From tlie gnat dinlnt; room behind them the strain of tlie " Ulue liunubo " waits floated out. "Why, bona,"' said Sarah. "That's tile same waltz they were playing In your story." " Yes," said Fdina sadly, "and this Is the table at which Mildred sat l. n her happiness came to her." " How did ou ever know about this place?" asked Sarah. " I read it in a ' Raedeker." And II Is exactly lis I pictured It then Hie same garden, the same balcony, the same table, the same waller, the sme music- evei v tiling, everything but the man." she ended hunt ly. Saddi nly Fdina gasped. In r i.vts widened into a stare half uf I'riKht. and she gr.iss-d Sarah's arm. " 'I te re he is! Tliere lie is!" she whispered Jioarscly. " What shall I do? What shall 1 do?" , Slowly the yirl rose and stood, looking towards a figure making Its way between tlie t.ibb s. !! r li-mds were stretch- d nut In fore her; her eyes shone with the h-iit of l ive. Slowly the man approached. Without a word he stretched forth his hands and took hers. They gazed Into each other's eyes, ami then, with a sob, Fdina i!ropsd into a chair, and. caver. nn lu T eyes with her hands, wept while the man tenderly drew them away and kissed them. Thus did John Itwretiee Asbt.rid-'e. an iinsentlnu i.t il Fiiglisliman. and IMisa Kilhourne, a modem Australian git I, become i ii.ini'ii. The love story bad come true. s. 'jZ.' r-v Jf ... .m v .V.;-.. , a s. a.' - r.;, :? . , t. ' '4 -r-'.'.J ;v-ri .,;", f.-'iilJ'.s.Jh ''j. .- r T r.-,-v Jf-r - - . 91 I v-..:'."- A 4 - i- Jt . r . -1 ?v.h"-"r'- ...... -v. , .r.j ..-' r-T V vj'i: y k I A '' - ' I - ... ftf:ry:;i'M - 'y- v V V Mv. 1 --s . -mmmmm ' 2 MISS EDINA KILBOURNE'S FAVORITE PORTRAIT. i