The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
copyright. 191S. hy tha Star Company. Great Britain nights rtfaervea.
Lucky
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Miss Laura Stallo and Her Sister Helen, Who Is to Marry
Prince Michel Murat.
kAD luck to lose my fablod
fabulous millions!" ex
claims Miss Helen Stnllo,
one of Alexander McDonald's grand
daughters and heiresses. "Never!"
It was the very best kind of good
luck. I have lost a hugo fortune, of
course, but what caro I? Have I
not won a prince who loves mo for
mysolf alone and not for ray golden
ducats? I have been lovod before,
at least men have said that they
loved me, but that wns In the days
when I was supposed to be a
$30,000,000 heiress. Those men
wore In love with the Idea of
marrying my fortune, they did not
think of me at all. In those days I
was not a human being; a girl with
a girl's heart; I was merely a bank
account.
"Ah, how different It all Is to-day.
I am to marry the prince of my
fairy-tale dayB, the prlnco who
loves me and only me. What Is
my beggarly $20,000 a year to
Michel Murat, favorite nephew of
the Empress Eugenie? The veriest
bagatelle. Ho spends that In a
month; -It Is only a hundred thou
sand francs. And how far will that
go .In keeping up our position In
Paris? It Is laughable. Why we
have never mentioned money. We
are In love with each other and
that explains everything, does It
not?
"Why am I so sure that my prlnco
loves me and not the remnants of
my $30,000,000? Ah, easily. Be
cause I won him In a fair light from
the greatest beauty of Paris, the
fascinating and ever-so-loving
HoloiBe Yano, and you, who know
your Paris, know what this moans.
But there I am too busy bolng
happy, too busy skating with my
prince, too busy bolng In lovo to
tell you any more. But wait, who
was it said, 'Oh, to be in Paris and
In love?' Well, he was very right.
To be in love in Paris is the most
wonderful thing In all the world."
This romance of which Miss
Stallo speaks so happily and girl
ishly Is tho sensation of the day in
Paris and has aroused a good deal
of interest in this country, whore
the "Stallo sisters" are very well
known. Tholr history reads like
some wonderful fairy tale. Their
mother, the only child of Alexander
McDonald, a Standard Oil magnate,
died when thoy were children, leav
ing them to her father. Naturally,
tho grandfather idolized them and
they had everything In the world
that they wanted. They did not
know, however, that some day they
would be called the greatest Amer
ican heiresses of tholr day.
fhelr father, Edmund K. Stallo,
did not live with them; he spent
most of his time In New York and
Chicago, and after Dan Hanna was
divorced Mr. Stallo married Mrs.
Hanna. After that marriage tho
two sisters saw very little of their
father.
In their big mansion, Dalvay
Clifton, near Cincinnati, these girls
dreamed great dreams of what the
future held for them; they would
live In Paris when they could afford
It. This was their keenest desire.
Then Mr. McDonald died and
these girls found that they were
credited with being worth $30,000,
000 apiece. They did not know how
much they wero worth, for they
had been kept In ignorance as to
their prospects. Thoy had little
Idea of the value of money, and
after they were given a share of
their fortune they were most ex
travagant. as girls always will be
under such conditions.
Helon, who Is the heroine of this
tale, was fourteen when her grand
father died. Immediately she and
her older sister began to live up to
some of their early Ideals. They
spent wonderful months In New
York, they shopped, went to the
theatres and gave parties for their
young friends.
They ware taught by highly paid
tutors and governesses and finally
the day cms when they went to
Paris..
At slxtoan Helen said: "I shall
marry a Frenchman. He need not
have money, but he must bo noble
and have a noble history."
Helen, you see, devoured , French
history and, In her secret soul
yearned for tho days of Mario An
toinette to soturn.
"I should have loved to have
been a Duclvess or even a Countess
In those dnys," she would say.
"Why, oh 'hy, was I born In
America! liven the days of
Eugenie woii'd have been better
than these frightfully commonplace
times!"
Thus the p catty Helen would re
pine, and she only became happy
when Bhe wan presented with a
beautiful homa of her own in the
city of her drmms.
Yes. her father, aa her guardian,
rented an apartment for her and
her sister In Paris, and there Helen
lived and dreamed.
But not always could she dream.
he had also to live and go about
socially. When she was eighteen
she came back to New York and
maa her dehut. At once she and
her sister wore spoken of as tho
richest girls ot their age in
Anlorica, and, naturally, thoy wero
bcBolged with Invitations and
suitors. Great wealth nlways
draws forth a crowd of suitors,
whether tho holder of tho wealth
be as homely as a hodge fence or
as beautiful as an hourt. Now little
Miss Helen had cnarm, as well as
money, and tho result can be Im
agined. SultorB hovpred about her
as bees about ilou .a.
Because of her Intense love for
French history and her interest in
everything French, It was natural
that this charming heiress should
be Just a bit distrait when she
found herself beseiged by bustling
young New York admirers.
"Thoy are not a bit like the
Frenchmen wo know and I do not
understand them at all," she would
say.
"But you are American and
Western, too," her sister Laura
would answer, bluntly. "You ought
to be happier hero with your own
people than in Paris."
Then Holen would shrug her
shoulders In a truly Parisian
fashion, and say:
"Well, If any man wants to make
himself interesting to me he must
talk to me In French."
What a brushing up of French
there was among the glided youth
who yearned to share Miss Stallo's
millions! After a brilliant Winter
in New York tho slBters went to
Cincinnati. The opened their
beautiful mansion and entertained
In a delightful and, it must be con
fessed, an extravagant manner as
well. But why not? Wero thoy not
worth something like thirty mill
Ions apiece?
At the close of their stay in Cin
cinnati the young bloods who had
been devoting themselves to Helen
were made 'most sad by the an
nouncement that she would marry
Nils Florman. And who is Nils Flor
man? askod her home friends.
Now York did not need to ask
r-f
Mile.
TiARMING
Heloise Yane, the Beautiful French Actress, Who Lost the Prince
Michel Murat to Miss Stallo.
this question, for young Mr. Flor
man was only too well known. Ho
was a son of a Swedish lady of high
rank and a Swedish maBBeuae. Ho
was also a warm friend of the late
Colonel John J. Aator, and before
the Colonel's marriage was sup
posed to be engaged to Katherine
Force. Tho announcement that he
was to marry Helen Stallo was
therefore a surprise all around. The
engagement- lasted several weeks.
It was understood that MIbs Stallo
knew all about her nance's parents,
but her friends could not under
stand why she was going back on
hor decision to marry a Frenchman
of historic family.
But Helen knew!
"Nils Is more Jlke a French
nobleman than any man I have met
In America. Ho has tho most ex
quisite manners, the most distin
guished apponranco and he is so
chic in his costuming. I Just adoro
the way ho ties his neckties. And
then, Nils la so in love with the
French. He adores ParlB and says
that wo shall live there always
when we are married."
But a few weeks after this glow
ing explanation Edmund Stallo an
nounced that his daughter had
broken her engagement. He could
not tell why, because ho did not
know Helen's reason.
"I found that wo could never be
happy together. It was Impossible.
Why, JuBt think, Nils told me that
ho thought Eugenie was tho real
cause ot the fall of the Empire and
that she was only an extravagant
little husiey. Of course I told him
that it was all over between us."
It was Just after this that rumors
Stirring the Soil
with dynamite Is not a new Invention. It
r was discovered ten years or more ago In Call-
fornta by an Indolent mlner-turned-farmer, who
found that It saved immense labor, and did not do any
damage, to blow out tree stumps with cartridges.
In England, however, dynamite Is being used more
successfully tor deep tillage than Is possible by other
means
On Sir John Cockburn's farm at Harrletshara, Eng
land, In a bare hour two men "cultivated" a rod of land,
prepared the ground for planting three fruit tree,
and cleaer d away two tough old ash trees and
two tougher oak roots which cumbered the ground. The
last three operations, it was calculated by the farmors
who came to wonder and learn, would have taken a
full three days at the rato men work In Kent. Here
they were done in an hour at a total cost of a little
more than a dollar.
spread thick and fast concerning
tho fortunos of the two sisters.
Their father was removed tem
porarily from his executorship, and
then tho rumors were confirmed,
Tho sixty millions shrank to one.
Yes, the famous heiresses were
worth but twenty thousand dollars
yearly. It was simply another case
of a man's securities flhrlnking
aftor his doath.
Their loss of fortune did not
affect tho sisters at all, apparently.
They wore as llghthearted and as
fond of pleasure nfl over. Helen,
however, was firm in one thing.
"I am perfectly willing to be poor
In Paris. We must make our home
thero for the rest of our lives. It Is
not unfashionable to be poor over
there. Just think ot the marquises
and the duchessos who have to
wear the same gowns season after
season, yet they nro tho most Im
portant women In all France."
And so, with hor lover lost, her
fabled fortune lost, Holen still
stuck to her guns. Back to Paris
they went, where their apartment
on the Rue Christopher Colombo
was ready for them, and thore they
lived ever since.
The American women who aro so
Important a part ot tho social life
In Paris did not give up the sIsterB
when their fortune shrank, They
havo had Just as many Invitations
as when they were supposed to
have great wealth.
A few weeks ago they, In common
with all the fashionable folk of the
gBy olty, attondod the magnificent
costume ball given by half a doron
duchesses and marquises. Tho Cotil
lion was cd by Mons. do Fouquiores
with Dynamite for Bigger Crops
The first operation could not havo
by manual labor alone. The two men might have dug
tho laud in two hours, or they might have plpughed
it, but that Is merely scratching the top to what was
actually done. Sir John wanted to open the subsoil so
that tho deep roots of the corn would find an easy
passuge among fissured and loosened soil Instead of
having to fight every Inch through Htiff loam.
Tho method was easy. Jock drove a hole 3 feet
6 IncheB deep with a crowbar, and extracted the bar
with a cunning lover. Then Couzena. who han
dled cheddite and gelignite with the certainty ot
experience, dropped In a 4 ounce cartridge of the
former explosive with a detonator and a fuo attached.
Nineteen of these mines were laid, eachflO feet from
tho other.
The soil where each chargo wont oft lifted a little,
and that was all. But when Jock got a spade and
examined what had happoned wo found a hole 4 feet
below the surface, and all the uround round It, both
The Unusual Romance of
the Standard Oil Heiress
Who Lost the Millions
She Thought She Had, but
Got a REAL Prince Who
Actually Marries Her
for Love and Not for Money
nsslBtod by tho Prince Michel Murat.
Whon tho fair Holen entered tho
ball room nnd saw tho prlnco
dancing with tho beautiful Helools
Yano bIio aid not dream that at
last sho wns to moot her fate, that
nt last hor girlish dreams wero to
como true.
Tho prlnco was prcoontod to tho
little American girl. Thoy looked
Into oach othor'a eyos. Thoy Bat
out two dances together. Tho beau
tiful and scductivo Hclolso, Unused
to being neglected, sont couriers to
toll the prince that sho was wait
ing for him. Tho prlnco hesitated.
That very bountiful young girl
with whom you were dancing is
waiting for you.? asked Helen (oh,
wise Helen). Do not keep hor
hnavtnvLyi,0nRe.r- 1 th,nk that I
wh Crnl nrtne somewhere
flnh.hed:arch?y!,nK f' mo' ho
J! thJ5 aU wn,t'" Rrowled the
prlnco. "We are so happy here.
Tell me, will you skate with mo to
morrow?" "Yes, perhaps, but do go and
danco with tho beautiful Mile.
Yane."
But the prince would not go, and
been dono at all
from that moment Helon knew that
her prlnco hnd boon found.
"And Juat think," she happily
eald, tho day hor engagement wns
announced, "I am really Jinrrylng
a nobleman whose history Ib Inter
woven with that of Franco. What
I drenmod of whon a weo girl has
come true. For tho history of the
Murats Is tho history of France.
My Michel Is tho nephew of the
wonderful Eugonlo. tho woman I
liavo loved to read about, and his
mother wns n Russian Prlncoss,
and wo will spend much tltno on hor
estates in Southern Russia. Oh.
how blissfully happy I am."
Miss Stallo might havo said also
that hor prlnco wnB in pnrt an
American, for his grandmother was
Caroline Fraser, a Virginian, who
declined sovoral times to marry be
cause sho did not consider that tho
Murat fapiily equalled her own.
But tho history of the Murat family
In Now Jersey is o talo by Itself,
and has no place in this romance
of tho girl who lost thirty millions
and found n lover. The part ot
her prince's history that pleases hor
most Is the fact that he Is directly
descended from tho Marshall Murat.
downward and across, fissured and broken open for the
young roots. The turf ahnvo u' iiTiHlBtnrioi hut oil
tho subsoil wsb tilled at a cost of Iosb than $35 to the
acre; and. according to a Canadian estimate, more
than a double weight crop secured.
Next the men made holes for fruit trees at a cost
of 20 cents each, which would have cost 30 cents with
muscle and spade. The charge In this case two ched
dite cartridRes-was placed 2 Hfeot below the surface.
The turf was lifted and tho soil below and all around
gave easy passage for the young trees' roots.
Next two trees and two oak stumps wero extracted,
but this tlmo gelignite, which is more violent and less
expensive, was used. A hole was driven with the crow
bar under the root, and In tho caBe of the larger trees
a small charge was fired first In'..i the hole It mado
two pounds of gelignite wero packed. When this was
llred with a primerthe two hundred spectators hav
ing discreetly retired the stump vanished.
In grubbing out old wood dynamite will do a month's
work tn a day at less than a third the coat.