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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1913)
The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page Copyright, I9X by the Star Company. Orout Britain nights rteserveO. Oh.W hst 3 Plot for a I ) PJ Y Mrs. MmUKm Force Art tfca right) FASHK)NAL ocity, always ea the alert to take chances ea everything, from tk swesrisg oX eC taxes t the gra&tlfc,2 ft 1 Wee, is ttlg 10 tft l that la spite of the opposition of Mrs. Iflllkm Fore the marriage of her daughter XatherlM will take place as per the schedule arrasfe by yeua Mrs. 7oha Jacob Astor, Katberlae's slater. Miss Katherine lovea .earnestly and wants to marry Mr. Henri Har slckel. a poor, but honest, young clerk earning in stock broker's of Ice down on the Street Just about enough to keep himself. And although tho wedding day Is get Mrs, Force still fights against the match. Che can honestly see only unhapplncss ahead for Katherlno It Bhe Insists ttpon wedding her humble lover. Mrs. Force Is very ambitious and keenly resourceful, as, the matching f Madeline Force to the late Colonel Astor proved. Mlaa Katherine could have the pick of half a fiosea men extremely desirable In the eyes .eg al west any ambitious mother woa with meay, ancestors, heldlag the entree to the Innermost circles of the eirel that throws the glamour ever Newport. Why Is it, then, that Mies Xatberlae goes on more s-r less ee reaely with he? preparations to jaarry a man her mother will aot think of tolerating? Why is it tthat the maternal Influence is not potent with her, as it was in the case of the younger daughter! The answer Is Madeline Force (astor herself. The unhappy young rwidow, brooding in loneliness over Iher baby boy in her Fifth avenue mansion, out off as mercilessly. Ig nored as mercilessly by fashionable society as though she had never been Colonel Astor's wife, has issued from her isolation to save her sister from b duplication of her own fate. There are all the makings of a flno old-fashioned melodrama In this con test between Mrs. Force and her two daugbtors. But she who would tako the part of the mother would have a (wealth of characters to study from. Mrs. Force Is not alone by any means la her ambitions to havo her daugh ters "marry well." There are scores of women In what is known as so ciety who have been married out of hand without love in Just the way (Madeline Force was. Is not the marriage de convenience as old as lit erature and did not Tennyson have the situation in mind when In 'Locks ley Hall he wrote oi the mother "with her little hoard of maxims preaching down her daughter's heart?" Oi-u of the phases of the tragedy is that the mother herself In euch cases really believes that she is doing what is heat for her daughter's good; la really striving might and main to save that daughter from what she believes will mean only un happiness. And the mother only re pests the dominant belief of society when ue acts as she does. Indeed, the woman who puts her laughter on l asctloa block Is as much . A ft. mI Iter sister Katherine (em ta be . pities" as Is the daughter herself. No; ia-the case of the Force girls it Is not 'the mother who Is unique. Rather Is it the figure of Madeline Force, her soul awakened by the terrible tragedy of the Titanic sad given the opportunity to save her sister from a loveless marriage, tak ing that opportunity that gives the new touch to the drama. But the stage Is set, the charac ters ready. What of the dialogue and the .plot? In her magnificent Fifth avenue home, left to her by her husband of six months, alts a young widow. Leaning over her and pleading with clasped hands is her slater. The Sister They tell mo that I must follow your example. I must marry for money. They say there Is no happiness In life unloss one has pearls and diamonds, motor cars and steam yachts. I must marry so that we can go anywhere. And I love my Heart, who has noth ing. The Widows Sister (loektag of Into distance and sighing) I know. They told me that But one marriage for wealth and social position la enough; there Is ao eeed te oKer up two sacrifices. The Sister (eagerly) That k what I tell mother. (But she says that I do not know what I am talk ing about; that I do not know what misery It is to want money and not be ablo to have it But she will listen to you, I am sure. Won't you plead for me? The Widowod Slater (bitterly, as she looks about her boudoir filled with tho Dead Sea fruits of her own sacri fice) Yes; she will listen to me. So many will listen to me now that I havo .be come rich, I have become lndeod one of great Im portance. But do not worry. I wil) hrlng mother to r.. terms. You shall , marry Henri. ter whose lovo The Bister Oh, slater; love, love, it is everything. Even it he were only a peddler it would not matter. The Widowed Sister (her hand to her heart) And I passed love by; I betrayed love. And how I am punished. And I was but a child. Yet, sister, I have learned much. I no longer blame mother. It la not her fault, it is the fault of the so ciety la which we move; a society that enthrones wealth and looks upon true lovo as a beggar, to bo turned away from our doors with empty hands; that places position msM 8k - -i ill II is iji i nil inn mother of the beautiful sis . affairs have been so different. before worth and thinks that hap piness Is In externals. There is no mother so cruel as to wish her daughter to be unhappy. That is the tragedy that "they think these things will make us happy. But I promise you' that you shall have lovo- The scene changes. The mother and her two daughters are together. Tho Widowed Sister Stater shall marry the man she loves. Her lite shall not be wrecked as mine was wrecked. ..The Mother AVreckedl Aro you "My Sister's Life Shall Not Be Wrecked as Mine Was Wrecked" The Heart-Throb-bing Climax of the Real Life Drama in Which Unhappy Madeline Force Astor Saved the Happiness of Her Sister Katherine mad? Are you not ono of the wealthiest girls In America? Aro you not the mother of a son Tho Widowed Slater (Interrupt ing) Yes, yea; of a son whoso fathor, however, I did not lovo. Think what It would mean to me today If Ivhad loved my babyls father and had married him for love not for what I did. The Sister But tell me, slater, how could you decide to marry a man whom you did not lovo? o I 'Tut the situation in melodrama. Substitute the old homestead for Fifth avenue. How perfect the rich villain slinking out into the snow, rich hut unhappy sister indicating the exit, and poor hut happy sister clasped in the arms of her honest lover." - The Widowed Sister I was young and I was overcome by tho adven ture of It all. You know that we never heard love glorified in the set In which we moved. Love was de rided or forgotten. I thought It meant Just fun and having lots of (money to spend and going every where and wearing a diamond tiara and great pearls and being looked up to by everybody I I did not know, sister, what marriage xaeanU And now moneyl I hate the very sound of It I have never worn my tiara. I cannot bring myself to put It on my head. The Slater Love Is crown enough. The MotherDon' he hysterical. Slow do you know you didn't love the man who gave you everything wealth beyond the dreams of ava rice diamonds a box at the opera oh, everything your heart could wish for? How do you know you would not have come to love him it he had lived? I was so proud of your marriage. How every girl envied you! I thought you would be so happy. Tho Widowed Slater (gently) Melodrama ! know you did, mother. I do not blame you. But you see we left love out Wo must not leave It out of sister's life. (Drawing her slendor figure to Its height and twisting her fingers frantically.) Love tho man who gave me everything! How could I? I did not know what lovo moant I only know now that I hate the gold he showered on me; that his diamonds burn my hands, my nock, and I wont my sister to have love, love in her life. Let me be ' 3 the only sacrifice. The Mother She must marry a rich man. A man who can give her a house in Newport, high social po sition, who will put her beyond the reach of want She will be happy. The Sister Mother, I shall marry the man I love and live In a Harlem flat or board on tho West Side. I could Uvo in a hut with him and be happy. The Widowed Sister She shall marry the man she loves and you will not interfere. Else I shall take her with me and she shall be mar ried from my own home. I will see that she shall not want The Mother Oh, the scandal of such a thing. You are ungrate ful, cruel to me. And I am pow erless. Tho Widowed Sister Uon't cry, mother. It's not your fault I quite know you think you are doing every thing for the beat 'But I have learned. Misery is a sharp teacher. Am I happy? She shall be. Was there ever a more complete plot for a melodrama? Stage the situation anywhere. Substitute tho a W r. a 'J m old homestead for the Bceno. How perfect. Bring In the rich lover who wants to marry sister. Havo him Blinking out with rich but unhappy sister, Indicating the exit into the buow; poor and happy sister clasped in the arms of her equally poor but unhappy lover. Not, though, that Miss Katherlno will want for anything. Mrs. Astor, not content merely with making her mother consont to tho marriage, Is making the marrlago financially pos At Irtl slble. She has given her Bister a beautiful trousseau, and has set tled a handsome allowance on her, Tho wedding is to take place late this month at Mrs. Astor's beautiful Summer homo in Bar Harbor, and young Harnlckel Is spending ail his spare time under his future slster-la-law's roof. The young widow who has made all this possible looks at the lovers with wonder In her big blue eyes. She has never known love, but she now realizes that it must be some thing very wonderful, something very different to her own romance. One sure thing has como about dur ing this fight against social ambi tion and Wealth tho young widow in her fight for her slater has found herself; if she had her life to live over again she, like Katherine, would insist on marrying only for love. In spite of her training and her mar riage, Mrs. Astor finds that she knows now what love is, and she be lieves in it, oh, so firmly. "Money can buy pearls and d!a Money caauuy Pei3 ana aia- Henri H.mick.1, the poor dcrk.L monds. grand houses and yachts, butwiw the hud of Mrt'jUtortl TUtS it cannot buy love," said Mrs. Astot' recently, "and a steam yacht 1b a very unsatisfying place when one has to live In It with a man one does not love. I have had the yacht and tho wonders of wealth, but I have not had love. Katherlno Is a most for tunato person. She will not havo the yacht, nor the jewels, but she will have something far greater, she will have love. And she will be happy, while I, with all the luxuries in tho, world I am not happy."