The Lake County star., 1876-07-06

One OF the millions gone before,
Whose steps are washed from of times shore
matted sod the only trace
That's left as landmark TO his race,
Wheneer like me one comes TO muse
Beside his grave, not knowing whose
LIFE AND FORTUNE LOST On A
RACE COURSE.
A London correspondent, speaking OF
the Derby race, and remarking that
many strange stories could be told of it,
gives very imperfect view of one oil
those same stories which is almost tragic
in its meaning. The facts of the case,
which that correspondent attempts to
describe, are somewhat as follows:
In the latter part of the year 1866 the
Lady Elizabeth Paget became engaged
to the Marquis Of Hastings. The young
Marquis was roue of the weakest type.
His father, the old Marquis, had died
while his heir was low down in the years
of his minority, leaving an estate re-
puted to be worth about f4O,0O0 per an
mum, or 100000 in gold. During the
six or seven years of the minority of the
young Marquis the income of the estate
had been carefully husbanded by the
trustees appointed under the will of his
father, and when he came Of age in 1865,
in spite of the princely allowance given
him during his collegiate course, there
was still an apparent balance of savings
to his credit of something over f20O, ,OO0
Unfortunately, however, for this light
pated young nObleman, he made, while
at the university, the acquaintance of
one of those sharks of civilized life, who,
in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence,
are permitted to exist. This mans name
was Padwick, nominally London
lawyer, really a money-lender of the type
whom Thackeray has portrayed in the
character of Sherrick, in "Pendennis."
Padwick loved profit, and did not care
how it was made, provided he was al
ways on the safe side of the law. Young
Hastings loved sport, and did not care
whence or at what exorbitant rate of in.
terest he obtained the money to pay for
it. Padwick had no difficulty in supply
ing the means for the simple young Mar
quis to crafty his tastes-and his tastes,
besides the taste for horse-racing, also
ran to opera dancers and prim0 donne
The only thing that Padwick wanted was
the signature of the Marquis and GER
tain three or four hundred per cent. in
terest, and whatever money he required
was forthcoming.
A royal time the young man held at
Oxford, and an equally royal bill he had
to pay when he came from Alma Mater
with an honorary degree" degree
which is given to peers and the sons of
peers, and which is called "honorary,"
as Cuthbert Bede puts it, to distinguish
it from the honorable" degree that is
won by hard study.
When the young noble came of age,
his accounts were settled up by the clerks
and accountants of the amiable Padwick,
and it was found that not only had the
reserve of 100000 disappeared, but the
annual rent-roll of 100000 was some
what dipped" as the English phrase it.
In other words, the prodigal had spent
the savings of his minority, and Pad.
wick held further obligations on the
estate to very considerable amount.
Nothing daunted, however, the young
scapegrace, believing his resources still
illimitable, started out on new career
of dissipation on the very night of the
day on which he, in Westminster Abbey,
was formally invested with the insignia
of his rank, and became in fact, as he
had been in name, the representative of
the proud race who claimed their lineage
from the first Earl who was ennobled by
William of Normandy after the battle
Of Hastings, in the year 1865. The dis
tinction his ancestor of eight hundred
years agone had succeeded in achieving
in fight, the degenerate scion sought to
win on the turf. He had always been a
lover of horses and horse racing, and he
vainly thought he could capture the blue
ribbon of the Derby and, at the same
time, replace the vast fortune he had
spent, in one single hotheaded venture.
His stable Of thoroughbreds throughout
his collegiate career had been a marvel
to his fellow students, If student be not
a misnomer under the circumstances.
He had lavished vast sums of money on
the purchase of unborn colts, and had
paid as high as ten thousand guineas for
a yearling filly which came from the
breeding stables of Sir Joseph Hawley,
who, with "Blue Gown" had won the
Derby, and, with Blink Bonnie" both
the Derby and the Oaks in 1865 and
1866. That ten thousand guinea specu-
lation in 1877 proved the ruin of himself,
his estate, and his life.
In the meantime the young peer, as
though his other follies had not been suf-
ficient for one man, fell in love, and fell
in love with the Lady Elizabeth Paget,
who, somewhat his senior in years, was
not whit behind him in sporting pro-
pensities. She could take or give the odds
on any race as well as the best man at
TattersalPs, and would enforce payment
of her winnings as strenuously as her
brother, Lord Alfred Paget, who was, a
year or two later, First Lord of the Ad-
miralty. The Paget family, both in war
and in social life, for two generations,
had been noteworthy in the history OF
England for being reckless of money or
life, the women light o. love, and both
men and women for having a special
turn of mind for play. This Lady Eliza
beth, with whom the luckless Marc uis OF
Hastings became enamored, was, at that
time, engaged to marry Mr.. Chaplin, a
member OF the firm of Chaplin & Horne,
which bears a similar relation to the
commerce of North Britain as that
which Wells, Fargo a. Co. does TO the
United States. Chaplin was rich, and a
sportsman. He owned race horses, and
ran them to win, and Chaplin bad fdts
achdtes-a Capt. Machell, retired Off
Ger of dragons, who knew little more
about the management of horses and
how 10 win with them than even his
friend Chaplin.
In December, 1900, the Eighty Lady
Elizabeth Paget and Mr.. Chaplin were
10 have been welded, but just on the
eve of the projected marriage, the night
before il was 10 have been consummated,
the Lady Elizabeth bolted with her
enamored Marquis by the Dover train
tn Paris. where they were married at the