Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-05-31
LOVE AND LUCRE.
A Wlfe's Rival and a Little Grave
A Social Drama In Two Acts.

When Guy Webber, late of Ma
rion, Ohio, ceased to make artificial
butter, a trade that he had been
carrying on for over a year with
varying fortunes, his fertile brain
conceived the idea of making the
gullible rural roosters contribute to
his worldly advancement, but in
quite a different field. From the
subjectof butter his mind scared to
art. Going to Cincinnati in the
spring Of 1876, with his plans all
consummated, he flooded the COUP
try with circulars and advertise
ments in the rural press with the
grandiloquent announcement that
for the small sum of twenty-five
cents his splendid chrome of the
"Three Graces" would be sent to
any address, postpaid. The scheme
worked like charm, and in the
course Of few months his Office
on Walnut street was crowded with
goods; his orders for the pictures
were far in advance of his ability to
ship them, and his daily mail had
increased to several thousand let
ters d day. In every one of these
letters was inclosed Twenty-Five and
sometimes fifty cents for the won
derful picture. When business be-
gan to get thus lively, he employed
a number of girls, most of them of
education and refinement, men,
bers of some of our most worthy
families, as clerks. Some of them
attended to his voluminous corre-
spondence, some to filling orders
for goods, while others opened the
letters and counted the vast piles
of shinplasters that daily covered
his table.
The master spirit of the enter
prise, which, let it be remembered,
proved success beyond his most
sanguine anticipations, was Guy
Webber, the "cute Yankee" late
of Marion. His personal appear.
ance was very fine; dark complex
ion, with coal black eyes. These
qualities, supplemented by manners
that were affable, courteous and
engaging, he made favorable i'm
preston upon whomsover he met.
All his lady employees respected
him, some admired him, and one,
alasl learned to love him. "She
loved him not wisely, but too well. "
This one was Miss Tillie Linken-
bach, a tall, handsome brunette Of
nineteen summers, who, with her
sister Lena, was among the first to
engage to work in the art rooms.
Their parents reside in Lawrence
burg, Indiana, and for sometime
after commencing business at Web.
ber's the sisters boarded at home
Finally they left the parental roof.
tree and took up quarters in the
West End. In the meantime Mr.
Webber had insinuated himself into
the affections of Miss Tillie, and
never let an opportunity slip tC
manifest his passion for her. This
he did in SO marked u manner thai
it became the common talk of the
other employees, who could not helr
observing the mutual attachment
During this critical period-most
critical for the deluded girl-Web
ber's estimable wife and their three
children were far away in Marion
Forgetting the loved ones at home
and the VOWS of constancy made
but a few short years before, he
knelt at the shrine of new love
that filled his whole life. The re.
lations between the misguided pair
became warmer and warmer, until,
as might have been foretold, Tho
girl fell a prey to the Lothario',
snares. In a word, she was be-
trayed. The criminal intimacy
after a time bore fruit, and the con.
dition of the girl was looked upon
with shame and alarm by her sister
and fellow clerks. Her periodical
visits to her home in Lawrenceburg
ceased at this time. To account
for her absence it was told her pa
rents that she had been transferred
TO New York, where by this tim,
Webber, grown bold by his financia
success in connection with the
"Three Graces," had established
"Peter Funk" concern, known a.
the "Standard Silver Company"
scheme by which he succeeded il
adding greatly to his already larg,
gains. Instead of being in New
York, Miss Tillie was comfortably
domiciled in College Hill by Mr.
WebOer under IN assumed name