Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-07-24
BLAnEs EARLY1ovE.
How He Met His First Flame After Both
Had Grown Old and Gray.

Chicago Letter to San Francisco Call !
Already half-dozen romances of Mr.. /
Blaine's early life have been given to the /
public, but one that was once told me Is /
such complete and wel-balanced love
story that hereby pass it over for some |
novelist to make use of. Its suitability /
to modern novel readers tastes is proven
| by the unsatisfactory way in which 1t |
ends for the heroine, and it stops as
short of happy ending as ifOne OF Hen |
! ry James very own. The heroine, who |
told it, was then a stout, middle-aged
overblown beauty, with few traces o
! the delicacy of face and feature that made
her so captivating to the young student
at Washington University over thirty
years ago. 1t was a tale of Woman's
caprice well repented, as, wishing to test
! him little further, and tantalIze and
humble the high spirited youth just a
trif1e more, she let the close of his college
year come without his having chance
| to speak out. With ardor undated, ne
mounted q horse and trotted off one July
morning to spend the day at her father's
! house, some miles away from the Univer-
sity town. He determined to put his,
fortune to the touch and declare him elf
in spite of maiden coyness and contrari-
ness, but for all of that Summer day she
kept him off the vital topic, and, waver-
ing between certainty and uncertainty,
the aggravating beauty held him spell
bound and although intending to accept
him in the end delayed until it was too
| late, and the sutton mounted and rode
away with pathetic look in his black
eyes, and firm intention in his heart to
win her for all. The obstinate girl of
course cried her eyes out as soon as the
solitary horseman had gone, but she, too,
trusted to see him again, when all would
come right Instead Ofthat, the three old
women who spin and snip off life's
threads sent young Blaine to teach in
4 Kentucky, and his fair Margaret, forget
ting him among other conquess, married
a dreadful old man with lot of money
and was accordingly miserable when she
heard that "Jim" Blaine had married a
New England school teacher at George
town, KY, and moved to Maine. Her
life grew more wretched, and she was
finally divorced from her husband and
then married the lawyer who got the di-
vorce for her. They went westward to
the lands of the setting sun, and her rose
hung cottage beside the great mountain
, range she read continually of the great
name that Representative, then Speaker
! and then Senator Blaine was making in
the nations capital. She would not have
been human if she had not spent much
of her time dreaming of the old romance
and the might have been, and when her
, sisters husband was sent to Washington
= in an official capacity, she chung to that
E sister and went East with her. The Sis
= ter was bound over not to reveal her
: identity to Mr.. Blaine, asshe wished him
9 first to recognize her; forgetting at the
time the changes and the ravages that
years OF uuhappiness had made in her
=. appearance. It was at a dinner party
? that she first saw him, her sister going
= out on the arm of Mr.. Blaine, and she oc-
= cupying a seat directly facing them. No
: one introduced them and she stole puz-
+ zled and fascinated chances at the gray
q haired man opposite, trying to find some
9 resemblance to the young college student
s of early days. As her sister and Mr.
= Blaine progressed through the courses OF
! the dinner they began to discover their
: mutual acquaintance, and when he had
learned her maiden name he said, 'Why,
= itwas your sister Maggie, then, that [
= used to know at college, What a pretty
- girl she was! I wonder if I should know
= her now if met her. But, probably not
+ as few women retain beauty of that style
= andshe would have changed terribly by
: this time" The poor woman opposite felt
:. the double stab, and in few minutes
:. asked her escort to take her away from
! the table. The next day she left Wash
7 ington and went back to the West, and
: on the first occasion her sister told Mr..
= Blaine that the stout lady opposite him
= was the pretty Maggie of his early fancy.
: A few years latter she again visited
Washington, and in company with a
Western woman to whom she had told
the tale she went to the Senate gallery
and had a good look at the Senator from
= Maine. Gaining courage, she sent her
n card, with her maiden name written on
oh Cd +Io efo rErT no,
received it At that time there had been
= a great deal of talk about women send
ing cards from the gallery and waiting in
= the ante-rooms, and after twisting the
: card nervously for a few minutes the
Senator sent word for the two ladies to
follow the page to his cOmmittee-room.
The third person felt herself in an awk-
ward position after she saw the excited
way in which these two old friends seiz-
ed each others hands and gazed long and
!! earnestly into each others faces, trying
I to reconstruct the countenances of youth
I from the changed ard wrinkled faces be-
{ fore them. They talked over the old
) times, even to the July day when he rode
away and left her standing In her pretty
pink dress on her fathers porch. A few
: days latter she attended reception at
Blaine's house, met his family, and was
paid every attention by the host, and
was LnLTouuCeu as an OAu IIlonu WhOI uo
had not seen for years and years. When
it was over and she had gone back to her
home, this woman wished that she had
not precipitated the interview, for al
2 though he had changed greatly to her,
she felt that the shock and disillusiOn-
t ment was strongest on his side, and that
any lingering dream or romance was FIR
q ever dispeIled for him. When the vote
g was announced on Friday afternoon the
memory of this woman haunted me, and
off there in her picturesque home in the
mountains, she, no doubt, has been
T watching in an agony of suspense this
T latest of her heros strength, and has felt
t the sting in this one supreme triumph of