Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-05
AN AMERICAN BEAUTY.
Miss Jennie Chamberlain's Coming Marriage.
How She Lost q Ducal COronet.

Miss Jennie Chamberlain's Coming Marriage,
How She Lost Ducal COronet.
Miss Jennie Chamberlain, the Ameri-
can beauty, who weds the wealthy but
untitled Capt. Layland of the British
army, was born in Cleveland about
twentyfour years ago, says Cleveland,
| Ohio, letter to the Philadelphia Press.
| She spent her girlhood in the fine old
| Chamberlain homestead on Wilson ave-
nue., where she was guarded as carefully
| as prize Alderney or a bride destined
for the emperor of China. To friends
of the family it was interesting to watch
the genesis of the faith in the young
daughter ascending star. Wallenstein
was not more sure that his destiny was
guided by the stars than was each indi-
vidual Chamberlain that the lovely lit
tie girl's future was predestined to great
ness.
Andrthis all because of her marvellous
beauty. as her dover is much less
than one hundred thousand dollars
She is of the order of the
Marie Antoinette galaxy of beauties, and
it would take Burkian eloquence to de-
scribe her goddess-like gait and the lofty
carriage of her head. This latter she
acquired at Partisan finishing school,
where she went before she was twenty,
as before that time she had the dropping,
shy look of Marguerite. Old friends
who recall the eXquisitely fair, fragile
girl of sixteen, would hardly recognize
her in the superbly poised young woman
who looks more a princess than any
daughter of the Hohenzollern, Guelph
and Hapsburg line.
Two years ago she returned to Cleve-
land, as the Chamberlain estate was to
be settled and the old place sold. No
CiFcassian was ever more zealouslY
guarded than she during her three weeks
stay at one of the uptown hotels. Peo-
pie who took rooms at the hotel pur-
posely to catch a glimpse of their fair
countrywoman went away disappointed,
as she never dined table d 'hote, always
drove in a closed carriage, and refused
herself to former intimates with the
caprice of petted prima donna.
When she left only a Chamberlain or
relative of Chamberlain could tell how
Miss Jennie looked after her long alb
sence. They were all admitted to the
shrine and were more convinced than
ever that when the beauty became q
princess, or, if fate were q trifie unkind
a duchess, every Chamberlain would rise
with her. Each tried to deport himself
as fitting scion of the new blood royal,
and only one member of the family for
got his lofty destiny. That was Wilson
Chamberlain, the twenty-year-
brother of Miss Jennie. About two years
ago he made an alliance that the Cham
berlains considered particularly unfortu-
nate. He eloped with a handsome,
clever girl, the daughter of a prominent
IF
lain IS father and Chamberlain IS mother
were as much concerned over it as Queen
Victoria over the mesalliance of Alexan-
der of Battenberg. Young Wilson was
at once shipped over to his mother in
London, and every means taken to make
him forget the girl he had married.
The other blow to the Chamberlain
ambition was the disclosure in England
of the Chamberlain pedigree-quite an
everyday, unroyaI escutcheon.
It happened in this way: Miss Jennie
and her mother had been visiting at a
ducal country place, and the duke was
about to offer his coronet to the Ameri-
can girl, when, alas, he learned that a
former Chamberlain had been an ances-
tors gardener The fact of his having
been a gardener was not so bad as hav-
ing been a gardener to the dukes own
ancestor. His wife might one day SIT IN
q bower made by the Gardener Cham
berlain s hands! It was too horrible
The duke left the castle, Miss Jennie
Chamberlain did not become the duchess,
and the story was soon known. 1t ap-
peared very slightly yelled in an Ameri-
can magazine, and conspired more than
anything else to make the beauty con-
tent to wed an untitled gentleman who
was not in the ''prince of Wales set.''
Many people think Miss Chamberlain
has rival in her younger sister, Daisy,
who viii be presented the next London
season. She is certainly as lovely as tar
as flesh and blood beauty is concerned,
but she lacks that haute air that makes
Miss Jennie quite the most exquisite
young person Of her day.