The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-27

time that / actually haven't recovered
from it yet. It's about that time that I'll
tell you, if you'lllet me. Nobody who has
never seen the man can form an idea of the
good nature that would otherwise struggle
through his Mephistophelan features.
When I said he seemed to be a reincarnated
Malay pirate, l had in my mind his long
narrow face and his dropping, scraggy
black moustache. At heart he is as clever
as any man in patent feathers. l believe |
could draw a better picture of him than /
ever saw. He is only about five feet seven
high, and has filed out in figure a little
since he became duke, now weighing prob
ably 155 pounds.
IF he hadn't become a peer q couple of
years ago. I have very little doubt but what
he might have acquired al international
reputation as a burlesque nag for Bes-
sic Bellwood was on the point of coming
over to this country, and he never VI ould
have let her get that far away from him.
She earned her $500 a week. singing in
London and at Oxford and Cambridge, and
while he didn't travel with her then, he
lived with her near London, at a beautiful
cottage in Hampton on the Thames. She used
to drive down to the station every morning
with r spirited horse, and the duke by her
side. If they had come here at that time, or
if they were to como this fall, they would
turn New York upside down the first night
v bAoJ Az olu az LAO ds k1OU, IL
in the jug before morning I've a great
mind to 40 with you,' were Bellwood's
last words to Marie Lotus when she sailed
last year, and l know she'll never be salts
fed until she, too, has her hack at New
York.. She ia now, and has been for some
woman on the London stage, her Celtic
blue eyes and dark hair giving her the Pc
culiar half-Spanish beauty which is 80
much admired in Irish girls. She is popu-
lar, too. When she ticks a cab man, as she
often does-when cabby is e1tortionate, she
ing, with her little How much is it, judge?'
pays up her G5 like a man and marches out
again. I saw her under just such circum-
stances once, when in addition to her adj
venture with the cabman, she had a row
with his lordship also. and he had in the
language OF the east side, put two beau
tiful lamps over her eyes. On
another occasion when she was fined
SIS for a similar offence, she actually
served her five days III Jail and gave the
''quid' to a charity. When Tom Gould
heard that Manchester might turn up here
before long, he expressed considerable
pleasure at the prospect and said he'd like
to see his grace just about seventy-fve
pounds worth. I've always thought IL was
very much to Miss Bellwood's credit that
she didn't thrash Manchester herself some
times, instead of allowing him to put lamps
over ner eyes. bhes a great, big, buXom
woman, high colored and muscular, with
legs like posts and the arms of a coal
HEAVIER. / promised to tell you about that
excursion. But / only wish that Tor even
one of my rival burlesque impressarios on
West Twenty-third street or East Four
teonth street, could succeed in our long
cherished scheme to get Bellwood over here
az a music hall singer. under the tact man
aRement of his grace of Manchester.
But | haven't told you about that wild
day on the Thames yet. 1t was az fine a
June day as ever you saw. | was lucky
enough to have an invitation from his
grace to go on his steam launch with Miss
Beilwood and himself and a jolly party of
an excursion from London to Windsor and
back. 1t was just the time of year wSen
the merry Thames is at its best. The
yacht was a beauty, about sixty feet long,
and with ample accommodations for
twenty passengers. The dining room and
cabin were particularly commod1ous and
specially contrivcd, it would seem, for the
ease of people who had dined we'll and late.
Bessie Bellwood was, of course. the queer
OF the party, and ! never saw her looking
better than she did that Sunday morning.
with the sun shining and the lark singing