The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-26

and Others.
From the st. Louis Post Dispatch.
The latest escapade of Charles L. Fair
IN San Francisco may have created some
surprise among people who have not
familiarized themselves with Charles L.
Fairs genera. But to the other class
who watch the high inks Of millionaires
sons 1t seemed a consistent and almost
inevitable climax that the son who was
an heir to a million and Just escaped
twenty times that amount from his
mothers estate, should borrow s. and
marry woman who sported the stage
name of Maude Nelson because her own
name-Caroline Smith was not romantic
enough, and who had been known in New
York as Maude Thomas, Maude Ulman and
Maude Corrigan. This appears to be about
the proper caper with class of young men
who come into the world with silver
spoons in their mouths An undisciplined
young man with one or two thousand a
month to fling away, who has rampaging
appetltes and weak will, appears to set
out with the one idea of making a con-
dlgn idiot of himself in the
briefest and directest manner.
he is brilliant example of
the talsity of the hereditary doctrine
of like father like son, which
doctrine has recently been punctured
pretty efectually. The fathers, as
rule OF the scattering young imbeciles
have been pretty hard working accumu-
lators. and nature evens up the matter by
making their sons sap-headed distribu-
ters
The record of Charles L. Fair belongs
TO the wild oats of wealth. 1t is a record
of rlotous living, depraved tastes, low
prodIgailty and general course of incom-
prehensible debauch that ends in the
marriage of what his sorrowing father
calls common woman, with whom he
bad been living for long time. As Mr.
Fair senior is reputed to be worth at least
S2OOO0O0 and took his boys under his
special care when he separated from Mrs
Fairit would be interesting to inquire
whether the personal influence or the
S2O,0OO,000 had the more to do with his
sons career.
SHERMAN MARTIN AND LORD DUNLo.
The noticeable fact about Charles L.
Fair is that he is In no sense unique. His
"Maude" act, as it may be called, is get
ting to be conventional. just exactly
what young Fair aid may be briefly sum
married thus: He blew in his money in
gambling hells, made pals OF the worst
class of men and women he could find
disgraced his family and became notori-
Gus as prinCely bum, closing it all up by
marrying his paramour and breaking a
bottle of beer over the ceremony This is
so far from being new that it follows in
its main features the record of score of
other prncelY buns.
The reader very readily recalls the case
OF the adOlesceut Lord Dunlo and Belle
Billion, which has served as a model for
so many young scapegraces. Belle Billion
was a disreputable concert hall singer,
but she SO hypnotized the young aristo-
crat that he was willing to stake his eter-
nal salvation on her immaculate superior
ity to the rest of the race, and suffered
the fortunes of the damned because his
family refused to regard, when her paint
was od, with his eyes. The ex traordin-
airy magnanimity and devotion lasted
about six months, and then the machin-
cry of separation was put in motion.
II was followed by the Sherman Mar
tin affair along the same lines. This
case obtained sufficient notoriety owing
to the prominence and influence of Mrs.
Bradley-Martiu, the rich and respected
mother of the boy. IL was at the start
and to the finish an example of Adde'S
cent susceptibility played Tor all it was
worth by an adventures against a
wealthy and sensitive family, and re-
solved itself, after safety, into a COM
mercial plan to buy the woman off. The
whole record of that young man, pub
lished at the time, shows that he was
ABSOLUTELY enervated by having more
money than he knew what to do with,
and mentally and morally debauched by
being able to crafty every appetite and
whim His erratic career reached a
climax when he threw himself into the
arms of woman who called herself Miss
Num-" and who had graduated from the
variety stage
YOUNG BLAINE's UNACCoUNTABLE CONDUCT.
The extraordinary matrimonial expert
ence of James G. Blaine, Jr., for year
or two filed the public ears, and to this
day no satisfactory solution of his conduct
has been offered. He married a beautiful
woman when he was not of age, and had
no other means of support than that fur
nished by his father and after making an
experiment of housekeeping in New York,
which proved too expensive for the father,
he went with his wife TO reside at the
family mansion in Augusta, Me. Here
the Young bride had misunderstanding
with her mother-in-law and left Augusta,
but her husband remained.
subsequently Mrs. Blaine set up pro-
ceedings for divorce on the ground of de-
sertion, and in Mr.. Blaine's answer he
denied the desertion and alleged that his
wife left him. This young wife remained
in New York with her child. and for
long time was seriously ill, but the hus-
band never visited her Mrs. James G..
Blaine, Jr., persistently claimed that his
absence was not voluntary, and declared
that it was owing to the mother-in-law.
But whatever the cause, the peculiar
stamina of the young man was obvious TO
the public; he virtually abandoned
woman he had loved and married, and
who had borne him a handsome boy
abandoned her, too, at a time when she
needed him most, and was almost de-
pendent upon charity for the means of sup
port His mothers influence over him APP
pears to have been absolute but that
influence does not appear to have
been strong enough to prevent him
before the public. His whole career.
as far as it is known, shows him to
have been a singularly weakminded and
inordinately vain young man. He frankly
told Father Ducey that his father wanted
him to study and get an education, but,
said he, 81 have no taste for study" He
attempted newspaper work in PittsburR,
but he did little or no work. save 10 stroll
into the city editors room leisurelv,
smoking a cigarette. where he would
usually discuss his family affairs and
work the office for theater tickets. He
made himself offensive in Washington,
where he was blackballed by the athletic
club and repeatedly snubbed by officials.
III word, James G. Blaine, Jr., although