Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1895-11-22
CREATED A SURPRISE.
Announcement of the Divorce OF
Mrs. Amelie Rives- Chanler.
Her Married Life Supposed to Be Happy
One-The Book That Brought Her
Fame-Her Husband Was
the Hero.

The announcement that Mrs. Amelfe
Rives Chanler has secured divorce
from her husband, John Armstrong
Chanler, has caused genuine surprise
in New York city, where she was we'll
known. 1t has never been intimated
that she did not live happily with her
husband.
Nine years ago she was the most
talked-about person in the country
the president of the United States hard
ly excepted. 1t was in April, 1886, TINT
magazine published "The Quick or the
Dead" and as the name under the title
Of this amazing novelette, was Amelie
Rives oil the world straightway wanted
to know who she was.
When it came out that she was a
young woman less than 90 years old,
the daughter of proud Virginia fam
lily, brought up in quiet country
place, there was universal amazement.
1t was the story of a young widow,
Barbara Pomfret, and of her mental
writings between her love for her dead
husband and her love for her lover, of
great enthusiasm and a delightful flow
of language. The book from begin
ming to end was wild whirl of passion
ate love, of kisses, of embraces, of,
tumultuous emotions. 1t was the first
of that long series of novels written by
women. In reality the book, calmly
considered, was Il rather crude but fair
| ly faithful, at times almost stenograph-
ic, report of the courtship of ro-.
mantle young man and a romantic
young woman.
A few months after it's appearance
came the announcement that Miss Rives
was to marry John Armstrong Chanler,
one of the rich great-grandchildren OF
John jacob Astor. And then it was
discovered that the hero of "The Quick
or the Dead" bore strong resemblance
to young Mr.. Chanler.
Between the publication of "The
Quick or the Dead" and "The Witness
Of the Sun" she married. Mr.. and Mrs.
announced that they were living in
Paris, that she had given up writing
for the time and was studying art.
Gradually the excitement about her
died out. She was very ill, but slowly
recovered, writing during her con-
valescence that very eccentric book,
According to ST. john Then came
several poems, notably "Asmodeus,"
poems of frothing Swinburnean pas
sion.
Mr.. and Mrs. Chanler travelled about
Europe. He returned to further 4
scheme for sending picked American
art students abroad for study. She
did not come back until last January.
After short stay in New York she
went down to her fathers house, where
her husband joined her. Then she
travelled in search of health through
the far west. Mr.. Chanler was in New
York this last summer, and two months
ago went to South Carolina, where he
has undertaken some extensive enter
prises.
| He is man of great force of charac-
, ter, despiser of oilers, nervous, highly
t strung, bent upon accomplishing
II much in the world. If there is any.
| thing in the theory that successful
> marriage rests upon balancing O
Compartments the -eesHta Uses s--6effth this di
1 yorce are easy to see.
I, AT the last report Mrs. Chanler was
at her fathers home leading the life
) of her girlhood in the house and in the
? surroundings she has so often and Sc
5 we'll described in her stories. She has
: no children.