Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-12-12

He said such awful things he
was dramatist and cynic.
His plays were the most successful OF
the time, but he would never allow any
one to mention them to him. far less
compliment him upon their popularity.
They were all full of the most senti-
mental love scenes, and airy, graceTui
humor, yet Mr.. Ruthven, if ever he
mentioned the tender passion person
ally, sneered at it as chimera OF the
poets and novelist's brain-a mon
strous impossibility, not to be found in
this world.
Quiet, steady-going husbands did not
like Ruthven to associate with their
wives. They were not in the least
afraid of his upsetting their morality;
far from it; he had never been known to
fiirt in his life; but they were afraid of
his destroying their faith in the exist
ence OF truth and virtue.
If his own word were to be believed,
he did not credit mankind with any
feelings beyond those of self-gratif1ca-
ton and ACKNOWLEDGMENT. He ignored
love and laughed at matrimony, except
as convenient contract for such par
ties as desired to benefit by their mu-
tual possessions-a temptation he al
ways ended by saying he thanked the
Lord he had been preserved against.
But if Mr.. Ruthven did not care for
marriage, neither did he set much store
by riches. He was very liberal with
what he earned-no inconsiderable
amount-and openly pitied those who
considered it incumbent upon them to
save. He could not see the fun of plant
ing f1g-trees for the next generation to
sit under. Yet he did not spend his
money on his own home, which was a
very modest one. situated in an old
fashioned purlieu of Kensington. There
he lived, in tiny house, waited on by
an ancient purblind housekeeper-one
of those inconvenient legacies which a
man sometimes finds himself compelled
to accept against his will, and does not
know how to get rid of afterward with
out being called brute.
Mrs. Garrett had not much trouble,
however, with her master, who always
spent his evenings at his club. There
he might be found, night after night,
the center of circle of admiring
friends, for Ruthven, though so unpop-
ular with the women-in consequence
of an unpleasant habit he had contract
ed by saying what he meant-was an
immense favorite with the men. who
heard no such cauStic, witty, singing
remarks from any other member Of the
Canniba1 Club. With the other sex
Ruthven became hard, philosophical,
sometimes almost uncomplimentary,
but his own knew him as he really
was-thoroughly good-hearted, honest,
and true; hating vice, and with a very
tender spot somewhere, waiting for the
right hand to probe and reveal. An
other great cause for offense with the
ladies against RuthVen was, that he
never went to their dinner parties, and,
worse still. he never answered their
letters.
Many and many a fair woman had
angled for that tough old heart of his
in vain, for poular dramatist, and one
Of the cleverest men in town, was not a
! parti to be let slip without an effort.
Yet the coveted, cunning fish swan by
them, flashing his cold, glittering scales
in the sun, uncaptured and unlikely to
be so. The married women said he was
a bear, the unmarried ones that he was
fool; but Ruthven cared not what they
said. In appearance ne was decidedly
good-looking. His earnest, deep-souled
eyes were set in a face whose features
/ betokened three grand qualities de
| cision, perspicuity, and humor; but as
his short sight compelled him always
to wear pair of double glasses, few
people knew how much tenderness
beamed in his glance and was mixed
with the rest of his disposition. His
age was about five-and-thirty, but his
hair was already plentifully sprinkled
with gray. He gave strangers more the
idea of being disappointed and soured
man than anything else, and the ladies