The advocate., 1895-04-10
TOPEKA, KANSAS, APRIL 10, 1896.

by reason Of their absence from home and their con-
sequent neglect of husbsndry, had fallen behind"
and he had, in this way, become at small cost the
owner of some of the best improved farms In Wor-
cestor county.
But he could not rest from his lsbors to augment
the national wealth. and lately, in connection with
some gentleman in Boston, he had engaged In the
importation and sale of costly fabrics and other lux
urieS from Europe much desired by "the gentry
in those days. for not even now do the American
rich live in greater ostentation of extravsgance
than did the wealthy families of New England In
the midst of the wretchedly poor multitude just
after the close of the Revolution.
To avoid prolixity, let it be said in brief that
Stilwel was thrifty, grasping, harsh and arrogant
man of wealth, who belonged to one Of the oldest
families, wore his chin DOUBLE and lived in such
luxurious style to leave the public no excuse for
doubling he was rich. There was in Worcester no
larger nor costlerTesidence than HIS and for that
period It's appointments were complete. To be sure
there no telephone in the house, for as yet no
poor genius had conceived the idea Of that nstru-
ment for some rich schemer to steal and patent but
there were feetfOoted servants trained to run all
errands-b but those of mercy. Neither was the
Stilwell mansion lighted by electricity; such noe
turnsl effulgence as it enjoyed was derived from
very inferior quality of candles but the candle
sticks and the candelabra were the most gorgeous
and the costliest which money and hired artistic
taste had been able to obtain in France. No hot
water radiators heated the rooms; they were warmed,
in circumscribed areas by cracking blazing logs In
huge, open freplaces; but above the homely fire.
places elaborately carved msntes, with shelves and
1Woxu md 10 n,,kk
ceilings. The furniture was not glued together, as
in these latter days. but was doVetsiled and put to-
gether by hand SO firmly that it would have filed
modern fire department or church social with de-
spair.
OF Isaac StilWells wife little need at present be
said, AS rule, wives did not count for much
in those days, and, though a woman of much in
telgence, as well as beauty and well educated for
the period, Isaac Stilwels wife was not an excep.
ton to the rule. She presided over her husbands
household particularly over much of 1t as had to
do with his table, but she was not permitted to for
get that the household and the table belonged to
Isaac Stlwel not to Isaac Stilwell & Co. In utter
incongruity with her position as Isaac StilWelPs
wife, Mrs. Stilwel had q heart; real, live warm,
Womanly heart; and, secretly, Of course she cher.
shed noble aspirations. To her mother Gertrude
owed her character and her training; and It is
mostly as represented by her daughter that the
rich mans wife will figure in the narrative which is
to follow.
Gertrude Stilwell was an only daughter; fair,
peach-bloom, 1.-the and Willowy girl Of eighteen,
very like her mother, but so unlike her father that
in the absence Of information, no one would have
suspected her paternity. Her only brother, some
years her senior, and second and enlarged edi-
tion Of his father, was married, and resided In
London as the foreign representative Of the I'm.