The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-09
HE WAS VICE CONSUL.
NOW He Is A CLERK IN A LAWYERS
OFFICE.

Big Social Drop and How 1t Came About.
Clyde Shropshire Lately Led the Fashion
of Paris-His burdens Were Heavy, and
He Gladly Laid Them Down.
Clyde Shropshire, recently vice con-
sui of the United States at Paris, now
sits at small desk in the anteroom of
his brothers Office in Wall street, New
York, adding columns of figures.
vice consul of the United States, a
lawyer, writer, 1.-the, extremely witty
and sufficiently brave, Clyde Shropshire
succeeded at Paris, by an uninterrupted
series of prodigies, in provoking more
envy than pity and in leading life
Vi luxury, apparently, at least, not
win the aid Of the little money that
ne earned, but because he was rel
atlvely 10 ms limited fortune one of the
most styllsh men of Paris. Clothes. fur
niture, social relations, all the things
that were his were incontestablv stvlisb
But to attain this result a man needs
inexhaustible genius and patience every
minute.
There was not a ridiculous coat i'm
posed by fashion which Clyde Shrop.
shire knew not how to wear with ire
proachable grace and the exaggerations
of which he did not adopt with joy. In
accordance with the custom already an
cient. which suppresses professional alb
surdities aud replaces them by others,
the lawyers Office which Clyde Shrop-
shire kept in conjunction with his friend
innr1 mi arQ1 with
carpets, ferocious gods, art objects of
Japan and enough barbarous weapons
to organize a war in the far east.
Clyde Shropshire rode in the morning
in the Bots de Boulogne on superb
horse. Where could he have got it! The
rest of the time he was wherever fash
ionable man in Paris must be to obey
prejudices that are adored there as were
the gods with heads of birds in ancient
Egypt.
He was especially in the places where
one cannot be- EIe was admitted to sal
Ions of the Faubourg st. GERMAN,
where dukes only are received, aud If "a
celebrated woman gave at her house Il
party oonsecratod exclusively to mystic
rious beings living outside of AL the
circles Of society, Clyde Shropshire was
there as if he had an t.ecpticnal tide
TO be there.
At the receptions {. tho french acad-
envy be had better place than any Ct
the state ministers, t..y diplomats uEd
the wives III acduc;nicidns IL "a dram
atist, eager to retain his secret, cISan-
lied rehearsal with doors shut 50
tightly that even the manager Cf Il g
playhouse could rot opcn thtn. ClyGo
Shropshire was there, comfortably IN
stalled in an orchestra chuir ~ virtue
of right the more imprcscriptible be
cause it rested on nothing.
Shropshire bad carefully eliminated
from his mind all that was not stylish
| in it. Politicians, poets, financiers, men
of millions, said I'VE" to him. All adj
mitted him into their special free ma
sonry. If sovereign passed through
| Paris in the strictest incognito and re-
ceived nobody, he received Clyde Shrop-
shire. Why? That is as difficult to learn
as the deepest mystery of history. Sure
| ly, to visit the salons, our vice consul
would not have waited for vanishing
day. In the dust, in the sweepings, he
walked, receiving full in the face the
refuse of the galleries, under the stupe-
fed gaze of the bewildered authorities
1t was especially with regard to wo-
man that Clyde Shropshire had domes-
ticated his heart and imposed silence
upon it as upon familiar dog. With
out ever allowing himself fantastic
ideal or a personal taste, he admired
the women whom fashion ordered him
to admire, with the docility of a soldier
cbeying his chief.
He gave to them jewels, ancient art
objects and other ruinous things. Hav-
ing neither taste nor an idea for a
sentiment which was his, frightfully
resigned, Clyde Shropshire dragged a
chain, gilt, but heavy. Suddenly he
was delivered. Consul General S. E.
Morss removed him from Office.
Then fabulous tales of sums borrowed
by him from a great number of persons
gained circulation. His brother, r. F.
Shropshire, paid the debts
my brother" said Clyde Shrop-
shire, in speaking of the matter recent.
ly, sis the only person who has suffered
loss Of money for my dissipation. 1t is
all in the past now. The realization OF
the horror of it came to me only when
was punished, but there came with the
punishment splendid consolation.
II am no longer forced to be stylish
/ shall never be stylish again. And
roll in the happiness of living the life
of a commonplace Office clerk, like pig
in pen or an angel in the stars. y
| n.y., Vol, To,rral