The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-26
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-uis burdens Were Heavy, and
He Gladly Laid Them Down.
Clyde Shropshire, recently vice con-
,nl Of the United States at Paris, now
tits at a 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
su eeded at Paris, by an uninterrupted
series of prodigies, in provoking more
envy than pity and in leading a life
of /. luxury, apparently, at least, not
with the aid of the little money that
he earned, but because he was rel
atively to his limited fortune one of the
most stylish men of Paris. Clothes, fur
niture, social relations, all the things
that were his were incontestably stylish.
But to attain this result 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 exaggeraticns
of which he did not adopt with JOY. In
accordance with the custom already an
cient. which suppresses professional alb.
surdities and replaces them by others,
the lawyers Office which Clyde Shrop-
shire kept in conjunction with his friend
Donald Harper was incumbered with
carpets, ferocious gods, art objects of
Japan and enough barbarous weapons
to organize war in the far east
Clyde Shropshire rode in the morning
in the Bois do Bouiogne on superb
horse. Where could he have got it? The
rest of the time he was wherever fash
ionable man i'm 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. He was admitted to sa-
Ions of the Faubourg st. Germain,
where dukes only are received, and if a
celebrated woman gave at her house q
party consecrated exclusively to mystic
rious beings living outside of all the
circles of society, Clyde Shropshire was
there as if he had al exceptional title
to be there.
At the receptions of the French acad-
emy he had better place than any Of
the state ministers, the, diplomats and
the wives Of academicians. If dram
>atist, eager to retain his secret, organ
lied rehearsal with doors shut so
tightly that even the manager Of the
playhouse could not open them, Clyde
Shropshire was there, comfortably in
stalled in ali orchestra chair by virtue
of right the more imprescriptible be-
cause il rested OH nothing.
\ Shropshire had carefully eliminated
froni ...::s mind oil th:,u was not stylish
in ID. Politicians, poets, financiers, men
of -cillions, said "we" to him. All nd
mitted him into their special free ma
sonry. If sovereign passed through
Pa,is In the strictest inoognito 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 consu
would not have waited for vanishing
day. In the dust, in the sweepings, h
walked, receiving full in the face tn
refuse OF the galleries, under the stupe
fed gaze Of the bewildered authorities
1t was especially with regard to VIC
man that Clyde Shropshire had domes
ticated his heart and imposed silenc
upon it as u,on familiar dog. With
out ever allowing himself fantasti
ideal or a personal taste, he admire
the women " hom fashion ordered hir
to admire, with the docility of soldie
obeying his chief.
He gave to them jewels, ancient al
objects and other ruinous things HaN
ing neither taste nor an idea for
sentiment which was his, frightfull
resigned, Clyde Shropshire dragged
chain, gilt, but heavy. Suddenly h
was delivered. Consul General S. L
Morss removed him from office.
Then fabulous tales of sums borrowe
by him from a great number of person
gained circulation. His brother, r. l
Shropshire, paid the debts.
my brother" said Clyde Shrol
shire, in speaking of the matter recen
ly, lis the only person who has suffere
loss of money for my dissipation. 1t
all in the past now. The realization {
the horror of it came to me only when
was punished, but there came with II
punishment a splendid consolation.
II am no longer forced to be stylisl
/ shall never be stylish again. And
roll in the happiness Of living the III
of commonplace Office clerk. like pi
in pen or an angel in the stars. -
New York Journal