The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-10-08

BOuleFdFu IlduSS-
u onTwse man of an old man.
In this simple cir
tumstance alone there would be moth
ing to excite more than the most cas-
ual observation.
Not a newspaper man on Park Row
not a police captain, sergeant or de-
tective in the Greater New York-but
could recognize the face Of George
Frances Stevens.
They'll tell you the old stereotyped
story of his grief over the loss of
his bride-a grief not assuaged by the
legacy Of 100000 bequeathed to him
by her-the $4,000 being part Of the
fortune accumulated by her father in
his famous gambling den; of how
Stevens dragged out his life at the
telegraph desk until the burden grew
too heavy to bear. This is the gen
orally accepted version, and for many
years it held an honored place in the
stock romance Of Mulberry street,
blooming in its tender beauty and
fragrance in the shadow of the rogues'
gallery and the relics of eminent muir
derers.
On a bleak, snowy night in the win
ter Of 1879 a party of young men and
women were assembled together in the
old-fashioned parlor Of an old-fashion-
ed house in Arch street, Philadelphia.
The time was evening; the hour 7
o'clock; the scene was the home of
James Rowland, a dry goods merchant,
who NOT 1nnU hnfnro bod potiraI from
business to devote the remainder of
his days to the care of his only child
a daughter.
In the center of the little group that
daughter now stood-a plump, rosy
checked, black-eyed, black-haired dam
sci overlooking with the effervescence
of gushing good humor. 1t was her
birthday party, and her first since her
return from the finishing school just
outside Philadelphia, in which she had
passed most of her life since the death
of her mother, seven years before. And
as she stood there in all the radiance
of her girlish beauty she presented a
picture delightful to the senses. Evil
IDENTIFY her father thought so as he
stood in the background l~aughingly
telling the youthful celebrants that
they were spelling Nellie, the while his
eyes beamed with pride and joy. To
each of the young men had been grant
ed the privilege of bringing two Wis
itors, following the ancient custom of
the old c~olonials, and this at least
insured an adequate supply of the male
element. And among the crowd pres
emily filing into the big assembly
rooms, now thrown wide open, was one
whose presence presently started a
buzz and murmur through the whole
company.
He was one of the guests thus in
vited by proxy. He came into the
room under the wing of a young law
yer (a%fterward distinguished in Euro
pean diplomacy and he was not of
Philadelphia. His dress, style and
manner were of New York, a fact in
itself sufficient in those days to set him
apart in a class by himself among a
Philadelphia crowd.
He was presently introduced to the
young hostess and his victory was won,
while the honest fellows who in their
clumsy, homely ways had loved her
nom childhood could look on only in
mute despair. The young provincial
beauty was dazzled by the dash and
flare of the metropolitan. Perhaps,
too, she was not entirely unaffected by
the whispers of how he stood high in
the favor of the all powerful Tweed,
his kinsman and protector, who had
promised hat he would make his for
tune. Stevens stayed by her side for
the greater part of that night; he call
ed by permission the next day and the
day after. Somehow he found occa-
sion to run over from New York every
other day. No n was presently sur
prised when it was announced that
Stevens had proposed and been &C
cepted as her promised husband.
Old Rowland had demurred a little
at first. Even in his quiet home, liv-
ing out of the world, he had heard a
few ugly stories about Tweed, with
whom Stevens was associated, and his
gang, and he hesitated to risk the flu
ture of his child on a foundation SO
insecure. She was sent away. A year
or two later notice of her death in
South America appeared in a Philadel-
phia paper.
Six years had passed. 1t was the
year Of the Centennial, and the whole
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