The Topeka state journal., 1899-04-11
men loved him and many more secretly

men loved him and many more secretly
admired him.
The first romance-the first tragedy
in his life was chronicled 20 years ago.
George Saxton was then only boyiSh
man, but he had learned much of the
ways of the world-much more than he
could ever have learned in Canton.
Little Allie Shoffer loved him. She
was blonde, with fluffy hair and
radiant brown eyes-the belle of Can
ton. She and her sister Mary-now the
wife of Judge William r. Day, late sec
retary of state and president of the
Paris peace commission-were intimate
friends of George SaXton's sisters. He
knew Allie Shoffer we'll and loved he1
and she returned his passion, with what
warmth There was no room in her
heart for thoughts of evil.
At that time Saxton was not ma
terially different from other young men
who pursue pleasure, and the people
of Canton were inclined to look lightly
upon the follies of his young manhood,
in spite of his sinister ways. Was he
not rich and handsome? Canton smiled
when the engagement of Allie Shoffer
and George d. SaXtOn was announced.
But love soon palled in his heart. 1t
bored him to see a woman smile. His
manner was not blase; it was sinister.
He was young enough to be pessi-
mist, but not old enough to be an
aScet1c. He was an unusual type of
manhood
He commenced to neglect the little
other women. Allie Shorter smiled
wistfu1ly, but said nothing. Every
evening she ran out on the front porch
and waited for him. Sometimes he
came, as he had promised. Sometimes
he came later and sometimes did not
come at all.
Little Allie Shoffer felt these sights;
the uncertainty; these signs of indiffer-
heart as only woman's heart can be
wounded.
One night Louis Shoffer persuaded
his daughter to go to the theater with
him. They took a box.
Allie Shoffer sat in front. She held
her head high and tried to look happy
and nobody who saw her that night
knew that she was miserable until
There was a hush, the curtain arose.
and George SaxtOn entered the ad-
joining box. With him was woman.
She was by no means girlish. Her face
was painted.
Around her neck was a foolish little
gold chain and 1ocket which Allie
Shoffer had given George Saxton as a
betrotha1 present.
The girls face turned livid. Her Jaw
stiffened and her great brown eyes
blazed with anger. Her father saw inn
pending danger, but before he could
speak Allie Shoffer reached over ana
tore the chain from the woman's neck
Then she tainted.
Once at home, her parents and
friends tried to reason with her and told
from life with such a man, but poor
little Allie Shoffer simply turned her
face to the wall and died!
All Canton turned out to pay the last
tribute to the girl who had died of a
broken heart. AS the body was being
lowered into the grave a man pushed
his way through the crowd
1t was George Saxton.
Old Louis Shoffer sprang at him with
an oath, but his son stayed his arm
Don't father!' he cried. Think how
That evening George Saxton nassed
in concert hall in Akron, O., but every
day for two years he went to the ceme-
terry and placed fresh flowers on the
grave of the girl his folly had killed.
Twenty years after her DEATH on the
morning after he was murdered, a pic
ture of Allie Shoffer was found under
the pillow of his bedi
After her sisters death Mary Shofrer
put all the presents George Saxton had
given her sister into a box and placed
on top OF them copy of a song, then
new, Under the Daisies' From that
day forth she refused to speak to Ida
SaxtOn (now Mrs. Mckinley, because
the latter refused to join the other wo-
men of Canton in ignoring George Sax
ton For more than 10 years the two
families were estranged, and it was
only the close political friendship ex-
listing between Judge Day and Ma ior
Mckinley that brought about a recon-
ciliation.
From the day of Allie Shoffer's death
George Saxton was a social outcast in
Canton. Not half a dozen women in
the town would speak to him. If he
were coming down the street woman
who knew him would enter a store or
hurrledly cross the street. The yery a
mOsphere surrounding him seemed to he
poisoned. These conditions prevailed
for years. He never prospered after the
girl died. He inherited property and
money but gradually lost both through
his own folly.
Saxton seemed to have adopted Iiber-
tinism as his plan of life. He followed
it out with a degree of cold-blooded cal
culation which made men of finer con-
science shudder.
He became engaged to a beautiful
young girl, the daughter of LAWYER
with high local reputation. He tired
of her and finally dragged her into the
slums. Then he deserted her She is
still living in Salem, o.
A Canton physician shot Saxton for
attempting to ruin the peace of his
home.
A society girl of Massilon, O., ran
away from home to marry him. He took