The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-04-01


marriage, from the soothing and COM
fort of the perilous drug to the use of
which she had become welded almost
from the hour that she met McLane,
poor self-absorbed Fanny was pouring
out her story and her secret in almost
incoherent rawlings to her hostess. DR..
Leavitt, who had suspected the cause OF
her vagaries before, was confident of it
when be was called in to prescribe, and
quickly found the dainty little case that
Grafton had discovered the day before.
1t was hours before she could be even
measurably quoted, and meantime
what a tale of shame and woe had she
not poured into Harrtet's astonished
ears!
Strained from its rawlings and inco-
kerences and Strengthened out in
chronological order, the story resolved
itself into this: John Harold McLane
was southern sympathizer as young
man. and went to California during the
war, provided with liberal allowance
and an opportunity of embarking in
business. At Sacramento he fell into
the clutches of a notorious household.
"Old man Perkins" had three handsome
daughters and a scheming wife. The
mothers aim was to marry those girls
to wealthy men, and she had succeeded
as to two of them, and McLane fell
victim to the plot and was married to
the third. A son, John H., Jr., was born
to them in June, '67, and trouble of
every kind followed. The sisters had
quarreled with their respective lords,
enc of whom had abandoned his wife
and gone to Japan, while the other,
even more desperate, had gone, self-di-
rected, to his grave. McLane's home
people refused to recognize any of the
Perkins stock and cut off the young
fellows allowance. Old man Perkins,
therefore, had three married daughters
and one son-in-law on his hands and
pandemonium reigned within his gates.
He had to order the eldest daughter out
OF the house, and she revenged herself
by clipping man who deserted wife
and children to run away with this
magnifcently handsome creature,
thing he mourned in sackcloth and
ashes until his money vanishing, she
ran off with another victim and left
him poor indeed, yet vastly better off
| than when he had her.
McLanes wife was the best of the
three in disposition, but that was say
ing little, and when all his money was
gone they fairly kicked him out of
doors, and he, in desperation, drifted
to Nevada and the mines, just in the
days when colossal fortunes were be-
ing made by men who were welding
pick and shovel. At the very time old
Perkins people were trying to get a
divorce, alleging desertion and failure
to support, McLane doomed up at Vir-
| ginia City as part owner of lode that
paid like the Comstock, and his Sacra-
mento wife, who was believed to be
deeply in love with steamboat en-
gineer, proved that she wasn't by jour-
reying to Virginia City with her little
boy and retaining her now prosperous
husband. There they lived in style, and
the Perkins household came to visit
them and remained indefinitely, until
the pickering drove McLane mad and
he skipped to Frisco" where every
deal he made in the stock market went
his way, and he became millionaire
before he was 80. Again his pretty
but low-bred wife followed, and again
he honestly tried to make the best of
his bargain; but her mad extravaganza
and the ceascless incursions of mother
and sister-in-law were too much for
him. One day there came crash and
much OF his fortune was swept away.
He had to break up his San Francisco
home and go back TO Virginia City, and
n furious quarrel followed, in which he
ordered the perkinses never to darken
his doors again, and 10! his wife sided
with her sister and elected to go with
them. McLane would gladly have part
ed with them all, but he had grown to
love his boy. When once more, year
later, fortune smiled on him, and, with
a new bank account, he came down to
San Francisco, the Perkinses had dis
appeared. Two of the sisters were liv-
ing the lives of adventuresses. Old Per-
kins was dead and buried, and no one
knew where the rest had gone-a host
of Sacramento tradesmen wished they
could find out.
Then McLane came east, bringing his
sheaves with him, and his family not
unnaturally forgave and welcomed
hum. Prosperity followed him. He
fairly coined money, and Uncle Abe
Mellen was only too glad to have him as
a partner; and then after lapse OF
years, when he thought her dead and
honestly wished her so, his blissful
bachelor life was broken in upon by the
temperance of his Sacramento wife
now handsome woman of nearly 40
and n stalwart STRIPPING whom he
recognized at once as his long-lost son
For two years he provided for her and
tried to educate the boy. but never
again acknowledged her as his wife,
and so long as she was amply paid
and housed, lodged and cared for, she
never protested. Macs club friends
ST metimes winked and nudged each
other when the tall young fellow APP
peared at the waiting-room with let