Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1902-12-25
! CASTOR Theriot, Swordsman

John H. R artery. in Chicago Record Herald

There We're many reasons why Mrs.
Blake's boarding house became the
home of more odd characters than any
place of it's size west of the Mississippi.
Being Dublin lady, whose husband
had been In the French army, she
called her house the "Maison de Vile"
Then her son Roderick, who had even
scandalized the Latin quarter before
he was of age, was something of a
painter, and to his mothers house
brought every vagrom Bohemian who
drifted into Kansas City from Paris,
Vienna or Rome. Sometimes they
failed to pay board, but she was a
canny little woman, and when she
couldn't get the cash she made them
work out the bill.
AS long ago as 1879 the Hotel de
Willie was populous with statuary, or
nate With all sorts of paintings and
vocal of the characteristics and handi-
crafts of nearly a decade of queer
tenants School teachers. soldiers of
fortune, painters, sculptors, writers,
mostly made up the clientele of the
Maison. and therefore Mrs Blake did
not flourish financially. But she was
content. l hope she has never been
driven to the extremity of an auction
sale, but if she ever comes to that, I'd
like to know 1t. Some of the wan
dering painters who paid her With UNI
framed pictures are famous now, and
when last 1 was in her kitchen there
was q landscape over the bread board
| that is the best work of master hand.
The only rule of the Maison de Willie
that was held inviolable WAS Mrs.
| Blakes forbiddance of female guests.
| She seemed to have q deep-set dislike
| for her own sex, and even when her
dead husbands sister called at the
| house. she was uncomfortable until
| she had gotten her out of the place.
She wouldn't even sleep in her own
house, but every evening at dusk
| turned the management over to
Pond" Chinaman, and went to her
own lonely room over Miss minister's
| millinery shop. Well, Pond, the China
| man, slept all day IN a little closet in
the attic, and in the early sos the place
was always full. One evening in May
a dapper little man came in while we
We're all at supper. In pronounced
| French accent he asked for Nine.
Blake. He had come right into the
| dining room, where we were all at tea,
and we couldn't help observing the
contrast between his naively audacious
| intrusion and the self-deprecating man
ner of his address. When he found
| that madame was gone he asked for
'M'sieu Roderick." He had a letter
| from Bruce Patrick, an artist then in
Paris, and in five minutes young Blake
| had read the letter and given the
| stranger an enthusiastic welcome to
| the hospitality of his mothers house.
! The newcomer was named CASTOR
| Theriot. He hailed from Rheims and
| was IL teacher of French and fencing
"Maitre darnes," he called 1t. He fitted
| we'll into the mixed company, spoke
English With II most piquant and saucy
assurance ana was everybody's friend
before Pond brought in the buclwheat.
| The cuisine of the Maison de Willie, You
see, was not Partisan. Theriot was u
handsome young rascal with glittering,
big, black eyes. closely cropped curls
and the face of a boy. He said he was
49, but he didn't look it, though he was
broadly built and spoke with the glib
abandon of a man of the world
Professor Dillon. Trinity college
man who had served under Blake at
Paris and had tried his patience in the
Papal guard, was one of the star