The evening Republican., 1902-09-02
RICHES, RANK AND MISERY.
These Three Are Inaeparable to the
Life Of Some Titled Englishman,
Says an Authority,

We have in our midst million
airess who has never been reconciled
to her husbands iIl-gotten wealth.
| On her countenance one traces q
look of bemused bewilderment that
has become her habitual expression.
Dimly and dumbly she has realized
that such colossal wealth, dishonest
ly acquired, must necessarily consti-
tute curse. She roams through her
barnlike mansion with an affrighted
mir which betrays Il haunting obses-
sion, says the London Empire.
On one occasion she was found
weeping on the doorstep-a victim of
hysterical grief. The insolence and
extravaganza of the costly crudties
with which her husband has thcum-
bered his palace" cause her Simple
soul to imagine weird things. Whit
are they for? Why is she surtodhd-
ed by these objects, so foreign to her
lowly, primitive nature? She lives in
constant and nervous dread of some
impending calamity.
she has engaged four detectives to
guard her and her treasures. They
are dressed as footmen. The princi-
pal pleasure now INDUCED in by this
pathetic creature is to peer through
the halls and passages to make sure
that her guardians do not relax their
vigilance. This pleasure is beginning
to pail, and there is every fear that
her millions will ultimately crush her
and deprive her of her reason.
Haunted by the ghastly specter of
her wealth, she starts up at night
in feversh perspiration. consumed
by horrible dread of some frightful
disaster which she is powerless to
avert.
And her husband? He is tired Of
her, of her. miserable whining, her
haunting white face and generally
depressing temperament. lie is Gym
zeal, joyial and never suffers from
any qualms of conscience. lie has
made what he calls "a pot of money"
by the promotion of shady com
panies. And he intends to enjoy it.
He frequents the race course and
other resorts of the pleasureloving.
The money squeezed from the
widow, the orphan and the curate is
recklessly squandered among oil the
vile parasites which compose the fast
section of London society. He is
popular; the press speaks well of
him; he is welcome figure in the
most exclusive society. He is so rich,
he gives such good dinners, he puts
his friends into such good things
out of which they make money.
At whose expense? They never
stop to think. They need money; he
puts them in the way Of obtaining it.
No further do they trouble. Leaving
his haunted wife to roam through the
corridors Of his palace" he looks
on the Wine when it is red, basks in
the smiles of the fair, enjoys the in
cense of the vena press and varies
his pleasures by taking frequent trips
to Paris, where his face is as well |
known as in London.
He is perfectly well aware that he
is a swindler who has wrecked thou
sands of homes. But he is equally |
well aware that the law cannot touch |
him, that lawyers, divines, aristo-
Gratis, official and even judges can be
bought by a portion of his ill-gotten
gains. And he drains the cup of
pleasure to the dregs--cynical, in
sonciant, typical product OF the age
which invented the one-pound ster-
ing share for the better despoiling
IF the ignorant and the inr ocent.
Surely he will float another big CONF
oany.