The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-18
WAS SLAVE
IO BUSINESS
Millionaire Who Went Blind
+, Through Hard Work.
HIS LOVE LETTERS
In Which He Acknowledges
That Business Is His Master

Ne" 10TH, JAN IL ne new cOTh
World says:
Love is proveribally blind-but no one.
il may be fsncied, thought it literally So
Until some fragments of the life romance
OF the late Charles Broadway Rouss. the
blind millionaire. OF Broadway, four /
their way into print.
The sunits brought within the past few
weeks by three women who are asking to
get share of the Rouss estate, throw
Z remarkable light upon the life of one
of the strangest men New York has ever
known
One of the suits go 1t was said of him
ttat for twenty years. and it was no
doubt true, he worked twenty-four hours
4 day; also that he worked haredr than
any other man in New York. Certainly
he paid a fearful price for his millions.
AT sixty-six he was blind and with energy
exhausted. He died becarse he had worn
himself out by excessive work.
This ''pariah maognbantmerceinjof
This ''pariah among merchants" as he
called himself. wha toiled twenry-four
hours a day three days in the week and
from 6 o'clock in the morning until 0
o'clock at night on other days. to pile
up a few millions, yet fonud time for
many heart affairs.
One of the suits goes hack to a time
that antedates by eight years the birth
of Miss Edna Wallace Mcclellan, another
of the present claimants of the Rouss
estate
Sharles Rouss-he added the Broadway
himself later-was thirty years old when
he came to New York in 1866 and slept in
Union Square and lived on free lunches
until he got his start. He was already
a successful merchant when he met Eli
Zabeth Slattery in 1872. He was then
thirty-six years, a married man and she
vas remarkably pretty girl of sixteen.
who had been educated in a convent Her
father had been for years been employed
by the Erie railroad. When he died
Mrs. Slattery opened a little shop in Jer
sey City and she bought goods from
Rouss, who was then engaged in business
on the same peculiar lines which he
afterward made famouss.
Lizzie Slattery ,as she was called. met
Rouss when her mother sent her to the
store at No. 19 Duane street TO bpy goods
She was real Irish beauty, with COM
piexion and figure that captivated him.
In a sworn statement, now in the pos
session of her lawyer, Jacob Marx, of No.
Il Wall street, she said that the merchant
made love TO her from the time he first
saw her. And Rouss was as enrgetic
and determined in making love as he
was in business
She swears that not long after he met
her he took her to Niagra Falls. where a
marriage cermony was performed. She
did not learn until long afterward that
ne had a wife with whom he was living.
She who was Lizzie Slattery says that
for years she was known as Mrs. Rouss.
The three children born 20 her bore that
rame. He paid the funeral expenses of
two of them. He had his photograph
taken with two of them and herself. And
he wrote her scores of as remarkable
letters as ever became known in any legal
proceeding. Before some of these are
presented it may be wise to read extracts
from a letter that he yrote to another
woman, who is addressed only by her
which bears no date, Charles Broadway
Rouss says:
Apparently it does seem as if / had
forgotten you, but the Cod of Mercie
forget me if ever l cease TO think of
you. Never will l forget you while l
live. for it was you who, In the darkest
father to stand behind me with his money
{ nd his great infiuesnce. | declare to God
l love the ground the old man walks on.
You are going TO Europe and you bid
me to come to look at you. perhaps the
last time here upon earth. The sad well
ccme reminds me of that last dark hour
of our mutual friend just as she was en-
tering the eternal gates of oGd. / know
that good lady loved me but she thought
l was soulless. She thought that l loved.
better than my wife, the American Dol
lar
Alas. and is this your opinion of me?
! say to YOU that | know but one thought
and that is my business. That is a pas
sion (which with me amounts To madness
and drives me on with the fury and pitt
less rage of a demon. No rest do I
know. nor do / care. nor want any. ]
love with all my soul its merciless and
savage energy. Where il may end God
Knows In greatness or misery. day and
night, Sunday and weekday. / love and
feast upon the hourse I call my own.
driving this vast and frightful engine
Not this side of the grave do l look
for rest. These are thought / pour out
to you and have never uttered to liv-
ing soul
Il only do this TO INFORM your mind
that l have not forgotten the hand that
fed the maynard and hungry wretch that
claved only for bread. Indeed there are
father and mother and my little ones.
days when l seem to forget my own
There anchors in my bosom not spark
Of ingratitude-. | have only one falling.
/ love my resembles Master. I am here
at my post every hour OF my life Night
after night Sunday after Sunday. and
save the God Of Mercie. no mortal knows
of this blind mad passion for business.
"Good-by until I sec you. most pure
and beautiful girl, and may God gid
with eternal sunshine your pathway on
to Hudson. Your wayward friend. p
The subjoined letters are a startling
contrast 70 the foregoing. These letters
are also undated Nearly all % them
are written IN the scravling handwrit-
ing OF the dead merchant. the others hav-
ing been written or a typewriter. which
he could operate with great rspidity- The
following are selected from possibly fifty
letters written to Lizzie sIattery. who is
now Mrs Elizabeth Cowen. and which
she preserved
My Angel Girl Like.
Alas. the misery you have over ne
You hold me in the palm Of your hand
Ny destiny is yours and your too Is
mine Now you arc about TO take
position with Broadway merchant II
have a wish il IS that you may - happy