Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-12-31

James Lawrence Blair. general
counsel of the Louisiana purchase
exposition, lies in st. Louis the wreck
OF once popular and respected man.
Accused OF ENLIGHTENMENT to the
amount of hundreds of thousands of
dollars, and deserted by his friends,
ne has yet one solace-the constant
presence OF his devoted wife and
son. The love of the one and the
fealty of the other are absolutely I'M
shaken
Not the least remarkable feature OF
this case is the assertion that Blair's
fall was due to his mad infatuation
for his own wife, a superior woman
in every way. Many men have fallen
because of infatuation for some other
mans wife, or for some woman
to them unattainable. But seldom has
a man thrown honor, fame, friends.
fortune and future to the winds
to the sole end that he might
crafty the slightest wish-real or
imaginary-of his own lawful, welded
wife. she so fine and noble as the wife
in this amazing story.
Blair did not steal money to pay
gambling debts, to retrieve himself
from losses at speculation, to suuan-
der it upon other women or to obtain
pleasures and privileges for himself
He was easily able to earn sufficient
to crafty all normal tastes
and ambitions, and he had no vices
so far as known.
But he was possessed with an
insane desire to make his
wife supremacy happy; he wanted
her to have everything money
could buy; he could not endure
that any other woman of her
acquaintance should have any more or
any better of anything than She Her
slightest whim or wish was a binding
obligation upon him. She had trained
herself in later years to conceal many
of her petty desires from him, for
she had learned that he would neither
rest nor sleep till he had gratified
them, and, with a woman's unerring
instinct, she felt he could not afford
many Of the things he insisted upon
doing for her.
Surrounded as she was with every
luxury, loved as few wives are loved,
with a proud social position and de-
voted friends. Mrs. Blair was yet not
a happy woman. Fate, with it's own
exquisite irony, wrought that the one
great actuating motive of Blair's life
should defeat its own purpose because
it was ungoverned by reason. Mrs.
Blair. it is said would have been
happier with fewer of the material
. blessings Of life iau her husband been
able to give her these late years
complete assurances that all was well
with him. and that he had not
ieopardized his own financial, moral
or business future to his almost
frGrzied desire to please her.
She was happy in the contemplation
OF her beautiful home her handsome
and brilliant husband, her charities,
her thousand and one refined and ex-
peIsiVe interests: but more than a
few tunes, that quick woman's instinct
must have warned her that her hus-
band was buying more than he could
-saGord. More than once she went to
him bravely, frankly as a true wife
should have done. and asked him if
they were not spending too much
money.
At one time she said to him: "Jim,
why is it that the Seddons live so
hunbly and we have SO much? Why
has Mrs. Seldom no diamonds and
SO many? Is not Mr.. Seldom your full
partner in your law business and is
not his income as great as yours?"
What a sudden stab of fear must
have struck the infatuated man at
these simple, direct questions can be
coniectured How difficult 70 explain
away her suspicious he must have
found it, But years of deception
make deception easy, and the lie that
Blair, the bridegroom, might have
cast about for in vain came readily to
the lips of Blair, the husband and
father. ooh, that's all right, dear.
You know I eafn a gread deal more
outside of my law practice than Judge
Seldom does" And so were the wife's
haunting fears dispelled, and so the
husband took the irretrievable step
which doomed him to go on and on
toward the doom that has o'ertaken
him.
Blair's disgrace is still a new
story. yet the world is fairly familiar
with the details. They may be briefly
(. summed UP as follows;
Three months ago vague reports be-
gan to be circulated about town that
a prominent attorney and worlds
fairMirect0r had been found short a
large sum of money in certain trust
funds. and had been saved from
prosecution only by the prompt action
Of wealthy friends. No reputable
newspaper printed these reports. but
they would not down. In time every
man and woman and child in st. Louis
had heard them, and they had drifted
to other cities.
Finally a certain weekly publication
in St. Louis printed the report,
guardedly, Of course, and giving no
names, but the identity of the man
accused was clearly shown and the
$1,000 A onDv Of