The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-03-18
CARRUTHERS' LUCK

.CARRUTHERS' LUCK
When vivien Dawnay Tilted young
Ca%rruthers all his cynical friends de-
clared that it was q blessing in disguise.
Carruthers was neither conferred Dy
consolation nor hardened by cynicism.
He had loved earnestly, n his
wretchedness was in proportion. The
sting of stings lay in the fact that WV
len Dawnay had thrown him over for
mere money. She was now Mrs. Jes- |
sup.
AS regards Jessup, he had a huge
factory on Long Island, a mansion up
town and a villa ut Newport. He was
not Of society, but he was gradually
entering the mystic circle that rings
society around. TO pass the boundary
with due eclat he deemed himself In
need Of just such a wife as was Vtvien
Jessup. So 1t came to pass that there
occurred a business transaction be-
tween these two. Fol his money and
his potentialities Miss pawnay bar
tered her youth, her beauty and her UNI
deniable descent from POcahOntas. Ac-
cordingly they were married, and
young Carruthers fancied that this
mere Curtain raiser of his life was
all his worlds drama.
Carruthers was in a fair way to go
to the devil when Nivien Dawnay jilt-
ed him. He did not go thither, how
ever, but to war instead. 1t was the
war of those days. Some nervous
courtier of the emperor Of Mandalay
had unwittingly trodden upon the sa-
cred pigtail of the ambassador from
Cambodia. Within a moon and a half
every pigtail in all Cambodia tingled
responsibility; hence the war.
I have spoken of Carruthers' cynic-
al friends. Most cynics are good ma
tured, and Hardness was the best ma
tured Of cynics. Hardness was a war
correspondent, the stormy petrol of
II sail for Mandalay tomorrow. You
feel like making a war on society.
Come with me and make war on the
Cambodians instead" And Carruthers
went.
. =
The investment which Mr.. Jessup
made did not turn out SO well after
all. A merely rich man who is also
single stands a chance of sneaking into
society by way Of club parlors and
yacht lunches, but a married roturier,
ever If his wife belong to a FIRST fam
lily of Virginia." does not always find
open the front doors of Fifth avenue.
Moreover, Jessup had married at an
inconvenient epoch. There was a real
serene highness within the gates, and
he meditated marriage with the daugh-
ter of a certain society she general.
Through the medium of society papers
the Prince Of Hohenstauffen-Pump
nickel's intentions were no secret. I'm
der the circumstances the introduction
of a Mrs. Jessup proved difficult. You
cannot ask an Independent high and
mighty lord Of the empire to dance q
cotillon with the wife of a Long Is
land manufacturer. At least the great
danes uptown argued in this wise
Poor Vivien was very lonely at New
port and still more lonely in New York
Jessup had a short temper, and he los
1t altogether when he found that -htf
coup had failed. Society papers bega1
to say nasty things about the couple
Nasty things are nastiest when true
and these paragraphs We're hideously
accurate.
In the midst of it all the war in tn
east collapsed with a crash. To every
body's intense surprise the forces o
Mandalay made mincemeat of tn
Cambodians. Then young Carruther
suddenly appeared in London ant
wrote a book. If the war was the war
then Carruthers' book was the book
A year had passed without a new fa'
or a new lion. Ca1ruthers and hi
book filed the gap. Had not the youn
soldier-author penetrated as far a
Bangkok and seen the peacock throne
We're there not grand, romantic ste
ries which made him the Joseph Of
mysterious oriental Potiphar's sultana
The Duchess Of Gatherum fed hir
upon ortolans and truf1les in LioncAtc
castle, and his book went through fv
editions as a circus Columbine goe
through hoops.
When London bows down New Yor
salaams. Carruthers found himse
twice the hero in America that he ha
been in England. The great societ
she general heretofore alluded to II
trigued for an introduction and hale
him off to Lenox. The Prince Of HI
henstauffen- Pumpernick planned wit
him an excursion into Burma.
One morning Mrs. Jessup, e DAY
nay, read in her most detested societ
paper the following interesting item:
"Fortune favors the brave. TIL
week we the %approachi1
wedding Of that modern Monte Chr1
to, MI. George Carruthers, to Mi
Virginia Van Ruyter. It will be \