The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-25

Well, who'd have thought it?" said
the society folk of Philadelphia not
long ago when they discovered that
one of their number-a woman-had
been earning her living and providing
for her mother for the last half dozen
years by selling coal on commission to
office buildings and manufacturing es-
adjustments.
There's many a woman in society
who has a commercial romance, but it
is seldom that the world hears of it.
The business woman of social stand
ing usually takes care to keep the ro-
nance to herself, and usually for bus
mess reasons solely.
A typical case is that of a woman
whose name is known on the social
rosters of every large city from Wash
ington to Boston, but whose home is
presumably in the latter city. While
she was in London, drowning her sor-
row over the death of her husband,
and incidentally laying in a supply of
enhancing half mourning, word came
| from her lawyers that the trusted
| IL ACllu VI llCi ldlC nuSDdiluB III WUOS6
| hands the nagement of the estate
had been left. had proven unworthy
and her entire fortune was endanger-
| ed. If the truth We're known, every
| thing might be swept away on the full
| tide. With time and skilful manage
ment. her fortune might be retrieved.
In the meantime, could she curtail her
expenses? And would she kindly adj
wise?
hoI 81 -
own way, did not see how she could
curtail her expenses. She reasoned
that keeping up appearances was es-
sential, but she also recognized the
fact that her attorneys deemed it adj
visable to cut off her allowance for the
| present. A change in her mode of liv-
ing would arouse suspicion. Eventu-
ally, but not until after hours of hard
thinking, she cabled her attorneys to
cut off her allowance, use their judg-
ment in adjusting and reestablishing
her lettering fortunes, and then went
off to a reception in her smartest
gown.
A week later London Society pa
per announced that Miss W, of a
certain Western city in America, was
sailing for New York with Mrs E
of Boston, and would visit a few
weeks with that lady before returning
10 ner own nome.
Mrs F. was the widow. No one
thought much of the paragraph except
the two women most closely identified
with it. Nevertheless, it was copied
in New York papers, and somehow
Miss W did not return to her
native town at the expiration of a
few weeks. Instead. she went to
Boston with the widow, and during
the winter they were seen everywhere
together-at the smartest winter re-
sorts and in Philadelphia, New York
and Washington.
At first society wondered at the in
tirnacy between the two, but 1t ac-
cepted Miss W as 1t had always
accepted and liked her chaperon.
Later, when, after a brief stay in her
old home, the young woman returned
to New York with her father and
established themselves in a palatial
home, which had been furnished under
the secret direction of the widow, the
doors of society remained open to
them. And only the three interested
parties knew that the price paid for
the social introduction had been suffi-
GENTLY heavy to tide the widow over
her financial crisis.
A Chicago man walked into his
wife's room one night as she was
dressing for a dinner and informed
her, in phrases Suf1clently melO-
dramatic to fit into a blood-and-thun-
der play, that they were practically
beggars. When the wife had reduced
her spouse TO reason, she found out
that his investments had been ILL
advised, and that certain bulling OPP
erations on the street had endangered
but not actually wrecked their for
tunes. Tomorrow, or the next day,
or the next, there might be a
crash. Gossip of the street was al
ready asking, How long can he stand
IT." In his nervous condition, he felt
that the time would be stort, indeed.
The wife was more than a beautiful,
accomplished woman. She had a clear
brain and a vein of originality. More
over, she could rise to an emergency
and act with quick decision. In the
first place. she announced that they
should not change their style of living.
but in week or two she would sail
for Europe just as she had planned In
the meantime they would keep their
dinner engagement.
The latter was something she had