Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-28
fR5. R1gHBRYAN IE;AY1TT.

Hrs. klUHDRXAN EEAYITT'
LINCOLN, Neb.. November os-An en-
lssary Of William J. Bryan is now on his
| way to France-he may be there by this
| time-for the purpose of seeing Bryans
son-in-law in regard to a divorce suit
about to be brought by Ruth Bryan
Leavitt. The object it is said, is to agree
| upon a settlement.
| Mrs. William Homer Leavitt, who, in
| spite of her hectic married experience, is
still girl in experience and years. has
| established a residence in Colorado for the
purpose, it is understood, of bringing a
divorce suit under the liberal laws of that
| state.
1t is not merely paper residence. Mrs.
| Leavitt spends probably two-thirds of her
| time in the state, the remainder being
spent with her parents at Lincoln Neb
In Colorado, which is state where
| women vote Mrs. Leavitt is reasonably
prominent. She is president of the prin-
| cfpal Woman's democratic club in Denver,
| and her brilliancy and wit make her a
| prominent figure among the bright women
of that state, though she has never given
| the least countenance to anything of the
| 'suffra gette' order.
The divorce suit which she is about to
| bring marks the end of one of the most
| interesting 'romances'' of modern Amer
| lean life
| A romance" in modern newspaper lex
| icons, is marriage where the girl defies
| the wishes of her parents. Ruth. Bryan's
marriage corresponded to the definition.
Came to Paint Bryan's Portrait.
She was a self-willed. beautiful. bril-
liant and foolish girl of seventeen. An
artist named Leavitt came to Lincoln to
paint her fathers portrait. He was twice
| her age and more, nearly the age Of her
father, but good-looking, clever and with
a slap-dash way with him that fascinated
| the imagination of the schoolgirl.
Ruth Bryan was the most popular and
| brilliant pupil In the college at Lincoln.
| She had reputation as an after dinner
! his palmiest days to shame Her essays
| gave promise Of a striking future, though
| her foot was on the bottom rung the
| freshman class.
Leavitt had travelled over the world. and
| brought to the quiet home in Lincoln a
! report of what was to be seen in big
| towns. 1t opened new world to Ruth
| Bryan, and she announced her determina-
| ton to marry him.
Bryan, who, with all his ideaiism,
| shrinks from close application of it. and
| is practical enough at heart, warned his
| daughter against the marriage, and did
| all he could to prevent it. So did Mrs.
! Bryan.
| But Ruth was too self-willed to permit
| an interference She had to wait for her
| eighteenth birthday. because her father
and mother had legal control OF her up
| to that time but on that very day she
| was married
| Mrs. Bryan absented herself from the
| ceremony. She would not lend herself to
the horror of seeing her beloved daughter
| marry "A man who, In the devoted moth
.,t'c -inyt- Inv Of re
| Bryan spent the marriage day weeping in
her room.
| Bryan manifested more heroism He
| attended the wedding, though every Curl
Gus guest marked on his face the grief
| it cost him. He was silent and inactive
| At the close he came up and pressed a
formal kiss on his daughters brow, and
then went disconsolately out to join his
| grief-strcken wife.
| Had the Bohemian idea.
| Then the ill-starred married life began
Leavitt had no money, but that was a
defect the organs might have remedied
but for the ineradicable defects of his
| temperament.
| He had the curse of the "bohemian''
idea. He dragged his sweet young wife
| through Denver hash houses when he
could as well have dined her at good ho-
/ tells At last her eyes were opened, and
she left him.
| A year ago w. j. Bryan found that his
| two grandchildren Bryan and Ruth, were
living in squalor in miserable places in
| Denver and he went there and rescued
them and their mother. The outcome was
| the Colorado residence and the suit for
| divorce.
Leavitt has been living in Paris all this
| time.
Ruth Leavitt is as sweet a girl as ever
| poet celebrated. She is twenty-fOur now
| but she does not look d day over seven
teen. and the presence of two children.
one of four and the other Of three, seems
! almost like joke
| Her mouth is little wide. and that is
! the only defect in her face, but that
mouth is sweet and sensitive that it
seems to lend an additional beauty to her
| countenance Her color is delicate and
| fine and her features lovely.
| She is so quick and witty that her clev-
| crness is a proverb west of the Missouri.
! The republican matrons of Nebraska de-
| tisanship compes them to stand out
| stanchly against her father.
Her Beautiful Children.
When you see Ruth Leavitt dancing
down the hill of Fairview. with the fairy
like little creampuff, who is her daughter.
and the sturdy little man-of-all-w work, who
! is her son, each held by hand, you
are seeing one of the prettiest sights in
| Nebraska.
| Her skirts are not unduy long, her
| face is alight with the joy of life. and
! the two children are the most appealing
! things i'll human form that have ever
got into life that side of the Missis-
sippi.
! Grace Bryan. her sister, is only seven
teen. but much more dignified and state
| ~. 1T would not be hard to imagine Miss
| Grace as the married woman, settled and
sedate. and Mrs. Leavitt as the girl of
| seventeen, just out of school.
| The divorce suit was contemplated long
ago, and II was decided that it should
! be brought soon the campaign
! was over. no matter which way the cleo
! tioI turned. AS long as the campaign
| p,.ua