The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1910-05-12
WHISKY and DOPE
DRIVE AUTHORIZES.
TO A MAD HOUSE

Chicago, May u.-Alcohol, morphine,
other drugs and tobacco have sent Mar
garet Horton Potter-Black. daughter
of the late o. w. Potter. multimil-
lionaire steel magnate, from a charmed
and exclusive social and literary circle
on the Lake Shore Drive, to the Kenil-
worth sanitarium on the North Shore.
Mrs. Black has been at the sani-
tarium ever since March 5. She was ad-
judged insane that day by Judge Will
Jams. sitting In the county court. It
Is said her mental ailment Is yielding
to medical treatment.
At the time she was taken to the
sanitariub, 1t was stated that she had
suffered a nervous breakdown. It ap-
pears now that Mrs. Black was ex-
amined by medical commission, ap-
pointed by the county court upon the
petition or her brother Edward G.
Potter and that the examining physi-
clans, DR.. H. /. Davis and DR.. j. p.
Houston, reported on the case as fol-
lows:
1--WE find that the said Mrs. Margaret
p. Black Is suffering from chronic al
coholism and the protracted use of
morphine; has decisions, expensive
ideas, ideas of persecution"
Also Tobacco Fiend.
The physicians reported further that
Mrs. Black used tobacco, and was sub
5ect to emotional disturbances. They
advised restraint in a sanitarium.
This advice was approved by DR..
Archibald Church, specialist In nerv-
Gus diseases.
~ saw a memorandum" said DIR.
Church, Sin which she made an order
for 100000 to $4,000 worth Of jewelry,
which she thought was necessary be-
cause her husband was about to be
made ambassador to Russia"
1t was at the Potter home on the
Lake Shore drive that the famous dia-
mond robbery took place several years
ago. Following the death of his
wife, 0. w. Potter married a masseuse
at the Palmer house.
Came of Noted Family.
Mrs. Blacks father was Orrin w.
Potter president of the Illinois Steel
company and banker. She married
John G. Black, son Of the lawyer and
president of the United States civil
service commission, on January 1, 1902,
when four novels had already come
from her pen. Her writing became less
regular after her marriage and on the
death Of her mother six years ago, she
quit altogether. Her health began to
fail a few months later when her father
married Mrs. Bell, who had charge of
the Turkish baths in the Palmer
house.
Miss Potter's appearance as writer
was wholly unannounced and she shot
| across the literary horizon when she
was supposed to be leading the life of
society bud In a wealthy home. Her
pin money paid for "a Social Lion"
She named the heroine after Miss Joan
Chalmers, her dearest chum. From
start to finish the book dealt In the
most highly favored intrigues. It dis
played the knowledge, cynicism and
ennui Of one who had been through
the social mill. There were champagne
revels, fashionable, convivial clergy
man who drank six glasses Of MADEIRA
at reception and devoted himself on
week days to a vaudeville dancer
f, Gambling scenes at fashionable clubs
were depicted as IL quite familiar to
| the writer, as was also a spirited ac-
count of desperate encounters in the
wheat pit
Family Angry at Book.
| At first the family felt proud OF the
success Of the book, which became
easily the best seller Of the season.
When Mr.. Potter digested the criti-
| cisms, however. and found that the
book was popular because 1t was sala-
cious, he went to the printing house
bought the plates, smashed them and
got every available copy on sale in the
book stores. Within a week the price
| of "A Social Lion" rose as high as
| an original Kipling