Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-05-27
MARY MLANE FINDS
BUTTE STILL UGLY
Sensation of Seven Years Ago
Back Home After Her
Wanderings.

" lSiilSlllDNI Maj MSl<aliS iiS
young girl who was a seven days Won
der about seven years ago. The un-
sophisticated child of this mining camp
who created q sensation by publishing
THE Story of Mary McLane," in which
she anathematized in crude but pic
turesQue language the town OF her
birth and the people with whom she
had associated all her life and ex-
pressed q yearning to meet q dear
devil?"
Butte has not seen her since that day,
seven years ago., when she shook the
metallic dust of it's CRASHES streets
off her feet M sought in the east
that distraction which was at last made
possible by the notoriety her book had
brought her. But her return was not
noticed. In fact, she had been here
a week before any one but her own
intimate friends knew she was here.
Butte never took her very seriously,
anyway
Mary has been promising herself and
her relatives this visit for several years,
but has found it difficult to overcome
her repulsion for the place and make
1t.
Il was curious also to test my i'm
pressions of Butte after seven years
absence she said. Il hoped / might
find it more endurable. But, pah! 1t is
the same hideous home of d~rudging
devils and scared scenery it vas al
ways"
Yet Mary McLane is warm hearted,
affecticnate and loyal to those she
loves. 1t was a perfectly feminine lit
tie scream of delight that she gave
when she descended from the train the
day before Christmas and launched
herself into the arms Of the family
group awaiting her in the dingy rail-
road station.
How lovely it is to see you ALL
she cried. Then she threw her arms
about her mother and sister and
Rugged them as ecstatically as any
other young woman would have done
after seven years equalization from
home and family.
town, as the hack whirled along well
remembered streets, she could not fore
go her old comments. "Paltry" she
called the city, also rude and ~'dingy.'
During this seven years Of exile Mary
never even once turned her eyes toward
her old home with yearning. At least,
so she says.
NO" said she to a school girl friend,
two days after her return. Il did not
miss this place for a day, not for a
moment. OF course, / missed and
longed for my people n my friends,
and wished for them time and again;
ana l often thought of visiting Butte
10 see lIlCIll. bul OIe "OuIu lIllllh "
purgatory in the same way, If one had
dear friends and relatives there. The
ugliness of this place always made me
ache. / shan'ts stay long, l believe the
people here grow to look as ugly as
the place. Not o dear, Of course
not"
She stayed at the home Of her mother
and s~tepfather, Colonel Horace Klenze,
a handsome brick n stone edifce at
No. 1882 Broadway. Colonel Klenze is
the owner Of many valuable mining
interests in various mining fields in
Montana. His home is artistically fur-
nished and has a large library. Mary
has a suite of rooms to herself, but the
grand piano n the library have
occupied most of her time. Indeed,
Mary is rather responsible for the IL
brary. None of her relatives are much
interested in books or literary matters.
Colonel Klenze is immersed in indus
trial pursuits, n his life is too active
to allow time for dawdling over books.
But the notoriety Of his s~tepdaughter
in the literary world led him to de-
vote some OF his wealth to standard
works-to live up to the reputation of
the family, as II were.
Mary was out every day in a big
motor car, her sole companion a French
poodle, Mephisto by name, which she
acquired at Palm Beach, Fla.
Mary is still slim and petite. She has
a piquant air n travels and study
and observation have done much for
her in the years since fame came to
her in a single night. Her gowns have
taken o N a touch of style which they
lacked when she was q budding genius
Just out Of school. Her pink and white
complexion, indicating her Scotch an
cestry, is one of her chief beauties,
n the years nave rounded and soft
ened some of the sharp contours of her
personality, SO notable IN the earlier
days, while developing In her manner,
figure n face charms that give her
an added beauty.
During all these seven years Mary
has lived in the eastern n southern
states, save for q short time spent at
Denver. She passed the time writing,
sometimes as a newspaper, woman
sometimes on her books.
"Since / left Butte / have had the
sort of life that suited me-" said Mary
to an interviewer. 1T has been a life
Of ideas. I have not permitted the
ugly, monotonous, sordid particulars OF
existence to obtrude upon me at all.
All this I've kept out"
She made a sweeping motion toward
the outer world that embraced Butte
and it's ugly mine buildings and other
unpleasant structures.
What will / do In the future? Write.
I will pursue the same life. I love II.
] have many plans, but all of them in
clude writing and devotion TO literary
work"
In addition to the desire TO see rela-
tives and old friends, she had two pur-
poses in returning TO Montana. She is
always looking for new ideas and new
scenes and characters, and she wanted
to see the west with the new vision
acquired by her years OF roaming and
culture In the east and south. The 9TH
er purpose was TO look for a ranch.
yes" she said, Il may buy a ranch
in Montana. Not nov That is a future
consideration. But / shall do II some
day. 1t will be postponed by my liter
airy work for some years, but / shall
eventually return 20 Montana. The east
has culture, and I love the south; II
is so restful. Yet the west is the place
of freedom, and at times l have felt
cramped In the east, and yearned for
the boundless open places of the great
west. Butte stands alone in it's CRIME
and b~arrenness."