The Ordway new era., 1910-10-07

self. was a wealthy young New York
lawyer with Virginia estate In Albe-
marie county. when he met. in the
late sos. Amelie Rives. Their homes
Merry Mills and "CastlI Hill" were
contiguous and the meeting had come
about through riding over the country
roads. She Was the daughter of a
noted Virginia family. Her father was
a rather celebrated engineer in the
Civil war and his father had been
thrice minister to France. From her
earliest teens Miss Rives had been
writing verse. short stories and a nov.
ele,te or two had come from her desk.
But the world had given her little
more than passing attention until one
morning there appeared n little red
book bearing across It's front cover
the >,mewhat singular title. "The
Quick or the Dead"
Society gasped. II was the original
best seller. No one ever really knew
how many copies OF that startling
book were sold. and the chief magnet
OF 1t all was the fact that 1t had
been written by girl OF twenty-five
years. reared in the somewhat straight
atmosphere OF an old Virginia house.
and having. presumably. no first hand
information on the fetid world OF
which her book told.
And the hero OF the thing was
Chanler She even describes Jack
Deering.
There was the same curling. brown
hair above the square. strong modelled
forehead. the determined jut OF the
nose. the pleasing unevenness In the
crowded white teeth. the fine jaw.
which had that curve from ear to tip.
like the PROV OF a cutter"
Then the .Marriase.
Then. only n few weeks after the
publication Of this sensational novel.
came the announcement Of the mar
riage Of Chanler and Miss Rives.
They went abroad and established
fund for sending chosen American art
students to the European schools.
Both were interested in painting.
Miss Rives even having ut one time
painted the portrait OF nude woman
with herself as model.
She was the most talked-of woman
in the country and her book went
right on selling year after year. Soon
she added "Herod and Marianne" to
her list OF writings. At intervals
came one or two other novels. and in
1895 there appeared her dramatic
poem. "Selene."
In 1895 Amelie Rives Chanler and
John Armstrong Chanler came to n
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devious ways. There was nothing In
any way notable about the parting
save the personalities and their great
repute.
An Exile at Home.
And two years later began the ro-
mantic.tragic motif OF John Arm
strong Chanler's life. He was n de-
votee OF the occult. studied closely
the psychic. which has since come
into frances. in which his face was
said to assume n resemblance to the
death mask OF Napoleon. and believed
himself able to write automatically
while in such states OF aberrance.
Chanler had hunted brigands In Mex
leo. travelled about the world In quest
OF excitement. and what may be more
to the point. had fortune OF one
and half millions. His family
wasn't partial to his vagaries and
had his sanity attacked. BY means
which Chanler has always since de-
nounced as fraudulent the other
brothers. one OF the most active be-
ing Robert Chanler. had him sent to
Bloomington asylum. where he spent
four years. His sensational escape
from this madhouse and the subse-
Quent search for him in every part of
the world are matters very generally
remembered. Half dozen times
bodies wore found and recognized as
that of Chanler. the escaped mono
maniac.
Answering all these things Chanler
appeared in Virginia court one day
and had himself declared sane. The
courts of South Carolina subsequent
| ly tried his case and approved the
Judgment of Virginia. Thus Chanler
lives today on his Albemarle county
estate. declared sane by two states
and at liberty to go anywhere in the
! country save to New York. where his
/ status still is that of an escaped luna
tic and where his family waits to
have him, cast back into a madman's
cell.
Not only have the courts of these
states held him possessed of normal
ity. but his neighbors consider him
more than sane and he is really
popular man in his strange exile