Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1911-05-26
MEN SHIELD
PARTNERS
IN GUILT
Remarkable Cases Which Have
Come to Public Attention Re
Gently, That Surpass in Dramatic
Interest Anything in Balzac or
Dumas, or the Famous Trial in
Which the First Gentleman Of
England ''Perjured Himself Like
a Gentleman"

| 0e@ -. ~ SSse.sO0As $50.
a Gentleman"
NJ the woman do?
AN What should the man do
00M Questions these that hav
~I come down through tn
w. years-questions that hav
given themes to writer's of romance
and of plays and that have been tn
basis for discussions that have en-
thralled though they have not solved
No need there is to go to Dickens TO
the pathetic, nor to Balzac for tn
imaginative, nor to Dumas for tn
dramatic, nor to Hugo for the sensa
tionally sordid.
There are stories of our own da,
and in our own courts told only IL
tabloid that more than match. There
are men paying in prison cells the
toll that their disordered sense Of hon
or demands; there are women t.
whom realization of justice has
come only after the conviction of theil
former friends and accomplices.
Within the last few months three
remarkable cases have been disclosed
In two of them men to shield the
honor Of a woman have gone to prison
In both instances the women have
voluntarily come forward within q
week and have confessed that they
could have cleared the accused, but
the men, knowing it would be at the
cost of the women's good name, would
not permit them to testify.
Sordid Romance Here.
But the third case, and now for the
first time told, is az strange as any
that ever was conjured by any master
Of romance. A mans peculiar and
sordid plan for securing himself
against want in his old age wom-
ans beauty, wife's duplicity, divorce,
imprisonment for one OF the parties,
penury for the other and a scandal
that 1t has taken all the influence of
a family Of great wealth and much
distinction to keep from the public
are involved in the tale.
In one of the exclusive families Of
the staid old aristocratic city of Bal
timore was man of fine presence
and education, but with no moral
sense. He had no conception of the
difference between mine and thine.
He would do the smallest of things
and the meanest. Trusts were be-
trayed by him, and many times it was
family influence and the family money
chest that kept him from being brand
ed as criminal.
There was no reforming him, and
decent men and women Stunned him
as they would leper. Like most
criminals, he considered himself a
much wronged person, and he was
particularly bitter because society out
lawed him.
One thing that the man viewed
with alarm was the future He was a
coward at heart, loved the good things
of life. and as old age approached and
his opportunities for thieving mar
rowed year by year he became more
and more uneasy. He gambled and
he drank-gambled in the vain hope
of winning a fortune; drank to for
get for tine what his remnant OF a
conscience constantly brought up &C.
cusingly before him. And each year
he sank little lower than before.
Then came the first act in as queer a
romance as playwright ever has given
to the stage.
SoeundS>"s Scheme.
One morning as he was idly SAINT
ering up Charles street he saw an
Italian organ grinder and a girl of
perhaps eleven or thirteen years who
was playing the tambourine. The
thing that attracted the attention of
the man was the gypsy beauty OF the
girl. She had all the grace of form
that so peculiarly adorns the women
of the southern countries. She was
vivacious, graceful. fascinating. AS
the man gazed at her he could see in
his minds eye what she would be or
what she might become in a few years
If polished, developed, veneered. And
as he gazed an idea seized him. Why
not make the child the medium
through which he might work out
comfort for his declining days? She
could be made most alluring in the
eyes of men. He could train her to his
own ends and make of her an asset
that would be worth all the trouble
and expense. He spoke to the Italian
and gave him generous tip. He ms
him frequently. and after a lot Of
clever lying and maneuvering.; telling
the man he meant to adopt the girl
and equip her as bef1tted her beauty
he actually purchased her FOR 500.
He gave his name as Vaunce, and az
Vaunce he shall remain. He took the
girl, and patiently, earnestly, care
fully he went to work to equip hel
for the life he had determined she
should lead. She was hot tempered
wilful. fiery. He was kind and gen
tie when he thought that treatment
best. and he beat her when he con
sidered that method necassa-v HI