Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-05-18
Remarkable Cases Which Have
Come to Public Attention Re
Gently, That Surpass in Dramatic
Interest Anything in BaIzac or
Dumas, or the Famous Trial in
Which the "First Gentleman Of
England "Perjured Himself Like
a Gentleman"
Ew YoRKs-what should
the woman doo

S0 IA uOWA tulOuka LII
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 foi
the pathetic, nor to Balzac for thu
imaginative, nor to Dumas for tn,
dramatic, nor to Hugo for the sensa
tionally sordid.
There are stories Of our own day
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 te
whom a 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 a
week and have confessed that they
could have cleared the accused, but
the men, knowing 1t 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 as strange as any
that ever was conjured by any master
of romance. A mars peculiar and
sordid plan for securing himself
against want in his old age, a wom-
ans beauty, a wife's duplicity, divorce,
imprisonment for one of the parties,
penury for the other and a scandal
that it 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 n of the exclusive families Of
the staid old aristocratic city of Bal
timore was a 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 we're be-
trayed by him, and many times 1t was
family influence and the family none
chest that kept him from being brand
ed as a criminal.
There was no reforming him, and
decent men and women stunned him
as they would a 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
set for a time what his remnant of a
conscience constantly brought up &C.
cusingly before him. And each wear
he sank a little lower than before.
Then came the first act in as queer a
romance as playwright ever has given
to the stage.
r ScoundreI's Scheme.
One morning as he was idly saunt-
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. "a
the man gazed at her he could see In
his minds eye what she would he or
what she might become in a few years
polished, developed, veneered. And
as he gazed an idea seized him. Wbv
not make the child the medium
through which he might work ont
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
would be worth all the trouble
and expense. He spoke to the Italian
and gave him a generous tip. He met
him frequently, and after a lot Of
clever lying and maneuvering, telling
the mar he meant to adopt the girl
and equip her rs befitted 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
he went to work to equip her
for the life he had determined she
should lead. She was hot tempered.
fiery. He was kind and gem
tie when he thought that treatment
best, and he beat her when he con-
sidered that method necessary. He
generous In the extreme to her.
going to the length at times 81 de-
himself In order to add to
her comfort, a thing he never had