The Topeka state journal., 1911-08-23
Ronance of Far East.

WlIl4EQ II. Straight, the handsome
young American diplomat who has had
career in the Far East that Midas
himself might have envied, who has,
within the past year obtained millions
for the houses of Morgan and Rookie
feIler, is now, for the first time in his
eventful life, on the far road to for
tune in his own right. This dashing
giant, with his blue eyes and blonde
hair and towering frame. the one-time
luckless admirer of E. II. Harriman's
daughter, Mary, is to hurry Dorothy
Whitney, one of the last great heir
esses of America, who has spurned
foreign noblemen and the pick of all
the aristocratic clubs of New York to
lay her heart and her vast fortune at
the feet Of the poor m1ssionary's son
who, only a few years ago, was work
ing on a high stool in one Of Sir Robert
Hart's offices in China. and who has
never in his life been off the salary
basis.
But those who know young Straight
say they were not surprised at the an
nouncement of Miss Whitney's choice,
which has been termed one of the most
amazing matrimonial affairs which has
occurred IN many years. Young though
she is, attractive, accomplished. NOV
ing in the most exclusive circles of So
ciety and sought after more even than
most women in her own circle, she has
Straight, as he was nicknamed back in
Cornell, from which he graduated
about ten years ago. From the day he
left the university to go back to the
Orient, where he spent much of his
boyhood, he has been climbing upward
by leaps and bounds, not without num-
erous boosts, of course, from various
influential quarters, but largely by his
own energy and force.
Nowadays every one in order to
achieve success must have a speciality.
tIzzy'' Straight's specially is the Far
East and all that it contains, it's peo-
pie, its language, its customs, its un-
derlife, into which he penetrated with
the discernment Kipling had. And at
the proper time he marshaled all this
knowledge of the yellow races and Sc
cured for the American syndicate
which employed him a share in the
profitable $50, 100000 loan that China
negotiated not long ago.
Incidentally, young Mr.. Straight
seems to possess an Unborn acquaint-
ance with the heart of womankind, for
two of the richest and most-sought-
after heiresses of the United States
have been willing to share with this
Itunes-and in one instance, the case OF
Mary Hartman, nothing but the firm
refusal of the prospective father-in-
law to have him for son prevented
the match. But Miss Whitney, the
chum of Gladys Vanderbilt, who
might have had a count, too, had she
so elected, is remarkably independent
She has her own establisl1men in New
Y ork and on Long Island: there is no
one to spoil her romance, and wealth.
for once, at least, VIII not deprive
Cupid of a fair conquest.
Willard Dickerman Straight was
born at Oswego. N. Y, in 1880. SO he
is just starting in the 30s. His father
was the late Prof. willard D. Straight,
for years a member of the faculty of
the Oswego State Normal and Training
School Prof. Straight became a mis-
sionary to Japan, and the child accom-
panied his parents there, and later to
China, where they died. His induction
into the intricate depths of Oriental
character came at the impressionable
age, when he was a boy, and he estab-
lished a sound basis in the Japanese
and Chinese languages, which he
learned to speak in all their dialects
like native.-New York Times.