Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1911-05-25
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"

W. years-questions that have
given themes to writers OF romances
and of plays and that have been the
basis for discussions that have en-
thralled though they have not solved.
No need there Is to go to Dickens for
the pathetic, nor to Balzac for the
imaginative, nor to Dumas for the
dramatic, nor to Hugo for the sensa-
tionally sordid.
There are stories of our own day
and in our own courts told only In
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 to
whom a realization of justice has
come only after the conviction of their
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 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.
Sordld 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 mans peculiar and
sordid plan for securing himself
against want in his old age, a WON
ans beauty, wife's duplicity, divorce,
Imprisonment for one of the parties,
penury for the other and scandal
that 1t has taken all the influence of
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 1t was
family influence and the family money
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 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 time what his remnant of a
conscience constantly brought up ac-
cusingly before him. And each year
he sank little lower than before.
Then cans the first act in as queer a
romance as playwright ever has given
to the stage.
Scoundrel'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 O.
the man was the gypsy beauty of tbs
girl She had all the grace of form
that SO peculiarly adorns the womeI
of the southern countries She wa
vivacious. graceful, fascinating. A
the man gazed at her he could see II
his minds eye what she would be o
what she might become In a few year
IL polished, developed, veneered. An
as he gazed an idea seized him. VIII
not make the child the medium
through which he might work GU
comfort for his declining days? Sh
could be made most alluring in thu
eyes of men. He could train her to BIZ
own ends and make of her an asse
that would be worth all the troubl
and expense. He spoke to the Italian
and gave him generous tip. He me
him frequently, and after a lot o
clever lying and maneuvering, tellin,
the man he meant to adopt the cir
and equip her as bef1tted her beauty
he actually purchased her for 500.
He gave his name as Vaunce, and a
Vaunce he shall remain. He took tn
girl, and patiently, earnestly, care
fully he went to work to equip he
for the life he had determined sh
should lead She was hot tempered
wilful, fiery. He was kind and ger
tie when he thought that treatmen
best. and he beat her when he cor
sidered that method necessary. H
was generous in the extreme to hel
going to the length at times of d.
priving himself In order to add t
her comfort, thing he never ha