The Washington times., 1922-07-28

P"t0eu tOUOTTOW.
BY EVAN BURROWS FONTAINE,
broadway Dancer Who Is Suing
Cornelius Vanderbilt whitney To
Have Him Declared the
Father Of Her Child.
tcopyright, 1922. by. Cosm opolitan News
Servlce.)
Los ANGELES, July 2S.-If
love showed wisdom, then l sup
pose it would not be love.
This is the thought that always
comes to me when / think of my
unfortunate marriage with Ster-
ing Lawrence Adair in 1918.
Sorry She Lost Broker.
! was, when first 1 became &C.
Quainted with Sterling. engaged to
marry Jack Meagher, a Chicago
insurance broker. i am sorry now
that broke off that engagement,
but then the difference In our
ages was what prompted me to do
DO. ! have come to realize, how
ever, that there is far more chance
OF happiness with an older and
more devoted husband than with a
young and irresponsible one.
You will recall that in 1918 we
were all swept off our feet, so to
speak, by uniforms. know you
girls were fascinated by them; and
II Is only fair to say that I too
must have been influenced, at
least in part by the uniform
Sterling wore.
Sterling was only a sailor, and
At that time I had hadopportunities
TO marry very rich men. The cir.
cumstances Of our meeting came
about in this way:
Mother and were en- route to
New Orleans from Chicago. had
accepted an engagement to dance
In the Gruenwald Cave at the
fashionable Gruenwald Hotel in
New Orleans.
have never made It a practice
70 encourage train acquaintances,
personally because always like
to know with whom I am talking,
and impersonally because too often
q train acquaintance talks him or
herself out in about five minutes
and after that, keeps up q parrot
like chatter of cheap philosophy
and unimaginative generalities. "a
Tried Hard To Flirt.
During the early part of the
Journey a boyish young sailor in
uniform had passed our seat a
number of times. lettering nearby
and smiling companionably. We
gave him no encouragement.
Later, mother and I went into the
dining car. Here I saw the young
sailor again. He was the spirit Of
boyish enthusiasm. There was about
him a buoyancy which prompted me
TO think that certainly life with one
40 continuously joyful would be a
dream of bliss.
The sailor, whom I will now call
Sssknng, tried desperately to flirt.
I don't think we ever would have
met had II not been for an incident
which occurred in the dining car.
There was a little gray-haired old
lady seated at one of the tables cat
ing her luncheon. Sterling paid her
the greatest devotion a boy could Of
Ter his own mother. He conversed
with her happily, chivalrously helped
her order. Her wrinkled face fairly
beamed with pleasure.
Mother and I could not help but
remark that this sorry old world
would be a haven, indeed, If every
mothers son was that attentive.
Sterling had continued his efforts
to strike up an acquaintance. so
just before mother and ! left the
dining car, I pencilled on the back
of a menu card a little verse which
was popular in war time.
It goes like this:
Here's to the navy, Gold bless
them.
Their arms our defense, our
arms their recompense.
I summoned the steward and
asked him to give the card to the
young sailor after we had left the
car.
He must have done so immedi-
ately, \ for we had hardly seated
ourselves when Sterling came
hurrying down the aisle. He stop
ped and said with the most ap-
pealing Southern drawl: would
YOU all care IL a lonesome sailor
boy sat down and talked with
your
This was the beginning. Sterling
was on his way to his home in
Houston, Tex, and l began my
dancing engagement at the Gruen.
waid Hotel.
Hardly a week had passed when
Sterling telephoned me at the
hotel, saying that he was going
back North. having been recalled