The Washington times., 1924-03-01
HELD
SACRED BY
GAMBLER
Mrs. Harris Status AZ Git
Told by Raynor, Doubtsd
by Banker Spouse.
By JULIA MCCARTHY
Cosmopolitan News Services.

NEW YORK, March Twas IN
elderly man says his relationship
with q young girl is sacred" that
usually denotes a fatherly felelhg.
if not fatherhood itself.
Eli Beauregard Raynor, Memphis
gambler, thus deposes, concerning
one Eleanor Elaine Lee.
Eleanor Elaine, referred TO var1-
ously as "Samuella," ELLA" and
Susie" is the wife Of Beverly u.
Harris, banker. She always repre-
scented herself as the niece oe Eli
Raynor, leading citizen Of the
South. Always, until Banker IAr-
ris began his suit for annulment OF
their marriage. Now the defense
intimates Elanor Elaine is the aliegi-
innate daughter of the Southern
gamester-nothing more, nothing
less.
Harris believes that his dashinR
wife was Samuella Lee, toast OF
Dixie back rooms. Instead Of q
leading social light, he is inclined
to regard her as an eminent light
Of love. The saloon, rather than
the salon, he feels, was her proper;
in manner Of speaking, millieu.
Eli Raynor, now grown old,
gives a deposition about what
Elaine Lee meant to him. Elaine,
still young, blooming and bold.
The gambler spent ali has gains
upon Eleanor Elaine. He watched
his Eleanor grow. He selected
little girl clothes for her. Later,
young lady finery. He hired tutors.
His winnings launched Eleanor
upon successful social career, the
climax of which was her marriage
to Beverly d. Harris. So Eli
Raynor states.
Holds Another Picture.
But Harris mind holds q picture
Of Elaine answering with q raucous
laugh to the strange name of
Samuella. Harris conjures up, from
what he has heard, a picture of
Elaine selling her kisses in the
"octoroon ZettA Lees place." He
sees her staggering down some
brilliant Broadway" Of the South,
easy to get and easy to forget.
Raynor's deposition draws a senti.
mental type Of portrait. 1t sets I'D
for your consideration just. the sort
OF girl Elaine Lee Harris says shA
was. Carefully chaperoned. Well
educated. Travelled. Charming.
Chaste.
If only Mrs. Harris had bethought
herself to adopt q quieter manner
in court, it might not be 90 easy
to visualize her as a girl Of the
underworld. She curls her lip in an
enormous curl. Unfurls her LID.
stick at the most serious moments.
Laughs warltonly, unchagrined,
when her husbands lawyers, speak
ing of her, use expressions that in
any class of society-even upon the
lowest level-are held to be flight.
ing words"
Role a Difficult One.
1t is easier to imagine Mrs. Harris
: fighting and kissing strange men
and throwing away the torn chit.
fons worn once than 1t is to see
her as the demure darling that
Harris was dying to marry. This
may be wholly an illusian created
by her abandoned manner. A
, manner which, by the way need
! not Of itself be taken to mean
moral turpitude or lack Of social
distinction. since it cannot be
matched in our best circles.
! Her only fault, Mrs. Harris
claims, is her illegitimacy. For that
she Is not. ana SnOulo not De con-
demned.
She is. so it is believed, the
illegitimate child Of ELI Raynor,
| who, because he could not acknowl-
edge her as daughter, called her
niece.
Harris prefers to believe that her
relation to Raynor was not that Of
daughter, nor vet that Of niece.
If Eleanor Elaine is really Eli
Raynor's daughter, It must have
pleased the gambler nightly when
Harris. wealthy banker, married
her. The fate Of such a daughter,
beautiful and possibly as weak as
her mother had been could not but
worry even an illegitimate father.