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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1922)
THE SUNDAY OREGONTAN, PORTLAND, FEBRUARY 19, 1922 7. HrrM lySV 1 111 Why England s Greatest ff f, "vViU J1 ' ' termin. That .the Boy f-VC".- JBJH A SEVEN-YEAR-ODD EOT has challenged the mightiest bar risters in England in a f'ght for lands, castles and money that he con eiders his own by right of heritage. The fight is described as an action to set aside the will of the late earl of Shrewsbury, and the plaintiff is his grandson, the frail, eomely infant who now bears the Shrewsbury title. This spectacle has captured the in terest of all England; each new twist In the litigation is being closely fol lowed. This interest has been brought about not only by the ingratiating personality of the young earl him self but because the trial promises to develop many sensational details of the late earl's somewhat pictur esque home life. Persons familiar with , Frances Hodgson Burnett's celebrated story have been calling the tiny nobleman the "Modern Little Lord Fauntleroy." This description was suggested by the similarity of situation as well as the personal likeness., that the earl bears to the fictitious character. In Mrs, Burnett's story Lord Fauntleroy, the son of an American mother and an English father, found his title being challenged by an impostor. Meanwhile tire old earl, his grand father, despite the fact that he hated everything American, had been com pletely charmed by the little lord. The late earl of Shrewsbury was similarly charmed ty his grandson, the present litigant. But when he died h's estate was left, not to him, but to a woman not related to him, a Miss Eleanor Whyte Hughes Brown lee, who has been named residuary legatee. The estate is valued at more than a million and a quarter dollars. From certain quarters has come the suggestion that the late earl felt ag grieved at his daughter-in-law 'for marrying Richard Fennoyer, an American, following the death in France of her husband, the earl's son, who was killed In act'on. This.'they fay, may have influenced him to cut her son out of the will. This story is not generally credited in England. Charges L'ndiie Influence. The young earl, moreover, is charg ing in his suit that his grandfather was not of sound mind when he made his will and that undue influence was brought to bear upon him by Miss Brownlee. The exact relationship of Miss Brownlee to the earl will be brought out, It is expected, at the trial. The details surrounding the earl's separation from his wife will also bo given an airing. And though the British peerage pretends not to relish such a highly seasoned morsel, LOVE-IN-A-MIST THREADS OF (Continupd From Pago 5. coolly. "You didn't expect him to meet you here?" "No, at that tnn" said Amelie dog gedly. They sat side by-side In a rather dusty hired car and drove over excel lent roads, with hardly a word be tween them. Once" Don Reynard asked carefully, "What shall you do if he isn't there when you arrive?" "He will be. Tou don't know Arthur," Said Amelie. She managed a tired little Simile ' She felt like a dead leaf driven by the wind, whipped and whirled, with no will of its own for resistance. "He'll be there," she repeated. But he wasn't. In four strange days, that was the strangest thing of all. There wasn't even a letter or a telegram. Amelie turned away from the desk of the inn, her dark eyes wide and etartled, & chill starting at her finger tip. "How funny!" she said childishly to Don Reynard, waiting a little at one side to register. "He hasn't come how funny!" Don Reynard came forward quietly. He had an air of authority that an swered for the complete naturalness -of the situation and silenced a faint question in the eyes of the clerk hold ing a pen in one hand, a blotter in the other. "Probably delayed unexpectedly a washout or something. Why don't you just register and have, your tilings sent up," he suggested. "There's sure to be word tomorrow. Most likely he'll be here himself be fore you get down to breakfast. Amelie registered obediently. Don Reynard wrote his name at a discreet distance below hers upon the page. "Miss Lawrence?" ealdi the clerk tentatively. "Miss Lawrence," said Don Reynard distinctly, "is expecting to meet here a gentleman who is on his way, up from Mexico. Will you be good enough to see that she gets any let ters or telegrams, at once?" "Why, it's Mr. Reynard, isn't U?" said the clerk suddenly, with a sug gestion of relief. "How do you do, eir? You've been here before, haven't you?" "Twice before," said Don Reynard, uniting. Things after that moved much fas ter. He drew Amelie aside while the bellboy picked up her bags and made for the stairs. They stood by a low table which held an enormous bowl of mauve and "J)lnk foxgloves. At a wide window Just across from them several gar rulous tourists were deciphering a road map. "Go upstairs," said Don Reynard in that lowi whimsically caressing voice of his, "and get a bath and change your frock and come down like a good little girl. We're going to dine together in the courtyard. I know he's not here! I know you feel as If the bottom had fallen out of things, but you can't expect me to feel it with you, can you? This is something I didn't dare hope for. I've got you one evening more, all to my self, 'One day more am I deif'ed. Who knows the world may end' to night!'" He caught her hand in the shadow ' Earl of Shrewsbury Was ; - Vt??l f r-, I' V- Disinherited Because I . X 1J f i I. ,. N . His Mother Wed an HgNtit, V ' t fCfl j . fl, JtoS&Z American. - ' I' feUvT i ' "Alton Towers," the historic castle of the famous Shrewsbury estate. this litigation has created more in- Though the ancestors of the earl of terest than any similar action Shrewsbury were given more to set brought within the last two- years. tling their differences with battle of the foxgloves, looked down into ' her wistfully lifted eyes, so that they lifted but briefly. "I wish it would!" murmured Ameli recklessly. But not quite loud enough for.hitn to hear. He caught , the sound but not the words. And" she fled directly after. ' She had one pretty gown in her bag, meant for the first evening, and Arthur's delectation gray as a dove's wing1 gray lace and gray chiffon. She put it on after a bath, and did her hair as she would never have done it for Arthur, cloudily soft and loose. Then she went down, with her heart rioting. Her little gray slippered feet just kissed the stairs. Don Reynard was waiting for her near the desk; he came forward gravely. "This is good of you," be said. "I've got a table In the patio." Amelie said to the observant clerk, "No mail for me, still?" "Nothing, Miss Lawrenc," said the clerk. Then Amelie and Don Reynard went out into the patito, crossed the whispering fountain to the farther side, and sat down at a small white covered table with a jug of deep red roses In the middle of it. Four walls of gray weathered stone rose on four sides of them, open to the sky. Bell tower and roof made lines of peaceful loveliness against the azure twilight overhead, wherein a moon hung, languid and honey clear, a little past the first quarter; there were flags, great streaks of crimson and green and yellow hang ing from upper ledges and upon doz ens of little tables set about among palms and ferns, dozens of candles glimmered, shaken in a breeze that was delicately chill. No othr light. A romantic Intimacy hung about the place like a perfume. There were people at some of the little tables not all. Semi-solitude. add4 to the moon and the fountain and the can-dlo-lig-ht. "What a perfect, perfect place," sighed Amelie. "Walt!" whispered Don Reynard. There was a trickle of notes from a guitar somewhere above ,.them. Amelie turned against one wall a flash of carmine caught her eye. A balcony with a strip of scarlet cloth Stretched on poles above it. Below the scarlet cloth a woman loaned out, singing. She was slim and dark and smiling. She wore a block lace mantilla on her heavy black hair and a big red rose behind one ear. Her face was powdered pearl white, her mouth curved and painted, her eyes slumberous. She sang like a bird or a child, throatily sweet. In a li quid gurgle of sound. Behind her, half in shadow, a man In velvet and tinsel thrummed a guitar. An Indian woman, two great plaits across her shoulders, sat by a great gold harp. "What's that she's singing?" asked Amelie softly. The song hung in that cool enchanted dusk like a silver rib bon of sound. It was full of unas suaged desire and mournful ecstasy of longing. Don Reynard told her, " 'La Golon drina' the Swallow." He put his hand over hers lightly for a moment, but his touch burned. "I wouldn't give tonight for the rest of my life," he said. "This place and that song, and you. , Life's not so un even after all." A girl in a white dress and a little yellow jacket like a toreador's brought them their dinner." Amelie scarcely knew what she ate. The intimacy of that little table, with Its red roses and flickering candle light, was too poignantly unreal. The guitar and the woman's voice, the seductive melancholy of the Spanish music, held her like a spell. Above the coffee cups at last Don Reynard leaned over to force her look with his own. He had been gay and impersonal and charming' for the most part. Now, all at once, he was quiet and terribly in-earnest. ' . "Amelie," he said, "tell -me about him. I find I've got to know," after all. How did It happen? How long ago was it? Tell me everything." So Amelie told him everything, at last. Beginning and ending with the honey locuBt. Don Reynard was quieter than ever when she had done. His look of the hidalgo deepened Harlequin, out of the garden for good. "Two years ago," - he commented briefly. 'Does he know how you've changed?" "I've tried to tell him," said Amelie! She added ' stubbornly: "I still love him, of course." "Of course," said Don Reynard, politely. And he added: "It's the sort of thing one's supposed to per-; jure one's self about noblesse oblige!" "What do you mean?" asked Amelie, beginning to tremble. "Why, I mean," he said hotly, "that you don't love him now in the least that your sense of honor is driving you." "How do you know?' "Don't ask mo that! Tou don't really want me to tell you." "But I do. You have no right to say . . . How do you know?" "Amelie," he said her name as no one else in the world had ever said It before, in the voice that her heart would remember In Arthur's arms, "Amelie, I dare you to be honest. I , dare you to tell me the trtth as you'll tell it to yourself too late to help either of us." , . She said unsteadily: "I've known you three days." "That doesn't matter. You haven't seen him In two years." "We can never mean anything mora to each other you and L" "Because we mean already all that there is. You can't deny it." She repeated hopelessly: "Three days on a train." "Or on a ship or in a city or on top of a mountain or on a desert island. Don't be foolish, Chiquita. Time has nothing at all to do with it. I knew, that first morning. So did you." Amelie flung him a sudden misty smile. "I didn't suppose anyone else in the world could possibly be so Insane, did you, truly?" she asked. - After that, though, and after his answering look that sent the color streaming across her face, she went back to insisting unhappily: "It doesn't matter. Nothing can change things now. I promised Arthur. He believes in me. He's been waiting faithfully all this time." "Haven't you been waiting, too?" "Not faithfully if I throw him over, now. He isn't a light soul. It it would do for him, that's all! He's built his life around me, you see. And axes than Ty legal disputation, they always got action 'n one way or another. The line goes back to 1443 and the men who have borne the Shrewsbury title have been among the greatest fighting men of England. One earl had the record of participating In more than forty victorious battles. Another, Sir Gilbert Talbot, before the formal history of the family be gins, was lord chamberlain to King Edward III. Later on an earl of Shrewsbury was asked to act as the jailer of Mary Queen of Scots, and to the 12th earl of Shrewsbury the reigning house of Windsor owes, according to history, Its present possession of the British throne. It was to this -earl that Queen Anne, on her deathbed, confided the staff of lord high stew ard of the realm, and he used his po sition, as soon as she breathed her last, to proclaim her cousin, the sov ereign elector of Hanoyer, as king of Great Britain and Ireland, under the style of George I. He thereby secured the succession of the house of Hanover now Windsor to the British throne and frustrated the pro2 Jected attempt of the exiled family of Stuart to recover the crown. The family estate, for the most part, surrounds the historic home of the Shrewsburys in Staffordshire, known as Alton Towers. Kings and queens have been entertained there and the mightiest In the ,realm have been proud to be numbered among the earl of Shrewsbury's guests. Some idea of this vast estate, to most of which the 7-year-old earl of Shrewsbury aspires, may be gained from a statement made by the earl during a' court proceeding some years ago when his wife, from whom he had been separated, sued him for her al lowance "of 4000 a year. It appeared that the countess told the court .that she and her daughter were not made welcome when they visited the tow ers, that the servants were unwilling to wait on her, and that her daugh ter, Lady Violet, had been compelled I've got to go through with It. Don't please don't ask he. I dare say I shall be happy." "At least we needn't lie to each other about it, need we in thfs one night that's all we've got?" said Don Reynard gently. Almost too gently. "You wonderful cruel honest adorable girl!" Amelie looked at his hands, shut: hard on the edge of the table, and wanted more than :anything else in the world to feel them crushing her own. ' She stood up abruptly, and he fol lowed. They hesitated beside the cool sibllance of the fountain. He looked down at her stopped the heart In her breast for a moment with the dark passion of his eyes. "It would be heaven together," he told her. "You won't listen?" " "I can't!" said Amelie, almost with a sob. And went on before him out of the dream shadow of the patio into the well lit comfort of the Inn. On the threshold, though, she turned, slipped iher hand into his for the space of a long drawn breath. "It would be heaven!" she said. "Good by!" Then she aaw Arthur coming to ward her from his - desk, at the clerk'a direction, and something within her "whimpered and fought to get away. She met him in spite of that, smiling, one chilly little hand out: "Arthur, how nice! I was afraid you'd been delayed. I -want you to' know Mr. Reynard, Arthur. We crossed the desert together." "Almost constitutes a claim, doesn't it?" Don Reynard said cooly. "Glad to have seen you, Mr. SherWood." He added something vague about let ters to wTite and left them. "Well!" said Arthur, nervously. "Well looks like a nice chap. You're looking well, Amelie! Suppose we ah go somewhere where we can talk.". Amelia said to herself that no mat tar how mttch It cost her she was going to meet Arthur half way. She stifled a first unfair Impression of rather florid discomfort on his part. Hadn't he gotten a good bit stouter? And used he to wear such slouchy ; olothes? Never mind! He was . Arthur. She suggested: "Those chairs over by that table look comfortable and there's nobody near them." "Let's ait In those by that window," said Arthur. There was some one .near the window. Amelie glanced at him curiously and led the way. Was Arthur himself shy of her .now she had come all the way to him? They eat down in deep leather covered arm chairs. Amelie braced herself to meet at least verbal endearments. Arthur, quite obviously, braced himself as well. He glanced about, cleared his throat,.- crossed and uncrossed his knees. . ' "Had you " a good tripTasked Amelie, gently. "Very good very good Indeed," they made some talk of dust and heat. "Did you did you leave everything all right, Arthur?" "Excellent shape, yes, indeed!"' More talk, desultory . and fainjtly husky of politics and ilnanee in Mex ico. Then, just when Amelie, tired and heartsick, was ready to weep for uncertainty . "Amelie,' The 7-year-old earl and hia mother, Mrs. Richard B. Pennoyer, who married an American. Hes first husband. Viscount Inarestre, wan killed in France. to go into the garden and dig pota- event was laid to a common Interest for coach driving, and for several toes for food. In sport. ' seasons he ran the Greyhound coach The earl denied this was necessary The earl's interest In sporting daily from Buxton to Alton Towers. anfs To' Vait oTher wU' 2& :TLTT' ""TV " what accommodations were put at th track- He was extremeIy were seen together, as they frequent ly disposal, he replied that she had of every sort o BPorting activity that ly were, the event was laid to a com the use of about 45 of the 100 rooms Involved horses. He allowed this in- mon interest In sports. in Alton Towers, the historic castle of the earl. This was not the only time the earl and his wife were In the courts. Their connubial, life, from the time ize cab service. So great was his en- would become his heir. The surprise they eloped and were married, ap- thusiasm for tbe hansom that ha n was widespread, therefore, when at pears to have been one continuous . serviceMn tne old arl's death MIss Brownlee wrangle. After they had been sepa- aea"d to run a de luxe service Mn wa3 named as reslduary iegatee, rated various actions were brought Indon and Paris. which means that when all expenses by the countess. At ontk. time she His cabs were luxuriously appoint- Vfl p&li off shs getg th(j bul of the was asking that the earl be re- ed and much sought after. They were estate. strained from selling the family the first rubber-tired ones seen in Meanwhile Viscount Ingestre's plate, at another she demanded that London and were the speediest and widow married Mr. Pennoyer, who Is the earl he required to keep up "her most comfortable vehicles of their from Oakland, Cal., and the nephew ladyship's garden," presumably where time. ' 0f Governor Sylvester Pennoyer of the potatoes iady Violet dug were There was no mistaking the earl's Oregon. At the time of the marriage planted; at still another she alleged cabs. They bore the imprint of the Mr. Pennoyer was a member of the that the earl had failed to pay the peerage In the shape of the linked American embassy staff in London. Income tax on her allowance. letters, "S. and T," standing for Since then he has been connected They were separated in 1896. Some "Shrewsbury and Talbot," painted on with the American embassy In Lis time later, Miss Brownlee, the de- the sides. The reins were supported bon, and at present is secretary of fendant in the present litigation, by metal work arranged In the form the American embassy in Berlin, camo Into ,the earl's life. She is of a coronet and the "cabbies" always The Infant earl likes his step described as a beautiful blonde who, wore top hats and heavy box-cloth father, but for the purpose of his suit like the earl, was interested in coats. When his smart drivers struck has been staying part of his time in sporting events. Being a frequenter for higher pay, however, their noble England with his guardian, the mar of race courses where the earl was proprietor got sick of the whole busl- quis of Anglesey. His valiant fight an enthusiastic spectator and exhlb- ness, closed it down and went In for for the millions of his grandfather itor, she got to know him rather well, the newer enterprise of motor cars, makes him the most interesting ln When they were seen together the The late eafl also had a passion fant in England. OLD ROMANCE AND NEW Arthur hoarsely, "Amelie I've got something to tell you. I know it looks rotten. I I knew I can never ex plain It to you after my my letters and all that but the the whole thing happened so suddenly." Light, like a blinding, scorching flame struck Amelie breathless. She thrust through his -futile maunder lngs: " .- V ., "Don't bother to be ashamed about it. You're lh love, with some one elser. , .. .Arthur sft hia elbowa on his knees and wrung his hands together with almost a groan: "I'm married to her," he burst out desperately. "She's waiting for me at a hotel in Los Angeles. I came on down ere to see you and ex plain. It's a rotten shame your tak ing this long trip for nothing." Amelie began to laugh, softly, but with an exquisite helplessness. She laughed until the tears etood in 'her eyes.' .. "Look here," said Arthur, uneasily, "are you hysterical? Would you like me to call another woman or some thing?" "You should have brought your wife along," said Amelie, still laugh ing. She was able to control herselt presently, and wiped her eyes. "Tell me about It, Arthur. I'll try to be calm. But you don't know -you'll never know how terribly funny all this Is." "I shouldn't exactly call it funny," said Arthur, between remorse and an noyance. "She she her mother was a Mexican. They're ah emo tional, you know. Her mother kept the boarding house I lived in, I used to see something of her not much. I I really was f aithtul to you, Amelie, although a man has tempta tions." ' "I remember. You wrote me that once," said Aanelle, suddenly. "Stupid of me! I didn't think of the kind that married you. Arthur showed disturbance, mental and perhaps moral. He went on dog gedly. "But I, as I wrote you I had every thing ready. I wired you to come, and then the night I was going to start, she Juanita broke down. She stopped me on the stains and. weal, she went all to pieces! She was go ing to shoot herself. You aee, I had gotten people to talking about her." "I see," said Amelie quickly. "Never mind, Arthur, I see!" The whole sordid little tory spread Itself out before her. Arthur's decent sim plicity the, to any feminine eye, all too obvious emotional chicanery of Juanita, Juanlta was dark, doubtless like the singer in the patio, powdered pearl white, with a soft scarlet mouth and a rose in her hair. Amelie felt suddenly tired and grown old. But Juanita would be shiny and fat at forty. The thought was warming. , "So we were married and I brought her up as far as Los Angeles, left her there at a hotel," Arthur was sayingA "and ' came on here to see you. I Wired to Beechwood, trying to stop you, but you had left. I can never tell you, Amelie, how " "It's frightfully embarrassing to have you apolog'ze so much," said Amelie coldly. "I think you had bet ter go back to her at once. Tell her I sent you. That I hope you will both terest to Invade his business. Being the first man in London to own a hansom cab he decided that he would be the first to commercial- be happy that everything is always for the best in this best of all worlds, and so on!" "It's noble of you Amelie," said Ar thur, reviving a little. After all, he had found Juanita's adoration rather thrilling. "What what shall you dor "I think I shall go Into the movies," said Amelie a trifle maliciously, "first giving my story to all the pink newspapers in Los Angeles.. Juanita would be talked about then, wouldn't she?" She had a hard time getting rid of him after that. But she saw him go at last, past the desk, out through the wide doorway of the inn. Into the night, on his way to Juanita, who would, now, never again be talked about. - It was not until he had definitely gone that Amelie looked across the room, the long, pleasant low cellinged room, and saw Don Reynard, sitting with an Idle, pen In his hand at one of the wr'tlng desks. Apparently he had written all his letters or had not teen able to write them at all. He looked back at Amel'e a long time, then got up and started across to her. Amel'e met him near the desk. "He's gone?" said Don Reynard br'efly. "Where?" "He's married," said Amelia, quite simply. "I'm Jilted. She's waiting for h'm at a hotel in Los Angeles. Like some ridiculous movie, 'sn't It? I do seem to have wasted a . noble frame of mind on him." Don Reynard turned to her with an imperceptible but poignantly posses sive touch, once more in the direction of the patio: -- "There won't be a soul out- there, now," he said. "Come and tell me everything. Are you sure you aren't traveling incognito, with a camera man in your pocket? This begins to sound rather like it." But once they were out of the light, shadowed by a Jutting wall, he caught her recklessly close, stooped his dark head till Amelia shut her eyes with a little sobbing sigh of surrender." "Kiss me!" he whispered, harlequin and hidalgo, together. "Shall we spend our honeymoon here at the Inn or is there another place you'd like better? Kiss me again!" Love-in-a-Mist! It goes as well by another name. You may find the seed in small dusty packets, some times, in small dusty flower shops, labeled quaintly Devil In Bush! (Copyright, 1922, by Fanny Heasllp Lea.) Farm Aid Is Appreciated WASHINGTON. D. C Carrying back to the farm for practical use the result of the government research activities Is receiving unprecedented support, according to the report of the secretary of agriculture. During the past fiscal year, the report states, approximately $16,500,000 was avail able for this work from federal, state and community sources, of which $5, 900,000 was contributed by county government and farm organizations. Some of the channels through which the extension work is carried on are detailed in the report as follows: Two thousand four hundred and twenty-five persons engaged in coun ty agent work in approximately 2000 of the 2650 counties having enough agriculture to employ an agent. The When the earl's son. Viscount In- gestre. was killed In battle in 1915 it was naturally supposed that the viscount's son, the carl's grandson. total number of the counties in the United States is about 3000. Nine hundred and fifty persons en gaged in home demonstration work in 725 counties. Three hundred and five persons en gagedln boys' and- girls' club work. Special extension workers in farm management and farm economics. Special dairy extension workers. One thousand two hundred and sixty farmers' bulletins and 1037 tech nical and scientific bulletins, cover ing practically all phases of the de partment's work have been issued up to date. Press service to approximately ,17,000 publications, Including news papers, agricultural journals, trade and professional journals, church papers, magazines, etc. Exhibits at agricultural expositions and fairs. Motion pictures, which are fur nished free for exhibition at various kinds of agricultural gatherings. "In what might be called the field of service is Included such work as the crop-reporting service, the market-news service, the weather serv ice, and many others. Theso activi ties are neither research nor exten sion, strictly speaking, although their field is greatly extended by research and knowledge of the work Is spread through the extension service. Other services, such as are connected with the forestry administration, for ex ample, grow out of research and have certain phases of a regulatory nature, but are very largely protective to the interests involved." Some of the important lines of service work are: Weather forecasts, covering not only' general conditions but having particular application to various spe ' clalized industries, agricultural and otherwise. Crop reports, designed to afford equal opportunity to producers and buyers to judge of production and, therefore, of demand. Market-news service, covering both staple and specialized crops. Meat-inspection service, available alike to producer and distributor, by which the condition of fruits and vegetables and other food products Is definitely fixed at the time of ship ment or of arrival at destination. Inspection service for the war finance corporation. Inspection of certain food supplies for the army and the navy. An office of development through which the discoveries of the research workers are made available to the industrial world. Aid In' improving the quality ' of their output to manufacturers using agricultural products as raw ma terials. Good News Makes Wife Insane. COPENHAGEN. A. Petersen. a musician at the Casino theater here, has Just unexpectedly received a legacy from a relative who recently died in America, consisting of 12 large farms and 3,500,000 kroner, in cash, amounting in all to about 10,000,000 kronor (about $2,500,000). Petersen's wife was so overcome with the news that her mind was affected and she had to be taken to an insane asylum.
