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Copyright, 1013 by the Star Company.
Great Britain Rights Reserved.
3
h-at 9 Plot for a
efodrama!
“My Sister’s Life Shall Not" Be Wrecked as
Mine Was Wrecked”---The Heart-Throb
bing Climax of the Real-Life Drama in
Which Unhappy Madeline Force Astor
Saved the Happiness of Her Sister Katherine
mad? Are you not one of the
wealthiest girls in America? Are
you not the mother of a son
The Widowed Sister (interrupt
ing)—Yes, yes; of a son whose
father, however, I did not love.
Think what it would mean to me
to-day if I had loved my baby's
father and had married him for love
not for—what I did.
The Sister—But tell me, sister,
how could you decide to marry a
man whom you did not love?
know you did, mother. I do not
blame you. But you see we left love
out. We must not leave it out of
sister's life. (Drawing her slender
figure to its height and twisting her
fingers frantically.) Love the man
who gave me—everything! How
could I? I did not know what love
meant. I only know now that I hate
the gold he showered on me; that
his diamonds burn my hands, my
neck, and I want my sister to have
love, love in her life. Let me be
old homestead for the scene. How
perfect. Bring in the rich lover who
wants to marry sister. Have him
slinking out with rich but unhappy
sister, indicating the exit into the
snow; poor and happy sister clasped
in the arms of her equally poor but
unhappy lover.
Not, though, that Miss Katherine
will want for anything. Mrs. Astor,
not content merely with making her
mother consent to the marriage, is
making the marriage financially pos
it cannot buy love,” said Mrs. Astor |
recently, "and a steam yacht is a very”
unsatisfying place when one has to
live in it with a man one does not j
love. I have had the yacht and the 1
wonders of wealth, but I have not
had love. Katherine is a most for
tunate person. She will not have the
yacht, nor the jewels, but she will
have something far greater, she will
have love. And she will be happy,
while I, with all the luxuries in the
world—I am not happy.”
tmoseM*'
Mrs. Madeline Force Astor
the right.)
F ashionable society, always
on the alert to take chances ou
everything, from the swearing
off of taxes to the granting of a di
vorce. is betting 10 to 1 that in spite
of the opposition of Mrs. William
Force the marriage of her daughter
Katherine will take place as per the
schedule arranged by young Mrs.
John Jacob Astor, Katherine’s sister.
Miss Katherine loves earnestly and
wants to marry Mr. Henri Har-
nickel, a poor, but honest, young
Clerk earning in a stock broker’s of
fice down on the Street just about
enough to keep himself. And although
the wedding day is set, Mrs. Force
still fights against the match. She
can honestly see only unhappiness
ahead for Katharine if she insists
upon wedding her humble lover.
Mrs. Force is very ambitious and
keenly resourceful, as the matching
of Madeline Force to the late Colonel
Astor proved. Miss Katherine could
have the pick of half a dozen men
extremely desirable in the eyes of al
most any ambitious mother—men
with money, ancestors, holding the
entree to the innermost circles of the
circle .hat throws the glamour over
Newport. Why is it, then, that Miss
Katherine goes on more or less se
renely with her preparations to
marry a man her mother will not
think of tolerating? Why is it that
the maternal influence is not potent
with her, as it was in the case of the
younger daughter?
The answer is Madeline Force
(Astor herself. The unhappy young
widow, brooding in loneliness over
her baby boy in her Fifth avenue
mansion, cut off as mercilessly, ig
nored as mercilessly by fashionable
society as though she had never been
Colonel Astor’s wife, has issued from
her isolation to save her sister from
a duplication of her own fate
There are all the makings of a fine
old-fashioned melodrama in this con
test between Mrs Force and her two
daughters. But she who would take
the part of the mother would have a
wealth of characters to study from.
Mrs. Force is not atone by any means
in her ambitions to have her daugh
ters “marry well.” There are scores
of women in what is known as so
ciety who have been married out of
hand without love in just the way
Madeline Force was. Is not the
marriage de convenience as old as lit
erature and did not Tennyson have
the situation in mind when in "Locks-
ley Hall" he wrote of the mother
“with her little hoard ot maxims
preaching down her daughter’s
heart?” One of the phases of the
tragedy is that the mother herselt in
such cases really believes that she is
doing what is best for her daughter’s
good; is really striving might and
main to save that daughter from
what she believes will mean only un
happiness. And the mother only re
peats the dominant belief of society
when she acts as she does. Indeed,
the woman who puts her daughter ou
the auction block is as much
and her sister Katherine (on
to be’ pitied as is the daughter
herself.
No; in the case of the Force girls
it is not the mother who is unique.
Rather is it the figure of Madeline
Force, her soul awakened by the
terrible tragedy of the Titanic and
given the opportunity to save her
sister from a loveless marriage, tak
ing that opportunity that gives the
new touch to the drama.
But the stage is set, the charac
ters ready. Wliat of the dialogue
and the plot?
, In her magnificent Fifth avenue
home, left to her by her husband
of six months, sits a young widow.
Leaning over her and pleading with
clasped hands is her sister.
The Sister—They tell me that I
must follow your example. I must
marry for money. They say there
is no happiness in life unless one
has pearls and diamonds, motor
cars and steam yachts. I must
marry so that we can go anywhere.
And I love my Henri, who has noth
ing.
The Widowed Si.ster (looking off
into distance and sighing)—I know.
They told me that. But one marriage
for wealth and social position is
enough; there is no need to offer up
two sacrifices.
The Sister (eagerly)—That is what
I tell mother. But she says that
I do not know what I am talk
ing about; that I do not know what
misery it is to want money and not
be able to have
it. But she will
listen to you, I
am sure. Won’t
you plead for
me?
The Widowed
Sister (bitterly,
as she looks
about her boudoir
filled with' the
Dead Sea fruits
of her own sacri
fice) — Yes; she
will listen to me.
So many, will
listen to me now
that I have be
come rich. I have
become indeed
one of great im
portance. But do
not worry. I will
bring mether to
terms. 1 ou shall
marry F enri.
The Sister—Oh, sister; love, love,
Mrs. Force,
ters whose love
it is everything. Even if he were
only a peddler it would not matter.
The Widowed Sister (her hand to
her heart)—And I passed love by;
I betrayed love. And how I am
punished. And I was but a child.
Yet, sister, I have learned much.
I no longer blame mother. It is not
her fault, it is the fault of the so
ciety in which we move; a society
that enthrones wealth and looks
upon true love as a beggar, to be
turned away from our doors with
empty hands; that places position
mother of the beautiful sis-
affairs have been so different.
before worth and thinks that hap
piness is in externals. There is no
mother so cruel as to wish her
daughter to be unhappy. That is
the tragedy—that they think these
things will make us happy. But l
promise you that you shall have
love
The scene changes. The mother
and her two daughters are together.
The Widowed Sister—'Sister shall
marry the man she loves. Her life
shall not be wrecked as mine was
wrecked.
The Mother—Wrecked! Are you
The Widowed Sister—I was young
and I was overcome by the adven
ture of it all. You know that we
never heard love glorified in the set
in which we moved. Love was de
rided or—forgotten. I thought it
meant just fun and having lots of
money to spend and going every
where and wearing a diamond tiara
and great pearls and being looked
up to by everybody! I did not know,
sister, what marriage meant. And
now—money! I hate the very sound
of it. I have never worn my tiara.
1 cannot bring myself to put it on
my head.
The Sister—Love is crown enough.
The Mother—Don’t be hysterical.
How do you know you didn’t love
the man who gave you everything—
wealth beyond the dreams of ava
rice-diamonds—a box at the opera
—oh, everything your heart could
wish for? How do you know you
would rot have come to love him if
he had lived? I was so proud of your
marriage. How every girl envied
you! I thought you would be so
happy.
The Widowed Sister (gently)—I
the only sacrifice.
The Mother—She must marry a
rich man. A man who can give her
a house in Newport, high social po
sition, who will put her beyond the
reach of want. She will be happy.
The Sister—Mother, I shall marry
the man I love and live in a Harlem
flat or board on the West Side. I
could live in a hut with him and be
happy.
The Widowed Sister—She shall
marry the man she loves and you
will not interfere. Else I shall take
her with me and she shall be mar
ried from my own home. I will see
that she shall not want.
The Mother—Oh, the scandal of
such a thing. You are ungrate
ful, cruel to me. And I am pow
erless.
The Widowed Sister—Don’t cry,
mother.. It’s not your fault. I quite
know you think you are doing every
thing for the best. But I have
learned. Misery is a sharp teacher.
Am I happy? She shall be.
Was there ever a more complete
plot for a melodrama? Stage the
situation anywhere. Substitute the
sible.
She has given her sister a
beautiful trousseau, and has set
tled a handsome allowance on her.
The wedding is to take place late
this month at Mrs. Astor’s beautiful
Summer home in Bar Harbor, and
young Harnickel is spending all his
spare time under his future sister-in-
law’s roof.
The young widow who has made
all this possible looks at the lovers
with wonder in her big blue eyes.
She has never known love, but she
now realizes that it must be some
thing very wonderful, something
very d.fferent to her own romance.
One sure thing has come about dur
ing this fight against social ambi
tion and wealth—the young widow
in her fight for her sister has found
herself; if she had her life to live
over again she, like Katherine, would
insist on marrying only for love. In
spite of her training and her mar
riage, Mrs. Astor finds that she
knows now what love is, and she be
lieves in it, oh, so firmly.
“Money can buy pearls and dia- Henri Harnickel, the poor clerk, whq,
monds, grand houses and yachts, but win* the hand of Mr*. Astor’* siste-