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VOLUME XVI.
FAMOUS WOMAN
WHO WAS STAKE
IN CARD GAME
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Madame Vespucci
RESIDENTS of the United
States have been accused
| of many offenses, but a
prominent novelist, whose
fame nests on three sto
ries based on important
incidents in American his
tory has broken the rec
ord. In his latest novel
he has Martin Van Buren
gamble with George Par
ish for possession of the famous Mme.
Vespucci.
This particular novelist shows a
fondness, uncommon in American liter
ature, for dwelling on the political ad
venturess —a type that has not been so
common in the history of political
leaders in this country as it has been
in the lives of statesmen and rulers of
Europe. Such a woman was the prin
cipal character in his second novel,
and to the limited few who keep alive
in their memories the story of Mme.
Vespucci’s career in America it was
perfectly plain that she was the proto
type of the novelist’s heroine. And
now, in his third book, as if in revela
tion of how strong a grip this fascinat
ing woman’s career and personality
have on him, the novelist tells the lit
tle known tale of how she once was
the stake in a game of cards between
two men, one of whom was not as ex
alted a personage as the novelist
leads his readers to believe.
The incident that makes one of the
characters in this last historical novel
tell the story of the game of cards
played for Mme. Vespucci's favor is a
proposal that this personage, a state
senator of Missouri in the ’sos of the
last century, makes to a captain in
the United States army that they too,
shall play a game of poker for the tem
porary possession of the heroine of
this tale, whom the senator believes
to be “the same kind of a wdman" as
Mme. Vespucci was. The captain does
not understand the full meaning of the
senator’s proposal, and to this the man
from Missouri replies: ,
The Precedent.
“Come, now. You, as an army man,
ought to know something of the his
tory of poker in these United States,
listen, my friend. Do you recall a
certain game played by a man higher
in authority—younger than he Is to
day—a game played upon a snow
bound train in the north country? Do
you remember what the stakes were
then? Do you recall that the man
■later became president of the United
States? Come. There is a fine prece
dent for our little enterprise. He played
then much as you do now. There was
against him then, as there is now
against you, a man who admired not
so much just one woman in all the
world, as, let us say, one particular wo
man then and there present. Perhaps
you remember his name —Mr. Parish—
later ennobled by the German govern
ment and long known as a land baron
In New York. Come! Think of it!
Picture that snowbound train, that
great citizen, and Parish, playing and
playing until at last it came to the
W Smntttim WUrim.
NUMBER 29.
question of a woman—not so beautiful
as this one here, but in her own way
shrewd, the same sort of a woman, I
might say—mysterious, beautiful, and
no, don’t protest and I’ll not describe.
You remember very well her name. It
was pleasant property not so long ago
for everybody. They played for the
love, not for the hand, of that woman.
Parish won her. Do you remember
now?
“Why deny yourself the luxury of
remembering such a game as that? It
was a man’s game, and well worth the
playing. Your former head of the
army, at least, lost; and he paid. The
other won. All Ogdensburg can tell
you about that today. They lived
there together. Parish and the wo
man, till he went abroad. Yes, and
she was a prisoner there, not simply
for a short time; and she lived and
died there. Whatever Parish did, who
ever he was, he never loved any other
woman as he did that one. And by
the Lord! when it comes to that, no
other woman in that town ever was
loved more than she by everybody.’’
Facts Incorrect.
In setting forth the details of these
two lives as they are concerned with
this story, let us adopt the courtesy of
ladies first. Mme. Vespucci’s career
began in America, when she made her
appearance in Washington in connec
tion with some mythical land claims
against the government. She was
young, fair to look upon, and an
nounced herself as a direct descendant
of the great Amerigo of her name.
She had come to this country from
Paris and speedily enlisted in her
cause, the merits of which do not seem
to be very sound at this time, the two
most famous members of the Van
Buren family—the former president of
the United States and his son John,
who was best known through his so
cial graces at the time, though he was
the attorney general of New York In
the years 1845-46. Under what circum
stances she left Paris, where she had
resided all her life up to that time,
is not definitely known, although it is
believed that she accompanied one of
the two Van Burens to the United
States. But there is no question of
the fact that John Van Buren looked
after her closely for the first few years
she was in this country, and that he
made scant impression on congress
with her claims. There is also no
doubt that she traveled about with
him. It was one of these journeys
that she first met George Parish and
fell in love with him, as he did with
her.
Van Buren’s Love Cooled.
It was time this fate befell Mme.
Vespucci, for John Van Buren had
grown tired of her. This son of the
former president of the United States
did things gallantly. He was, In fact,
so courtly a gentleman that he was
known as “Prince John” wherever he
went, and his social graces were so
conspicuous that to him was dele
gated the duty of managing the fam
ous ball in the Astor house for the
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY", APRIL 14, 1911.
— ,/ales. So It wag only to ba
expected that when hla old friend Par
ish met him one winter’s night in an
inn at Plattsburg, N. Y., while Parish
was on a sleighing trip, Prince John
should be perfectly willing to play a
game of cards for anything one could
mention —not even excepting a lady’s
favor. And under the circumstances,
with a waning of affection in the case
of Prince John, what more natural was
it than that Parish should have won
the game and the stake 7
On the morning after the momen
tous game Van Buren went his jour
ney alone. Parish returned to his
Ogdensburg home, but in the cutter
beside him and behind the spirited
team of trotters that his large stable
was famous for sat the woman who
was to preside over his establishment
for more than ten years to come.
The home Parish took hep to was a
grand one, as homes went in the
America of that era. It was a low,
square structure that stood on Wash
ington street, facing the broad St.
Lawrence, and with its grounds occu
pied a whole block. The house was
surrounded by a high stone wall, with
only two entrances cut through it, one
with stately wide gates opening on
Washington street and the other for
the servants’ use in the rear. The wall
was so high that only the trees around
the mansion within could be seen
above it, which gave to its inmates
the privacy that is so dear to the av
erage Britan’s heart in his home.
Happiness Lasted Long.
The social world of the aristocratic
old place knew Mme. Vespucci only
through the daily spectacle she pre
sented as she drove out alone and in
considerable state in her open car
riage behind the blooded Parish
horses. Os all the houses in Ogdens
burg there was only one she ever en
tered. That was a home on the op
posite side of Washington street,
where a gentle old lady received her
out of sheer pity for the solitary state
of the foreign woman who had elected
to cut herself off from the companion
ship of her sex for the sake of the
man she loved.
That she loved Parish and that he
returned this affection in kind there
is no question. Happiness dwelt in
that home for a decade, and the only
thing that marred the perfection of
her life was the ostracism of her sex,
and this seemed to fret her not at all.
She was young, beautiful and had
everything that went with great wealth
and came from a generous man’s great
love.
The men who were familiars in the
house had the greatest respect for her
and treated her as if her position was
socially unassailable. Possibly this
conduct had something to do with her
tragic end, for she gradually grew im
perious toward the members of her
masculine court, and more particularly
so toward the master of the place and
of her fortunes. This attitude finally
resulted one day, out of her assurance
of the power she wielded over Parish,
In her giving some orders concerning
the management of the estate that
were directly opposite to Parish s
ideals on the subject.
With all the dignity and suavity of
*manner for which he was famous he
told her the time had come when she
must leave him and his house. He
suggested that Paris would be an ex
cellent place for her to take up resi
dence in, and that he would, naturally,
provide for her so that she might live
in the style to which she had been
accustomed. Os the effect of this ulti
matum had on her subsequent events
showed. But at the time she was as
dignified as a woman of her training
only could be.
Then Mme. Vespucci went away.
Paris became her home, but it was a
solitary and heart-breaking one for
her. The letters she wrote to one of
her old men friends in the Maple city
told of this solitude and this heart
break. She wrote to him at intervals
of two years; and then word reached
her friends that she was dead. Os
how great was her love for Parish
this brief record of absence from his
side bears witness. Beyond the stone
that marks her grave, in Pere-la-
Chaise, there exist no tangible rec
ords of her in this country today, ex
cept a silver box marked with the
Vespucci coat of arms and a packet
of letters she wrote in Paris.
As for Parish, his life had a more
glorious ending, so far as the exter
nals were concerned. A short time
after Mme. Vespucci disappeared
from Ogdensburg Parish received
word that he had inherited through
his mother’s family the title and the
lands of Baron von Steftenburg in
Germany. Before he left New York
for Germany he destroyed the tradi
tion that the men of his family never
married by wedding a Mrs. Randolph
of New York, a widow, who bad been
one of his lifelong friends and who
accompanied him to his castle in Ba
varia, but did not accompany him to
Ogdensburg on his one return to. that
town. His house, slightly altered and
with the surrounding wall removed,
is now owned by George Hall, a mag
nate and former mayor of Ogdens
burg.
Two-thirds of the words In the av
erage schoolgirl’s letter are adjec
-1 fives.
To Our Friends
The Buyers
Our Mr. Myrick has just returned from New
York, Baltimore and Philadelphia, where he went
to buy
Our Spring and
Summer Purchases
We just want to say that this year’s offerings
are the best ever shown by us—if you have ever
dealt here you know what thismsans—the best for
the least money. If you are not a customer of
ours, we would like to have you call on us. Let us
go over the same with you fully; let us show you
how and what it means to deal here.
THE “BIG STORE” IDEA
is different from others. We want you to know
this store as we know it. Come and see us when
in Milledgeville; we will be glad to see you; oui
welcome will be hearty if you only come to look us
over. Yours for big business.
W. S. Myrick & Co.
*1
“Milledgeville’s Big Store’.’
SI.OO A YEAR.
