| OCR Text |
Show i ' I Bring to mind's eye a beautiful jnaidcn with dreamy blue eyes, a fpeaches and cream complexion and 'a wealth of golden hair. Picture "her as educated and refined Hie only daughter in a family socially Iprominont Visualize her as gracious gra-cious aud charming typical of she vrhom wo are wont to term ihe well-bred well-bred American girl. I Then Taney a chap with clean-cut, handsome hand-some features one whoso shoulders are broad and who walks with the virile step of youth. Imagine him to be brilliant and cultured then gon of distinguished parents. Conceive Con-ceive him as chivalrous and courteous cour-teous symbolical of ho whom we are proud to style the real American 'man. i Now- ,1 Weave about these characters a .romance as emotional as hat of Romeo and Juliet, as soul-stirring as that of Pagliacci; add thereto the Composite elements of fiery passion, sacrifice and devotion, and into your Idyl of love inject antithetical comedy com-edy and tragedy. ! After which Compare your phantasy with the etory that follows one that delineates de-lineates one of the most remarkable )heart affairs" of the present gen-'eratlon. gen-'eratlon. Eclipsing the vagaries of !those sentimentally Inclined, it 'proves beyond doubt that truth is ''stranger than fiction. I CALLED TO CAREER OF 3IERCT. ; Four years ago Jane Taylor Clark she of the peaches and cream complexion com-plexion arrived in Chicago to study medicine. She had just graduated from a New Jersey finishing school for girls, and though her family, ).-ell known In Newark social circles, Fished her to remain at home, Miss Clark felt the call of a career. i "I do not care to be a ballroom butterfly," she said. "I have a pleasing voice, a talent fon dramatic fat and a desire to assist in alleviating allevi-ating the sufferings of humanity. Iftis latter appeals most strongly to ce. I shall be a doctor." She engaged a room in a medical liludcnts' boarding-house, bought !fome text-books and began to delvo Into the mysteries of anatomy. ia And then came romance with a capital R ' In the same boarding-house lived iWalter Raleigh Johnson, a senior Interne at a near-by hospital. Like Miss Clark, he came of a family pealthy and socially prominent a family whose name had long been i associated vilh the thriving city of North Yakima, Wash. And, too, like iiiss Clark, he had pledged his life to curing the ills of afflicted mankind. man-kind. ,5 The day after the girl's arrival in Chicago she met Walter Raleigh Johnson, and because he was chivalrous chiv-alrous and courteous (heir, as It , vere, to the virtues of his illustri-I illustri-I pus namesake) she fell in love with Mm before she had learned the difference dif-ference between the tarsal and met-I met-I ttarsal bones. And from devclop-i devclop-i toents that followed it appears the t case" was mutual. I '"TLEX LOTE KNOCKED IT THE DOOR. I One evening young Johnson re- purned to the boarding-house to find fUifis Clark ill. A physician gravely lat at her bedBide. 9 "Appendicitis," said the doctor. Bad case very bad. We must op-I op-I tote at once." Miss Clark overboard. ' "Then Uke me to Raleigh's hoa- fital," she said. "I want him to bo par." M They did take her to "Raleigh's" M tospIUil and ho rode in the ambu-9 ambu-9 Unce with her. As they wheeled the V Patient into the operating-room the Sterne leaned over and pressed a ' k&s upon her lips. m "Be brave, little girl," he said. m Young Johnson, assisted in the op-S op-S Nation, and when it was finished he m guested permission-to take charge j K her case. H "You are In love with Miss Clark?" $j Iras asked. 9j "Yob," replied the interne. Ml "Good! Her condition is cxtrcme- m Critical you realize that Science M b done all thnt it can for her. You 5 -Hist do the rest If she recovers it Ja 1U be in answer to the call of love. J thore's a hard light ahead of you, y boy, so pitch in and win ! " ' jitM For three weeks the fires of life ijBlrned low. At the bedside of the iitMT'r Shored the young doctor, ad- Blnistering to her every need, &Rllrengthoniug her, sustaining her bj tjSBy16 mysterious power of love. Anc jigHj lQQ days that followed a corn jTHP1 crept into tho pale checks ant the eyes of tho patient shone with a new light slowly she came from the Valley of Death. And then one evening the trained nurse loft the room. Ralolgh and Jane were alone. Kneeling down beside the bed and taking her frail hands into his, the doctor whispered a question as old as the first courtship. court-ship. "Yes," was the reply. At the request of Miss Clark her mother, Mrs. Jane A. Clark, was not told about the critical illness until , her daughter was well on the way ' to recovery. Walter Raleigh Johnson John-son met Mrs. Clark at tho depot when she came from Newark. "I am in love with your daughter," he said. "She is in love with me. I am not going to ask you Tor Jane she is mine, anyway. Did I not snatch her from the clutches of death save her for myself?" LOTERS LAUGH AT 3I0THER. True, no doubt, and Mrs. Clark was thankful to the heroic young doctor. "But well, not just yet," she replied. "Later on, perhaps, you can marry Jane. You have not known each other very long, and " "Love laughs at locksmiths," 'tis said. And at mothers as well. When the girl was able to be about sho and her betrothed hied themselves away to a minister and wero married. mar-ried. Never a word did they say to "Mamma" Clark. The bride did not want to make her unhappy and tbo bridegroom did not want to make the bride unhappy. "Did you over have any other sweetheart?" the girl-wife asked tho doctor one day. "Bless you, no," he replied. "What puts such silly notions into your head?" "I was just wondering, thaf s all,' said she. Had the doctor been a bit moro curious at his bride's question ho might have learned that the previous pre-vious day a pretty woman approached approach-ed her on the street with anger in her eyes. "Are you going to attend Dr. Johnson's John-son's graduation exercises?" she demanded. de-manded. "I am, certainly," answered Mrs. Johnson. THE THREAT OF HEATH. "If you do well, I'll kill you I" cried the woman. Evidently she did not know of tho couple's secret marriage. On the night of graduation Mrs. Johnson saw this girl in the hall but she made no attempt to carry out the threat. Moro of "the other woman" anon. In August, 1912, tho husband, now a graduate physician and surgeon, decided to practice in Johnstown, Pa., and made arrangements to move there. Thinking it unwise for tho happiness of all concerned further to delay telling of her marriage, and still wishing to be near her husband, the young wife wired her folks that she was going to Newark for a vacation. va-cation. Arriving there, she found Mrs. Clark had changed her mind about deferring tho marriage until "a little later on." "You can bo married next month," she said. "It will bo a pretty church wedding. Let's begin to plan now. Dr. Johnson is a nice young man and I Bhall ho pleased to have him for a son-in-law." The already-muchly-marrlcd girl was in a quandary. So was young Dr. Johnson when he received a letter let-ter apprising him of the surprising turn in events. They hesitated to confess having deceived the wife's relatives, and yet it never occurred to them that they could be remarried and still keep the previous wedding a secret. In the meantime the bride's mother moth-er had sent out the announcements and girl friends had given her several sev-eral showers. And to make matters worse, tho old family physician, once an Episcopal clergyman, requested permission to "brush up" on tho wedding ritual and perform the ceremony. cere-mony. But It was not until sisters-in-law of Mrs. Johnson engaged in a spirited argument over whose little daughter was to bo flower girl that Mrs. Johnson John-son broke down and cried and 'fCBBCd! A3TAZED AT DISCLOSURE. Of course it was an embarrassing situation. Tho announcements had r to bo recalled and explanation made I to girl friends who had given the, L showers. The doctor's wife apolo-l apolo-l gized to the family physician in per son. "Don't you worry, Jane," ho said. "I'm not too old to appreciate a joke." And that's the way every one looked look-ed at it Dr. Johnson hastened to Newark to meet the family and friends of his wife, and soon afterward after-ward took her back with him to Johnstown. The doctor's gold-lettored "shingle" "shin-gle" didn't seem to bring much business, busi-ness, so ho and his wifo moved West to Tacoma,. where they lived from January in 1913 to February In 191-1. Then Dr. Johnson was offered a position as assistant pathologist at the Kankakee Insane Asylum at f mf mm - It ''' iS Walter Rnlolgh Johnson, physician This, says Jiuio Wills (Mrs. Wnlter Raleigh Johnson), is h and surgeon, who saved the life of r-c-e-1 smile, not her r-c-n-1 smile for, declares this movlo a prettj girl "medio" and then .star, ho eouhl smile and mean it if the man sho locs married her. It "ns a bcnuliful goes nwny, procures n ilnorcc and never as much as tolls romance, but, oh, hat a sad end- her a word about il7 ing! Kankakee, 111. He accepted. "But I must go there alone," he told Mrs. Johnson. "Only single men can qualify for the position, becauso no quarters arc provided at the institution in-stitution for families. I told them I had been married, but was separated separat-ed from my wife." LETTERS BREATHED OF LOYE. So it was agreed that while Dr. Johnson was earning a reputation at Kankakee his wife should lake vocal vo-cal instruction at tho Valparaiso (Ind.) University. They would not be far removed and once a week could manage to meet each other. The couple wroto daily letters that breathed of love and sentiment and planned for the future. For instance, this from the pen of Dr. Johnson: "I think I'll get a cello and practice on it, no that I can play with my darling when she gets through. No, don't think of any other Instrument, becauso I'm 'Jack, "of all' myself, and our children, sweetheart, can get all they want of brass music from their dad. Only I thought it would bo sweet if thoir mamma could play and sing sweet lullabys with them and for them. It-would It-would bo a better influence and sweeter than anything else that my darling could do." But the couple was never destined to have the children referred to so sentimentally by the doctor, for well, let Mrs. Johnson tell you why in her own words: "He came to visit mo at Valparaiso Valpa-raiso on Aug. 17 his birthday and we wore, oh, so happy. Little did I know that It was to be our last meeting. meet-ing. When he returned to Kankakee Kanka-kee wroto me tho loveliest letters and promised to see me again on Sept 15. "I waited at the depot for hours that night expecting him to come. When the last train had pulled out I received a message. It stated that s - SnbE t .. Raleigh had left Kankakee suddenly sudden-ly and gone to Tennessee. I never heard from him again. "I could not reason xc)y he should treat mo the way ho did. We had never had a cross word he scorned to love mo so. And then suddenly sud-denly I remembered the threat tho woman made shortly before Raleigh's Ra-leigh's graduation. And, too, I recalled re-called a postal card she had enco written to my husband ,and which in a careless moment ho had left lying where it camo into my possession. Naturally, I could only believe ono thing that ho had gono away with her. , "I became a nervous wreck and had to seek seclusion in a sanitarium. sanitari-um. Thinking that my husband eventually would go to the home of his parents In North Yakima or that they would know his address, I wrote mnny letters, begging him to come back to me. But I received no answer. The letters I sent by ordinary ordi-nary mail never wero returned, but those I sent registered were. I have ono here. You may read it and judge for yourself how much I loved him how willing I was to forgivo him how I longed to havo him como back to me." Tho letter follows: "My Dear Hubby: Darling Ra- leigb, how is my boy and where is he? It almost kills me to think of it, but it is six long months today since I waited in tho station at Val-po Val-po for my darling hubby. Raleigh, what is It all about that you can't oven wrlto just a little sweet letter to help me in tho long, lonely wait? But never mind, sweetheart, just remember re-member that I lovo you, and can and will 'always wait until you can come and tell mo all. "Just remember that no one loves you, or has oven been as honest and straightforward with you, as your wifo Jane. Darling Raleigh, today is my birthday, and, oh, how heavy is my heart When I say my prayers pray-ers I ask God to give us health and strength to guide us right, so that you and I will soon bo close in each other's arms. Oh, Raleigh, then I want to die with your arms around me. If you juBt say 'Come' I can and will. You know nothing can keep mo from you but death. God has spared my lifo again and I know it was for you becauso I wanted to die." DETECT1YES XUvE DISCOYERY. . ' "" "I put detectives on his trail," continued Mrs. Johnson, "and they learned that he was In North Yaki- . &' ' :fi ty , V - $ Vf ' '. . . V ma. Ho told the authorities out there that I could tako no action against him, as ho had procured a divorce on the grounds of cruelty!' H Tears came into her eyes. Il - "Cruel to Raleigh? It's a lie! A M So Calahan & Callahan, her Chi- H cago attorneys, havo set about to havo the decree annulled on the grounds that Mrs. Johnson was nev- cr served with a notice of tho suit H Arc you a "jnovie" fan? If so you" H perhaps are acquainted with Jano JH Wills, one of Filmland's comedy h jH stars, whose smilo is a sure cure for jH tho "blues." A real smile? No, only f jH a "reel" smile, for well, Jane Wills H happens to be Mrs. Walter Raleigb; f jH Johnson, nee Jane Taylor Clark. H (Copyright, 1915.) H |
