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Show I Historic Blackguards By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE O Copyright, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). Lord Byron, Scoundrel and Genius WAS ac- J , I c u s e d of Jr 1 eery mon- tffSf strous vice. E My name was wife- 'i-';9 tainted. I felt that f .' if what was whis- "JP pered and mut- V v f tered and rumor- i JrV ed was true, 1 Wfi was unfit for lx Vfrj England. If false, LORD BYRON England was unfit for me. 1 withdrew." with-drew." So wrote a first-class genius and third-class scoundrel, Lord Byron. He was a very pitiable sort of blackguard at best. Not one-tenth as bad as he tried to make people think. Yet bad enough in a cheap, sordid way to deserve de-serve decent men's contempt. He was tremendously vain. Not so vain of his poetry, which was great, as of the petty, melodramatic feata that roused more laughter than applause. Byron had been lame from birth. Part of the time his mother overwhelmed over-whelmed him with caresses and love words. At other times she would scream at him, curse him for "a lame brat" and hurl books at his head. It was a bitter childhood for the sensitive, sensi-tive, afflicted youngster. He never forgot it. Nor did he forgive the mother who made him so miserable. He hated her to the day of his death. Byron began writing poetry while he was a mere schoolboy. It-was an artificial, morbid era in English literature, litera-ture, and Byron was Just the sort of writer to catch the public's fancy. He found that people were interested in gloomy, mysterious heroes. So, both in life and in poems, he proceed-sd proceed-sd to become mysterious and gloomy. He hinted at black secrets that clouded cloud-ed his life and talked vaguely of fearful fear-ful crimes he had committed. This attitude, combined with his jood looks, made him the School Girl Idol. Maidens clamored for locks of his hair and wrote him wildly romantic roman-tic letters. All this delighted Byron. By this time he had plunged Into the grossest dissipation of London life. He halted for a brief time in his career ca-reer of vice to marry a Miss Mil-banke. They were wretchedly unhappy together to-gether and parted In less than a year. The true reason for their separation was not made public at the time, though the fault was admittedly Byron's. By-ron's. He proceeded to write a touching touch-ing "farewell" to his wife. It was- a poem that sought to draw all public sympathy from Lady Byron and to make himself appear more or less a martyr. In spite of this rascally effort ef-fort popular opinion was against Byron, By-ron, and he left England in a huff, never to return. He wandered around Switzerland, Italy and Greece, leading a vile life and writing marvelous poetry. Hip jaded brain was seeking new sensations sensa-tions of every sort. For instance, hp swam the Hellespont, watched the cremation cre-mation of the poet Shelley and at last decided to become a military hero. Greece was fighting for independence independ-ence against her Turkish oppressors. Byron hurried to Missolonghl and placed his sword and life at the service serv-ice of the Greeks. it seemed to him a fine thing for a poet t0 draw blade in defense of the Ancient Iand of Poetry. Po-etry. The idea struck Byron as a bit of genuine Inspiration. He la even said to have had vague hopes of becoming be-coming king of Greece. But he found that drilling, marching, march-ing, collecting provisions and studying study-ing maps was not as poetic a pastime as he expected. it bored him. He preferred to loaf at Missolonghl, taking tak-ing long swims, writing poetic verse and flirting with dark-eyed Greek girls. And thus he spent much of his time when he might have been fighting for Independence. He also had a new ambition, namely, name-ly, to reduce his flesh. He tried to do this by drinking vinegar and taking long rides. The result was not what he had hoped. In fact he fell ill. "Don't grill me as you did poor Shelley!" he begged his friends. There, after a brief sickness, he died, on April 19, 1824. Byron was only thirty-six at the time of his death. Gifted beyond ordinary mortals, he had wilfully thrown away the reBpect of his friends and of the world at large. Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Time Servers THIS is the story of a man who started life IfS'TS without money or J-Fsk VfoV position, and who $ joQ won vast measure ' jjxtsr&luipw1 of both. He won tM them because of ' ' jjMlJj I his good looks, his llWf - !0mM utter lack of con- DUKE OF science and his MARLBOROUGH military genius. It would be hard to say which of these three qualities did most for him. John Churchill "Handsome Jack," is he was nicknamed came of an old, Impoverished family. He was born in 1650, had almost no early education ind became a page to the duke of York (afterward James II.). Charles II., the iuke of York's brother, was king of England and ruled a dissolute court, where wit and beauty brought far higher rewards than did mere merit. He soon worked his way into the duke of York's favor and received from him a commission In the army. As a soldier he showed both valor and martial skill. - But it Is doubtful If be would have risen as rapidly as he aid were it not for the very shady means he employed for his own advancement. ad-vancement. His good looks and his unscrupulous conduct brought him money and swift promotion. He strengthened his position by marrying Sarah Jennings, a woman much of his own sort, and even more ambitious. ambi-tious. James II. came to the throne in 1685, and his favorite courtier, Churchill, was made a general and a baron. "Handsome Jack" owed everything every-thing to James. Yet, when the latter was attacked by William Prince of Orange, Or-ange, who claimed the English crown, Churchill quickly saw that William would be the victor, and decided to throw his fortunes with him. So, when James Churchill calmly went over to the enemy and took the army with him, James deserted, fled to France and the Prluce of Orange became be-came king William III. of England. Churchill gained new honors by thiB bit of treachery. William's reign was not wholly popular. pop-ular. It looked at one time as if James might possibly regain his lost erown. Churchill, In order to make certain of being on the winning side, served with William openly and kept up a secret correspondence with James. William learned of this and had Churchill thrown Into prison. For a less lucky, less shifty man, this ex. posure to treason would have meant political ruin. But Churchill managed man-aged tc secure bis freedom and even, to win back some of his' besmirched reputation. William died childless, and at his) death the English crown went ta James' youngest daughter, Anne. Churchill had foreseen this, and had made his plans accordingly. He had managed to install his clever wife as Anne's chief lady-ln-waltlng and td win for himself the new queen's trust and admiration. Anne stupid, weak, good natured was the willing and meek slave of the imperious Lady Churchill, obeying her every wish, heaping honors on her tricky bus-' band; ever enriching the couple. Churchill was made commander-in-chief of England's forces in the continental con-tinental war. Here he showed brilliant bril-liant genltiB. He won battle after battle, bat-tle, campaign after campaign; amazing amaz-ing the world with his military Bklll. He also gained himself a name for humanity, during these wars, In spite of the fact that he burned more than 300 towns, villages and castles in Germany alone. For yearB he and bts wife practically practi-cally ruled England, through the weak old queen. But for the duchess of Marlborough's bad temper they might perhaps have continued bo until un-til the end. But the duchess at laBt, In 1711, lost her temper once too often with the patient Anne. She Is even rumored to have slapped her majesty's majes-ty's face. There was a terrible scene, ai.d thfl Marlboroughs fell Into disgrace. dis-grace. The duke was stripped of hii offices and found It convenient to leave England. Later, In George l.'s reign, he waa partially restored to power. But h)i old greatness was gone. He was n longer fully trusted. Life turned bit' ter to him. His only son was dead. A stroke of apoplexy thickened hii speech and made him feeble. "Handsome "Hand-some Jack" was an old, old man; broken and a wreck of his formel self. He died In 1722 In his seventy-third seventy-third year. |