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Show THE FAM0U8 MRS. WALKER. Talk about Byron's awaking to find himself famous his case dwindles Into Insignificance compared with the experience of Mrs. R. J. C. Walker, of Philadelphia, says the Argonaut. Yesterday Yes-terday Mrs. R. J. C. Walker was unknown. un-known. Today her name is known in a hundred thousand households, and tomorrow it will be familiar to millions. mil-lions. And why? Because Mrs. Walker has come into a fortune of sixty millions of dollars, and she is going to manage is already managingthe manag-ingthe vast business of one of the greatest wholesale chemical houses in the world the Arm of Powers & Weightman. We estimate that the newspapers of New York City alone have already printed a hundred columns col-umns about Mrs. Walker. These arti-cels, arti-cels, and those in the Philadelphia papers, pa-pers, will be copied and paraphrased and condensed by practically every city daily and country weekly in the land. Big papers will print pages and little papers paragraphs about Mrs. Walker. We have no hesitation in saying that, by the end of September, more matter will have been printed about Mrs. Walker than about Byron during his entire lifetime. Such is fame in the dawn of the twentieth century. But fame has its drawbacks. As soon as the facts became known she was besieged In her mansion. Police guarded her doors and patrolled the street, driving onward the crowd of photographers who sought to snap her for the benefit of a curious world. Mrs. Walker refused to be snapped. All day she sat and wrote at her desk. She wanted to go out for the big red automobile in which she travels to her laboratories flitted about the house all day, but was blocked by the cameras. Indlcnant relatives and servants ser-vants scowled and scolded, and threatened threat-ened the men of plate and film, but the camera defenses were impregnable. impreg-nable. Four of the tripod artists were arrested, but others heroically took their places. When night fell a few artists Hneered about, but the lady of millions did not show herself. Wo are told that at 10 o'clock she went to I bed. One of Mrs. Walker's hobbles is lace. Lace curtains hang from the windows, lace falls from draperies over doors, and in little crevices and corners bits of filmy white relieve the severity of the rooms. She has three others business, charity, and Napoleon. Na-poleon. Napoleon is her hero. Most of the paintings and etchines on her walls reflect scenes from the life of the Great emneror. Her collection of Napoleonic literature and relics is one of the most complete In the United States. She seldom reads fiction. Mrsi Wnlker is a cultured and accom plished woman. She has gained her lcnowledce by study and personal contact con-tact with the world. Both for pleasure, and through contact with the world wide business interests of her father, she has learned things at first hand. It Is now a fund of knowledge of vast Importance to her. She knows the details de-tails of the Welghtman business in I Persia, London, and Venezuela almost as Intimately as she does the secrets of the great Philadelphia laboratories. Mrs. Walker's preparation for the Immense Im-mense burden has been gradual. She has been trained under her father and husband. Now a widow of fifty, she has well in hand all the details of the huslness from which grew the millions mil-lions she inherited. Her hair is red, tinged with sray; she wears it in waves over her temples and caught P in a coil back of th ears. Her nose" Is snub and her complexion shows numerous nu-merous freckles. There are traces of dimples about the mouth, and the chin s square and masculine; the eyes are sunken. Mrs. Walker's face is the Kind that shows the lights and shad ows of the mind. She rarely shows her anger, but she has a keen sense of humor, and her smile makes her look twenty years younger. For the rest she is slight of physique and nervous ner-vous in manner. Her eyes are steely blue. o |