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Show THE LEED'S DIVORCES. By Grace Estelle Dillon. The career of Mr. W. B. Leeds, the ambitious, schemeful president of the new and vastly enlarged en-larged Rock Island railroad system, has been singularly sin-gularly successful and, of late, one of dazzling eclat, of achievements far-reaching in scope and effect. Up to a few years ago, he was hardly known in the railroad world. He was closely identified with, and had made a great fortune in, the tin plate and steel manufacturing industry. indus-try. It was only after he had become the associate asso-ciate of some Chicago railroad financiers grouped around the Moore Brothers that he began be-gan to play an important role in the railroad world and to win a reputation for audacious brilliance bril-liance in financial operations. Mr. Leeds is a self-made man, in the truest sense of these much-abused words. Of course, he had a certain amount of needful good luck throughout his business career, but it was due chieilly to his innate energy that halted before no obstacle, his plodding patience that knew how to bide its time, his restless ambition that saw and utilized its opportunities which made him what he now is a power in industry and finance that even Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan cannot afford to ignore or to offend. Seventeen years ago. Mr. Leeds, then a poor, struggling young man, married Miss Gar, a Wealthy lady, of more than ordinary charms, in Richmond, Ind. His marriage, as subsequent events proved, started him on the road to success. suc-cess. Not long after his marriage, Mr. Leeds was on top in the tin plate business, and also con-troled con-troled a number of steel plants that were eventually even-tually absorbed by the tin plate combine. His family life, to all outward appearances, a very happy one. The couple seemed uncommonly devoted de-voted one to the other, and Mrs. Leeds shone as a recognized leader in society. Appearances, however, proved deceptive. For, about three years ago, rumors suddenly began to spread that there were dissensions in the Leeds household. These rumors were fully confirmed, a few months later, when Mrs. Leeds sued for divorce, which she obtained without difficulty. The judge gratified her demand after a hearing of only thirty minutes, during which it was proved that Mr. Leeds had left his lares and penates, and not been home for a long time. The divorce created quite a sensation. Gos-sipers Gos-sipers had a royal time of it. Richmond, Chi-oago Chi-oago and Cleveland society was all wrought up, and particularly so when it leaked out that Mrs. Leeds had applied for divorce after having been requested to do sb by her truant husband, who, as a special financial inducement, promised her one million dollars as compensation. Mrs. Leeds, being an excellent business woman, and fully convinced that there was no prospect of a reconciliation, cheerfully accepted her ungallantly generous husband's offer. It was whispered about at the tinu? that Mr. Leeds, true to his specula-tice specula-tice instincts, had made a determined effort to "bear" the price of release from the bonds of matrimony, but in vain. His thrifty, astute wife would not take anything less than a million. She knew that he could well afford to pay it, and that he would pay it rather than lose her whom he had selected as a successor to hia premiere amour. His latest heart's desire was Mrs. Nannie May Stewart Washington, the wife of George E. Washington, Wash-ington, of Cleveland, Ohio. There had developed between the. two an over-mastering affection, as a result of which the noted Cleveland belle obtained a divorce from her husband, which was bitterly contested, and proved quite a serious strain on Mr. Leed's exchequer. But he did not worry over the cost of attaining attain-ing the goal. He thought "hang the expense." As a middle-aged man, he could not be blamed for refusing- to ball' nt the payment of two or tbreo million dollars, when Ijo could thereby com? into complete possesison of a woman of great beauty, and of only half his ago. Nannie, he thought, was worth all the money in the world. The wedding was a magnificent affair, from a yellow standpoint. stand-point. Among Mr. Leeds' many costly gifts to his bride was a strong of pearls valued at sixty-five thousand dollars. It is estimated that the expense of the wedding and honeymoon amounted to at least two million dollars. Since then, there has been bitter, relentless, sensational rivalry between Mrs. Leeds No. 1,( (who is about to marry again), and Mrs. Leeds No. 2. Last winter, the two met at Palm Beach, and there fololwed a duel the incidents of which were uniquely dramatic to a degree, since they were fought with gorgeous frocks, brilliant gems, lavish entertainments and various other things dear and familiar to the feminine heart. At the end of this quaint and exciting contest, it was silently si-lently agreed among beholders that the result was a "stand-off," a "draw." The Mirorr. |