talion of militia, he succeeded in chopping down the The following day Eugene and Harriet were mar-
kitchen door. There on the floor of the kitchen, near ried. An account of the early days of their married
the stove, lay Dudley Graham, dead. A fragrant life can be found in Eugene's semi-autobiographical
odor reached their nostrils. Hawthorne opened the novel "David Copperfield," which he wrote under the
door of the oven and drew forth the first Graham assumed name of Charles Dickens. They took a lit-
cracker that the world had ever seen. The date was tle house in Chelsea near London, and for a while
November 17th, 1888.
their life was blissful and contented. Four handsome boys afterwards known as The Four Marx Brothers — were born to them. EUGENE KELLY (Author's Note: I am indebted to Miss Florence Nightingale for an account of her parents' life during (The Father of Kelly Pool) this period. She placed at my disposal family records and documents including the famous Whistler letters ON January 12th, 1835, there was great excite- to her mother that afterward became the subject of ment in the City of Barcelona, Spain. The the long and bitter litigation that resulted in the over- buildings were draped in gay colored flags and bunt- throw of the Palmerston cabinet. All this, of course, ing; bands played in the large public square, which will be fully set forth in my book.) was packed with eager, expectant people. At 11:30 The discovery of gold in California in 1848, caused A. M. (Standard Time) the Major Domo of the Eugene to sell all his worldly possessions and join one Royal Household stepped out on to the balcony and of the numerous caravans in their perilous journey announced that a prince had been born, Victor Eman- acruss the continent. A flat tire and a broken steering uel Franz Josef Eugene Don Luis knuckle caused Eugene and his Henry, Prince of the House of family to abandon their trip and Bourbon and heir to the Spanish settle down in Lotus, Illinois, a lit- throne afterward known to those tle village of barely six hundred who were familiar with his tragic thousand inhabitants. history as Eugenc Kelly. Eugene never knew whether How this scion of the oldest and Harriet was dead or alive. When most aristocratic house in Europe he last saw her she was being car- came to run a barber shop and pool ried swiftly a cross the prairie, parlor in the little village of Lotus, strapped to the saddle of the Indian Illinois, constitutes one of the chief. 'There was a radiantly con- strangest chapters in modern history, tented look upon her face as she As Gibbon has beautifully said, speeded toward the setting sun. But "Truth is stranger than fiction." Eugene was always haunted by the From the time he was eight years Eugene Kelly fear that some day she might re- old Eugene was afflicted with that He changed his name to sad nervous trouble that was heredi- Kelly and grew a beard. tary in his family; he insisted upon walking and And su he settled down in the little village of standing upon his hands upon all occasions. This was Lotus, and mode and inconspicuously plied his a source of great embarrassment and distress to his trade--he had been an expert barber years before in family, and particularly to his mother who had been Barcelona. As the years passed by he added a pool a Bruckheimer from Duluth and was quite a stickler and billiard parlor to his little barber shop, and it for etiquette and good form. was there that he devoted himself to perfecting his Then came the Thirty Years War. Eugene was life work, -the noble game with which his name is only twelve years old at the time, but he nevertheless now identified. Thrice they offered him the gover- decided to do his bit. "I might as well," he said. norship of Illinois but he always refused, "I have "I'll be forty-two years old when it's finished." He my work to do here in Lotus," he said. enlisted as a Brigadier General in the Fourth Missouri His choice was justified. The population of Lotus Cavalry. outstripped that of Kemswitch and Waynesville. It was during the famous Iowa Campaign-the There was talk of making it the County Seat. Hundred Days--that Eugene met Harriet Beecher In the course of time he came to be known as the Stowe. It was a case of love at first sight. Harriet Grand Old Man of Lotus. "Pere Kelly" the little was driving a taxicab in Des Moines at the time, and French children used to call him as he passed them in whenever Eugenc received shore leave he would ride the street. In spite of the constant urgings of his around in Harriet's taxi. It was a strange courtship- friends he firmly refused to change the name of his Harriet seated at the wheel, winding in and out the barber shop to "Kelly's Tonsorial Parlor." "I'm too crowded traffic; Eugene seated inside the cab, his old for these new fangled ways," he said "Barber head propped up against a pillow, sound asleep. Shop was good enough for Lincoln and Washington Thus the days sped by lightly and pleasantly, until and it's good enough for me." suddenly the war ended. Both sides ran out of am- He was stricken with housemaid's knee as he was munition one afternoon, so they decided to quit and boarding the train to attend the First Kelly Pool Con- go home. "I'm glad it wasn't the Hundred Years gress in America. He died an hour later in the home War," said Eugene-a remark often wrongly at- of his lifelong friend, General Von Hindenburg, in tributed to General Grant. his eighty-fifth year. -Newman Levy turn.
