Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1881 — Kate Chase Sprague. [ARTICLE]

Kate Chase Sprague.

Atlantic City Letter. Did you ever look upon a beautiful face which told you almost as plainly as words that mental anguish had but added to its beauty? I contemplated Such a contenance iu the parlors of the Shelburne to-night. Its owner was a lady rather inclined to be tall, but with a'symmetrical form which looked all the more attractive for the extremely plain costume, black m color, and almost severe in its lack of trimming or other adornment. Her blonde hair, dressed in, the prevailing seaside fashion—an English frizze—covered the forehead to within! an inch or so of the dark blue eyes, and two flushed Cheeks, a mouth full o‘s pearly teeth, lips like a ripe cherry, and a short, round chin, completed the picture. But there was something in the face apart from its natural gifts which was calculated at once to flfet the attention of the observer. It was an expression of indescribable melancholy and pain, as if the iron had ente-ed the soul of the owner aud left there, .not bate or vindicativeness, but sorrow and anguidb-'-a look so plaintive, so appealing, that ohe might match it to melt the hardest tears. “Who is she?” I heard the question asked twenty times inside of an hour, and each time the answer was returned, “Kate Chase Sprague.” The former mistress of Canoncbet has been the guest of the Shelburne since Tuesday, and proposes to remain until the Cflose of the season. A maid and, two nurses who have entire charge of her three children, all girls, the oldest being twelve and the youngest not yet three v comprise her retinue. She moves about in a dreamy sort of a way* seldom mingling with other guests or engaging with them in conversation. Efeu when in the society of intimate frietids,‘several of whom are at the same hotel, she sedulously avoids all references to her domestic difficulties. I asked her to-night if the sale of the Sprague estate, referred to in the morning dispatches from Providence, jeopardized any of her interests, and her mouth was open for a reply when Judge Tyner put in -an inopportune appearance with a remark on the mosquitoes, a popular subject, which instantly changed the drift of conversation.