A BACKWOODMAN'S ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 65, 25 June 1910, Page 10

A BACKWOODMAN'S ROMANCE.

ONE OF THE FICUTIX<; I'-KRKS

FORDS.

The sale of tin- Ojitos ranch in Mexico for lm),!)!)!) dollars wound up the all'airs of the estate of I lie late Lord De'.avel Beresford, who fhuse to spend his life oil l a cattle ranch or Il'yjilil acres in Mexico, his •companion being a negro woman, rather than in Englan.l. Delaval Beresford left England when a young man twenty years ago, because he did not like the restraints of the life he had been accustomed to. Me wandereii until he found a location that suited him. It 1 was leagues from a railroad, in the mountain fastness of Northern Chihuahua, in Mexico. Why he went there and why he selected this location for his home lie told nobody. He had money to buy the land, which wa.s worth less than "fifty cents an acre, and lie had money to buy the cattle with which to stock it.

HAD NERVE AND GRiT

He was rough and ready, as the cowboys say. He was an Englishman, but he did not have 'the English ways, lie was ready to ride with the hardest vaquero and at night would sleep with nothing but mother earth for a bed and his saddle-tree for a pillow. That he was a lord, a member of the British aristocracy, nobody knew for years; but he was admired as an Englishman with nerve and grit. Whether his relatives knew where he was nobody knew. He never seemed to get any mail, and he never wrote any but business letters. He made friends of his Mexican vaqueros and their families, and he soon became known in El Paso, for he made his visits every once in a while to the city, and it did! not take long for the people to become aware when he was there. On these visits lie treated everybody he met, neitiher race nor color being barred. But always he kept out of the spot-light. He did .not spend his money in the big gambling houses or in the brilliantlylighted saloons, as other cowboys do when they hit town with purses newly filled from their cattle sales. Always the small saloons, the dives, were patronised. Delaval Beresford did not seek til best of society.

ACCOMPANIED BY NEGRESS.

After one of these visits it was rumored that on his return to the Ojitos ranch lie was accompanied by a negress well known in the part of the city most frequented by the Englishman on his visits. Then somebody explained that she had been taken down as his cook; that he was tired of the Mexican fare he had been getting. The next time he came to town the negress was with him, and the pair went to one of the leading hotels and applied for a room for "Mr. and Mrs. Beresford," but all rooms were engaged. During the revelries the negress, known to her associates as '"Flo," announced that she was the wife of Lord Delaval Beresford, brother to the English Admiral Lord Charles Beresford. "We's gwine back to 01' Englan', and. I'se gwine to see de Queen. She has ter see me, 'cause i'se de wife of a lord," she would tell her friends.

Then it got to be common talk. Everybody spoke soon of the couple as Lord and" Lady Flo. The Englishman continued to raise cattle, and ship them_ to Canada, and sell .them at a good price; and accompanied by his black companion he made regular trips to El Paso. He never denied the statements of the negress that she was his wife, anil she made purchases at the stores and charged them to Lord Beresford, who always settled the bills promptly. Xo more letters passed between the Englishman and his relatives back in England than before the disclosure of his identity, however, and "Lady Flo ; ' never made her trip to see the Queen.

KILLED AT MEDICINE HAT

In 14)07, early. in the spring, Lord Dclaval Beresford took a train-load of cattle to Canada to the market. Returning from the Canadian market, the train on which he was a passenger went into the ditch near Medicine Hat, Canada. and when the list of dead was printed there appeared the name .£-Delaval Beresford, Mexico." "Lady Flo" was in El Paso when the wires brought the news, anJ at once went into mourning, and proceeded to make preparations to take charge of the estate.

•BERESFORD MAKES A WILL.

Inside of ten days a lawyer came to! town, from N,ew York. The cables had j been' working, and Admiral Lord; Charles Beresford had acted. The body! had been ordered to be shipped 'home,J and the lawyer was directed to take| charge of the estate in the name of the: surviving relatives. A will was produced by the El Paso attorney who had done the legal business for the aead man, and it left the entire estate to •'my legal heirs," with the exception of "SOOOdol. which I hereby devise and bequeath to my faithful housekeeper, Flora." The will was offered for pro-, bate in El Paso county, also in the' courts of the State of Chihuahua.) Mexico, but there was a protest filed by counsel engaged by "Lady Flo." Statements were given to the newspapers that, while she had never been married to Beresford, she could prove! | that she was his common law wife.] [ Hadn't everybody recognised her as the j I wife of the dead man, and hadn't lie > promised that just as soon as he re-, turned from Canada they would he mar- j ried bv a .priest in Mexico? But the] admission that there had been no mar-: riase settled the case. In Texas she was, at "once ruled out of court, because the law prohibits the marriage of a. white] person to one of African blood, although! among people of the same race common la w. marriage is recognised in court. In Mexico the common law marriage is not recognised, although there is no law j against miscegenation. Thus, the very I law that would help her in one country I was against her in the other, and the I probating of the will went forward.

IBRD CHARLES SETTLES UP. J ' Lord Charles Beresford then came over j from London, made a trip to the ranch,! visited Mexico City, consulted his lawyers in 'both countries, and listened to all the stories about the past life of his brother. Then he sent a lawyer to see '•Lady Flo," who in the meantime had appealed from the Court's ruling in El Paso, and was preparing to take the easel to the Supreme Court, she declared, necessary to her rights. The next' dav all the legal steps taken by the near- ( res's were stopped by Lord Charles Beres-j ford, who went 'back to England, and the estate Ayas offered for sale. It \\as latei asserted that the negress received 15.000 dol., but it was never made a matter of I record. The negress is now living in El Pa=o. in a comfortable brick house onj South Campbell street, anl sne owns sev- ( era! similar buildings. On a big stone in front of her house are carved, in letters lar»e enough to be seen across the street, the" words "Lady Flo." Thus El' Paso has the onlv person of color in the United States claiming an English title. The j Beresford ranch was purchased by Edka.--, -- 1 r< If WaiWW nf Three. Ofiika.