FRANK VAN HOVEN AND A FELLOW ARTIST'S WIFE.

FRANK Van Hoven was a kindly soul. There were occasions when his generosity astounded even his closest friends, and many of his less fortunate fellow artists have been grateful for his brotherly assistance.

Some unkind folk have described him as the luckiest magician of the two continents. This is not quite true. Although there is not the slightest doubt that Dame Fortune took a kindly interest in him throughout his lifetime, I have known occasions when his luck was anything but good.

Frank was a great philosopher. Nothing ever worried him much. "I don't mind," he would say when things went wrong. "It'll turn out alright in the long run." Subsequent events usually proved him right. The following little story of his concern for the misfortunes of a fellow artist may not, I think, be without interest.

In 1918, Van Hoven was performing in vaudeville at Chicago. One of the other artists at the theatre was, to use Frank's own words, "getting it pretty rough." Connubial bliss was at a discount. This particular man performed in a double act with his wife, and it was soon apparent to all behind the scenes that it was this good lady who really "bossed" the partnership. As an assistant in the double act she was admirable, but her decided views on the rights and privileges of a wife did not tend to increase the happiness of her sadly misunderstood husband.

One day Frank called the man aside and boldly asked him why he allowed his wife to make his life so miserable.

"Gee!" replied the other, pulling a wry face. "You don't know my wife."

"But why don't you put your foot down?"

"She's the only one who does that."

"If you can't do anything with her, why don't you get rid of her--divorce her. It's easy enough."

"You can tie a can on that stuff," came the sharp retort. "I've got no money for that."

"Suppose I give it to you?

"What!"

"Suppose I give you the money to divorce your wife?"

"You mean that?

"Sure."

"God bless you then! It seems too good to be true!"

And that was that. Frank duly found the necessary money, and the divorce was carried through. [ No reflection is intended on the lady who was divorced according to the Laws ruling in the United States of America. ] It was a happy day for the little vaudeville artist when, after many months of unhappiness, he found himself a free man.

And so, for a short time the wife fades from our picture. But you can't keep a pushful woman down. When next we hear of her, she is Mrs. Frank Van Hoven!

But even the genial Frank was no match for the fiery lady. From the day he contracted his unwise marriage, his life was one long round of misery. "Gee, she's too hot for me," he told me in describing his bride. "She's just a big packet of trouble. Whenever I go out, she follows like a dog. I visit some friends; she comes and drags me home again. I go to the Club; but I guess she's hanging somewhere around. If she can't see me, she'll be over the 'phone to me. Night and morning she's at my heels. I'm becoming the laughing stock of the profession."

So he took my fatherly advice and found another wife!