That was a name somewhat familiar to readers of American newspapers even
before its bearer was fairly out of college. The publicity it then
attained (partly due to young Harman's conspicuous wealth) attached to
some youthful exploits not without a certain wild humour. But frolic
degenerated into brawl and debauch: what had been scrapes for the boy
became scandals for the man; and he gathered a more and more unsavoury
reputation until its like was not to be found outside a penitentiary.
The crux of his career in his own country was reached during a midnight
quarrel in Chicago when he shot a negro gambler. After that, the negro
having recovered and the matter being somehow arranged so that the
prosecution was dropped, Harman's wife left him, and the papers recorded
her application for a divorce. She was George Ward's second cousin, the
daughter of a Baltimore clergyman; a belle in a season and town of
belles, and a delightful, headstrong creature, from all accounts. She
had made a runaway match of it with Harman three years before, their
affair having been earnestly opposed by all her relatives--especially by
poor George, who came over to Paris just after the wedding in a
miserable frame of mind.

The Chicago exploit was by no means the end of Harman's notoriety.
Evading an effort (on the part of an aunt, I believe) to get him locked
up safely in a "sanitarium," he began a trip round the world with an
orgy which continued from San Francisco to Bangkok, where, in the
company of some congenial fellow travellers, he interfered in a native
ceremonial with the result that one of his companions was drowned.
Proceeding, he was reported to be in serious trouble at Constantinople,
the result of an inquisitiveness little appreciated by Orientals. The
State Department, bestirring itself, saved him from a very real peril,
and he continued his journey. In Rome he was rescued with difficulty
from a street mob that unreasonably refused to accept intoxication as an