The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1845-01-23
ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.


TO James L. Hawkins, who as cashier of the
Franklin Bank of Baltimore, embezzled a
large amount of its funds, some three years
since. The announcement nj Of this pardon
prompts the Baltimore correspondent of the
Boston Atlas to relate the following. We
know not how it may affect others, but this
simple unadorned narrative of woman's in
tegrity and love, and that nice sense of hon
or which could hide a stain only by the deep
covering of the grave, has touched our feel
ings more than the most highly wrought TO-
nance :-Ci1cinnati Gazette.
His defalcations were large, and run
through a long series of years. They were
concealed by many ingenious devices, and
were only discovered by accident, during a
temporary absence of Hawkins from the
Bank. On the discovery of the defalcation,
Hawkins Immediately gave up all his pro-
perty of every kind, and his wife a noble
woman, without solicitation, and even a.
gainst some remonstrance on the part of her
relatives, executed a deed %renouncing her
right of dover in a very valuable real estate.
They were thus, in their old age reduced to
poverty, with all the attendant evils of crime
upon the husband. Those of your readers
who remember the account | wrote you, will
recollect that as soon as Mrs. Hawkins had
executed the deed renouncing her dover,
she went to her bed, and in a fe days pined
away, literally dying of a broken heart.
'sWhich kills more, than are numbered in the
lists of fate"
Those who were present at the sick bed
of this good lady, say that the scene was the
most impressive it is possible TO conceive of.
There she lay, visibly fading away before all
eyes-the physicians stood confounded by
the rapid progress of the disease, and the
eyes of all baihed in tears while hers were
dry with sorrow. She never even cast a look
of reproach upon her poor guilty husband,
who stood by, all unnamed; and when he
eye rested upon the face oil her daughter
a sweet girl, then just bursting into woman
hood--the mother would manifest herself
only IN a deep drawn sigh. The eminent
physicians who were called 10 her aid, own
ed their weakness, and shrunk almost appall-
ed at the awful manifestations death had
made of his work, upon the woman. They
had seen death in almost every shape. They
had seen ii suddenly striking down the young
and beautifnE-they had seen it wasting
slowly, day by day, the life of some beloved
daughter, until, al length, after the ravages o
years the light was e%xtinguished, as a candle
burnt TO lis socket, and then shedding fortl
lis rays more brilliantly than ever, 90 out il
beauty-they had seen the strong, The aged
the weak, and the old die but never haC
they seen a death like this.
The mind of the dying woman was a
peace with all the world, beyond whose por
tails she had, seemingly, passed, before dealt
had released her soul from the body. IiealtI
was upon her cheeks--her pulse full and re
gular, and her voice sweet and melodious.-
She was a woman who had shone in sOciet
she had filled her place at the head Of a
opuleat family, with a grace which had wo
admiration from all who knew her. An
there she lay, in form, in face, in voice Ill
altered, save that the eye, which was in
deed, in her, the glass before the hear
showed that death was upon her, and had a
ready dried up the fountains of her life.
But | llnger too long upon this remark;
bic death--a death which, under all circuu
stances, of its time and place, and cause
proves that truth, indeed, as the master
the human heart has said, sis strange, stran!
er than felton,
Shortly after the death of Mrs. Hawkins,
bill of INSTRUMENTATION any movemeI
ON the part of those who had lost money b
him--was found by our grand jury, and h,
then being out of the city, fed the State
H. 1a,- tto- rIa NJ, l~,o -,.l ..a1 al
just b1rsting into womanhood, has no
reached the age when she can fully feel q
that she has lost in such "A mother, and
find moving her, some of that spirit whic
sent her mother TO the grave. For son
monihsher friends have observed a stran!
feeling working upon her, and at leng
learned from her, that her young heart, viii,
had been taught so early TO dote upon h
father, now y%earned to share his sorrow
and TO desire to soothe bis griefs.
Hawkins had been living away off in Lo
%isiana, poor, broken in spirit, and haggard
appearance. Il was known to all here ii
he was there, fully within the reach of
arm of the law OF Maryland, but SO deep a
widespread was the regard which was f
for the wife, and SO general the grief for
melancholy death, that no one thought
: invoking aid to apprehend him and bri
him here to punishment. The daughter
termined to go TO him. 1t was in vain Il
her friends pleaded with her-in vain Il
held out TO her the inducements of the
ciety of her friends here, and the comic
and even pleasures, which one SO young
so accomplished as she might enjoy, amC
them. The thought of the sorrows of
father took possession of her whole soul,
at all hazards, and despite, of every dan
II - Al. IL orr1,