American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-08-02
From the Sunday Dispatch.
A Strange Drama in Real life.


T. s 70 o. y
We have just received the particular
Of most extraordinary story, which hai
4 given rise to no littlegossiP in aneigbbor
/ ing city, and the chief actors in which have
always heretofore been looked hpon IS
persons the highest respectability. oui
columns have often testified 10 the fact thai
the most ingenious romance will often fall
far short Of city reality. and never was that
truth made more plainly evident than in
the narrative which we are about to relate.
We give the incidents precisely as they
were given TO us. merely suppressing
names, and ere satisfied that, in the main
particulars, they are strictly true.
Some months since, a family, consisting
OF gentleman. his wife, mother and a
housekeeper, were living happily in the
city above alluded TO- The gentleman was
intelligent, good looking. and had not yet
passed the meridian Of life, while bis wife
was also young, well educated, and Of re-
fined manners. She had borne her hus-
band two children, of whom they were
mutually fond, and the husband and wife
were looked upon by their most intimate
friends as happy couple. Indeed there
can be no doubt that they were happy, and,
but Tor an exhibition of those dark phases
ofhuman character which sometimes startle
The moral world, they would have remain
ed 50. # s7ts s'-2 - b,
A short time since, the wife. who had
relatives, in Europe, expressed desire to
visit them, and the husband, always willing
to crafty her, engaged passage for her,
aud she departed. Things went smoothly
enoughfor some time after she had gone,
but at length the mother Of the husband
thought that she discovered signs of too
much familiarity between her son and the
housekeeper She was not willing to be-
leve the evidence of her senses at first, for
the housekeeper, besides being no great
beauty. had passed the hey day Of youth,
having reached the natroniy age of abou;
forty-tiye. 1t was not long. however, be-
fore the mothers frst-aroused suspicious
were fully confirmed, and, she at once
wrote letter to her daughter-in-law, stat
ing the facts and advising her immediate
return. The wife was not willingt to believe
in her husbands infdelity. and, under the
idea that there mustbe some mistake in the
matter, she addressed note to him, reveal
ing what she had heard though expressing
her disbelief in the story.
She wound up, however, by expressing
a desire to return home, and requesting
her husband to send her money for that
purpose No attention was paid to her let
ter, and she then began to get really a.
larned; SO, raising what money she could
from her friends, she took passage for
home. On board the vessel in which she
sailed, she met with young man whom
she had known from childhood, and who
had been suitor for her hand previous to
her marriage with her FIRST husband As
she was alone he assumed the protection of
her, and during the passage paid her every
attention which brother would show to a
sister. She arrived at home safely. and
Immediately took her way to her fathers
residence, when she was terribly shocked
to learn that her husband had sold off all
his effects and with his children was living
with the housekeepNr. Filled with agony,
she sought out her mother-in- law, who had
taken up her residence with another son,
and she learned that what she had heard
was too true. . ">
The old lady informed her that her hus-
band had indeed taken up his abode with
the housekeeper, but that he had kept his
residence profound secret. In state
bordering upon frenzy. the unfortunate
woman was aboutto 10 rush forth in search of
furtherinformation, when singularly
her faithless husband entered the room ~
He uuailed before the glance of his injured
wife, whom he had thought still in Europe,
! and when she appealed to bis feelings as a
husband and q father, and asked to know
why he had deserted her, he merely repli-
ed that he could not help himself-that he
would place no obstacle in her way to di-
'vorce, and that the best course would be to
marry the young man who had accompa-
MED her h ome { Tor she had informed him
of the particulars concerning the passage.
To this she replied thatshe did not wish to
part from hirnAthat he was her husband
and the flther Of her Ghildren-that if he
had done wrong she was willing to forgive
him, to forget the past, and to think only
of the future. He rejoined that the thing
was impossible-tbat he would do all be
could for her in a pecuniary view, but that
he never could live with her againj and
thus the interview ended s- 5'.-.
Subsequently the husband procured a
boarding house for his wife and called oc-
casionally to see her, butte all her entreat-
les to be allowed to see her children he
turneda deaf ear. At length, driven to
desperation she determined to follow him,
& as he was about leaving her at the close
Of one ofhis visits, she put on her bonnet
and informed him of her design. He ar
gued, expostnlated and threatened, but to
no effect-go with him she would.--For
long time he walked up one street and
down another, but at length when he found
it was impossible to. shake her of, he told
her that she would regret it. She replied
that she would not suffer any greater ago
ny Of mind than she had already endured.
and shortly thereafter she found herself in
the presence Of her little ones, and the de-
stroyer of her happiness. The meeting
between the eldest daughter and mother
was affecting in the extreme. For a mo-
ment the poor woman forgot all her sorrow