The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1855-03-28

ere he can escape across the channel" and in
terrific speed toward Dover.
Such were precisely the facts. Meadows had
forged the note, obtained the money, unknown
to the daughter, Of course, and all unexpected
by her. and calculated to put everybody on
the wrong scent by giving out at the last mo-
ment, that he was going to Bedford only, to be
married to the bankers daughter. He pro-
ceeded to Dover (where he chanced to be seen
by friend Of the notary, who returned to town
and reported it thus, and he designed, after
his wedding, to proceed to Calais, and thence
to the continent, where he would avoid arrest
and subsequently, compromise the affair as best
he could. He imagined, as the bankers daugh-
ter would thus be involved, that her father
would relent forgive them, pay the note, and
save his child's husband from future harm
This was a nice little arrangement, but the
spendthrift had ssreckened without his hostp'
Away dashed the parent and the notary, at
full speed They reached Dover an hour after
dark, but Cally was already wife, an hour
old. The fugitives could not be found! They
proceeded to the steamer that sailed for Calais
at nine in the evening, and at half past eight
| the newly married couple came on board, qui-
etly. a warrant had previously been got out
for use, if they found the rascal, and five min
utes after William Meadows, the spendthrift
and forger, had placed his foot upon the steam
er's deck, he was in irons, the sheriff's pris-
oner!
s'He is my husband, father" screamed poor
Cally, distracted at the summary movement
she was compelled to witness, and utterly igno-
rant of the real cause Of the arrest
"He is robber and villain, daughtern'
yelled the old man, almost beside herself
"Come! Thank God, it is not too late to save
my credulous and misled childp'
The husband was borne to prison, and the
young wife accompanied her father back to his
troubled dwelling, crushed by her fearful and
conflicting emotions. ~
The whole truth was SOON laid before the I'M
fortunate wife of an hour, and she was led at
last to realize how narrowly she had escaped
from the precipice that had yawned before her.
At the end of week, she was reconciled to the
belefof the facts, and a month afterwards she
thanked Providence and her kind old father for
the results that had been brought about.
The forgery was readily proved, and di-
vorce was very soon obtained for Cally. Mead
ows was released upon bail, through the inhu-
ence of his friends, and instantly fled his coun-
try, leaving his parents to foot the bond But
all these things were too much for old Mr.. Brint-
nall to bear up under, and within year his
business was closed up, his liabilities were all
paid, and he had less than FIVE thousand dol
lars left to his honored but strangely unlucky
name.
He died, and leftthe wreck of his once splen-
did fortune to his darling daughter.
---~~o~~-~-0-~-~-~--0~~r>
THE EXPECTED GREAT CoMET.-The eminent
astronomer, NJ. Babinet, member of the acade-
my of sciences gives some very interesting de-
tails relative to the return of that great comet
! whose periodical course is computed by the
most celebrated observer at three hundred
years. Our cyclical records show that it was
observed in the years 104, 392, 682, 975-
again in 1864, and the next time in 1556-al
ways described as shining with the most extra
ordinary brilliancy. Most of the European
astronomers agreed in announcing the return o
this comet in 1848; but it has Hitherto failed
to appear. In fact it is not so easy or simple
a matter to compute those vast cyclical periods
as some superficial persons-who do not look
beyond the day of the year in which they live,
may imagine.
We are, however, assured by NJ. Babinet,
that up to this moment, this beautiful star 'is
living on its brilliant reputation" so that sir
John Herschel himself was wrong when be
despaired of its reappearance, and put Grape
on his telescope. We are informed that a
celebrated and accurate computer-M BONNIE,
of Middleburg, has looked over all calculations,
and made new estimate of the separate and
.,combined action of all the planets upon this
Comet, of 800 years; and he has discovered
that it is not lost to us, but only retarded in its
motion. The result of this severe labor gives
! the arrival Of this rare and renowned visitor in
August, 1853, with an uncertainty oftwo years,
more OF less; so that, between 1856 and 1860,
those who are then living may hope to see the
great luminary which, in 1856, caused king
! Charles V to abdcate.
---~~-~o-oo--o~~-o-~0~@-
One day last week, says the Cincinnati Com
mercial, in one of the neighborhood in the
western part of the city, an agent of the relief
union found an Irish family, an old woman and
a girl, to all appearance in the most deplora-
Bile situation. The apartment they inhabited
was small, low, and filthy in the extreme, and
the only furniture was horrible old bed, that
looked as if it had been used for generations,
dliu ICfCI UCCu Ill CilC flCllllty VI SOrJ oHI
water. The ancient woman and the girl were
in the bed, and professed to be dreadfully sick
and in state of starvation. The agent, though
used to scenes Of misery, understood this to
be a peculiarly distressing case, and made the
facts so far as he had learned them, known to
archbishop Purcell who at once accompanied
him to the doleful tenement.
The bishop looked narrowly at the sick indi-
viduals, and then, in the most imperious man
ner, ordered them to get up and scrub out the
room. They protested that they were unable
to do SO, but finally crawled out of the filthy
bed clothes, making piteous complaints. The
agent thought the bishop needlessly severe,
and pleaded the propriety of using more gentle
words and manner, but the bishop insinuated
that he knew perfectly we'll the kind of indivi-
duals he was dealing with, and ordered the
woman to throw the dirty bed out of the win
dow The old woman wept, and begged for
the bed, and protested that she had brought
it from old Ireland, where it had belonged to
her ancestors, and that it was dearer to her
than flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood
But the bishop was inexorable, saying that the