Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-01-22

Whether 1t was that these ceaseless attack
Wore out her strength, or that Providence wished
to add another Christening misery to her burder
OF woe dare not speculate but il is eertair
that one luckless night Mr. Van Koeren learned
with fury that he had become a father tive
months before the allotted time During his
first paroxvsm of rage on the receipt of inteIli.
gence which seemed to confirm all his previous
suspicious, it was, believe, with difficulty that
he was prevented from Staying both the inno-
cent causes of his resentment The caution OF
/ his race and the presence of the physicians in
dueed him, however to put a curb upon his f,,ri-
Gus viii until reflection suggested quite as Grim
lnal. If not as dangerous a vengeance As soon
as his poor wife had recored from her illness
unnaturally prolonged by the delicacy of con-
stltutlon induced by previous mental suffering
she was astonished to find, instead of increasing
his prosecutions, that her husband had changed
his tactics and treated her with studied neglect.
he rarely spoke to her except on occasions when
the decencies of society demanded that he
should address her. He avoided her presence,
and no longer inhabited the same apartment.
lie seemed, In short, to strive much as posi-
Die to forget her existence. But if she did not
suffer from personal ll-treatment, it was because
punishment more acute was In store for her
If Mr.. Van koeren had chosen to affect to con-
slider her beneath his vengeance, l. was because
bis hate had taken another direction, and seemed
to have derived increased intensity from the
alteration. 1t was upon the unhappy bow the
cause of all this misery, that the father lavished
terrible hatred. Mr. Van koeren seemed de-
ra-,, aI
ioins than his that the nournful destiny which
he forced upon him would amply avenge his
own existence and the infidelitv of his mother
While the child was an infant his plan seemed
to have been formed Ignorance and neglect
were the two deadly influences with which he
sought TO assassinate the moral nature of this
boy; and his terrible campaign against the vir-
tue OF his own son, was, he grew up, carried
into execution with the most consummate gem
eralship. He gave him money, but debarred
him from education. He allowed him liberty
of action, but withheld advice 1t was in vain
that his mother, who foresaw the frightfuI con-
sequences of such training sought in secret
by every means in her power to nullifv her hus-
bands attempts. She strove in vain to seduce
her son into an ambition TO be educated She
beheld with horror all her agonized efforts frus-
trated, and saw her son, and only child becon-
ing, even in his youth, drunkard and a hber-
tine. In the end it proved too much for her
strength she sickened, and went home to her
sunny Belgian plains There she fingered for
few months in a calm but rapid decay, whose
calmness Was broken but by the one grief un-
I'll one autumn day, when the leaves We're fall
ing from the lines she made little PRAYER for
her son TO the Good God and died. Vain orison
Spendthrift, gamester, ibertine and drunkard
by turns, Alain Van Koeren's earthly destiny
was Interchangeable. The father, who should
have been his guide, looked on each fresh de-
pra7ity of his sons with a species of grim de-
light. Even the death of his wronged wife had
no effect upon his fatal purpose he still per-
mitted the young man to run blindly to destruc-
tion by the course into which he himself had
led him.
As years rolled by, and Mr. an Koeren him
self approached to that time of life when he
might soon expect to follow his prosecuted wife
he relieved himself of the hateful presence of
his son altogether. Even the link of a SYSTEM
attic vengeance, which had hitherto united them
was severed, and Alain was cast adrift without
either money or principle. The occasion of this
final separation between father and son was the
marriage of the latter with a girl of humble,
though honest extraction. This was good ex-
cGse for the remoTseless Van koeren So lie
availed himself of it by turning his son out Of
doors From that time forth they never met
Alan lived 4 life Of meagre dissipation. and
soon died, leaving behind him one child,
daughter. BY coincidence natural enough
Mr.. Van hoeren's death followed his SON almost
Immediately. He died as he had lived, sternlv
But those who We're around his couch in his last
moments, mentioned some singular facts con-
neeted with the manner of his death. y few
moments before he expired he raised himself IN
his bed, and seemed as if conversing with some
person invisible to the spectators. His lips
moved if in speech and Immediately after
ward he sank back, bathed in flood of tears
" Wrong wrongt' he was heard to mutter
feebly: then he implored passionately the for
giyeness of some one who he said was present
The death struggle ensued almost immediately
and in the midst of his agony he seemed wrest-
ling for speech All that could be found, how
ever, were a few broken words. = was wrong
My-unfounded- For Gods sake look in
You viii find" Having uttered these frag-
mentary sentences, he seemed to feel that the
power of speech had passed away forever. He
fixed his eyes piieously on those around him,
and with q great sigh Of grief, expired. | gath
cred these facts from his grand-d daughter and
Alain's daughter, Alice Van koeren, who had
been summoned by some friend to her grand
fathers dying couch when it was too late. 1t
was the first time she had seen him, and then
she saw him die,
The results of Mr.. Van koeren's death We're
nine DAYS wonder to all the merchants in New
York. Beyond small sum in the bank and
the house in which he lived, which was mort
gagged for its full value, Mr. Van koeren had
died pauperl To those who knew him, and
knew his affairs, this seemed inexplcable. Five
or six wears before his death he had retired from
business with a fortune Of over a hundred thou
+ sand dollars. He had lived quietly since then
was known not tn have speculated, and could