Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1857-07-30
FAYETTEVILLE, TENN: THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1857

formation, and ! looked at her S
, that she turned pale and nearly faik
ed.
Don't kill me with your looks.
said she crying bitterly. i did al
, for the best, and you shall kno'
all.
You can imagine that neither sh'
, nor felt very pleasant about tha
time. One thought of mine was
+ for second, that | haG married ;
murd eress, or at least an acoomplic,
of guilt; and then, even her very
beauty, for she was handsome, seem
ed loathsome to me. What if sht
had been bad character? for knew
nothing Of her relations more thar
she had told me; and then the ole
proverb rang in my ears, Marry in
haste and repent at leisnreF
You must know, said she, in the
same musical voice which had first
attracted my notice on the night Of
the murder, that on the day before
that horrid affair, my brother came
home from New York. He had been
to sea, squandered nearly all bis
money in that city, and in some low
tavern where he stopped, he watched
by the bedside Of a dying man.
That man told him that he had been a
prosperous tradesman in that city
but that things had finally gone be-
| hind hand. and that he had been
forced to fly from the examination
of his affairs. What goods he had
left had been seized, bat he had
concealed thousand dollars in specie
| in box buried in the cellar, on the
night when fear of sudden arrest for
fraud had caused him to decamp,
Since then be had become wanderer
! not daring to return. and now sick
ness and destitution had come TO
avenge his creditors on him. He
described where he had placed the
box, and with his dying breath urged
my brother to secure it and give it
to those he had defraudcd, in partial
atonement for the wrong. My brother
promised;but on coming home he told
me the story, and said that poverty
had made fhe prize too tempting.
You will not use the money your
SELF said |. God never prospers the
dishonest
Yes he does said 10 n, angrily..
IF he did not there wouldn't be SO
many rich people. and the poor would
get their own
I told him the money wasn't his
own, but he wouldn't listen to me,
and that very day be brought home
with him two rough-Iooking men and
he agreed to give them share if
| they would aid him in getting the
money that night. They then sent
out for drink, and caroused and swore,
aud when John was asleep | heard
them in another room, say how much
better it would be, when be got
the money, to kill him and share it
between them When John awoke
| | tried to persuade him not to go, but
he was furious and would not listen,
and SO ! came to you as my only
resource. 'Oh, if | had only waited
and given the alarm, concluded my
wife. moaning aloud, what happened
would not have happened. But |
thought you would be there to pre-
vent it.
| was astonished at this disclosure,
and now suspected that the man who
gave the false alarm must have been
one Of the accomplices.>
why didn't you appear as a wit
ness against the men?' / asked.
i did't know what might happen
to me, and was afraid! The accounts
in the papers frightened me. But |
remembered your name in the reports,
and when we became acquainted by
chance, recognized you, but feared
to tell yon, not knowing what you'd
think of me. But now you know
all. 1t has been a sad secret TO keep,
and often when you spoke of the
murder, I longed to tell you it was
my poor brother John Hagner, who
was murdered.
] l comfortcd her as well as | could,
and asked if she knew the mems
names; but she said she had never
known, though she remembered their
having said they were sailors IN the
navy, and she thought at the time
/ that they might have shipped in a
sloop of.war. which shortly after the