Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1859-07-26

daughter. whose gaze rested upon the in
animate mass. lay the old man, who few
inmates before had gloomily foretold his
own fate. Ard still the daughter gazed
on and on, and watched the proceedings
of her old nurse, who vainly sought to re-
store life to the mass. with sort of fas-
cinaion, the horror of which no words
can express. Byandby when the nurse
had turned away sorrowfully from her
useless task. the daughter came resolutely
nearer to the dead, whose eyes had closed
SO suddenly and mysteriously upon the
things Of this world. Forever aud ever
had the light gone out of those loving
eyes; forever and ever was the pulse
stilled, and the weary heart at rest. Peo.
| pie had whispered that be lad been a
hard, stern, even a cruel man. He might
have been so to The world, but to his
Inother!ess child he was ever kind.
The expression Of the dead mans face
reminded Milly of her sad promise. She
half fancied that the white lips moved as
! if to form the words she had so lately spo-
ken" Promise that you will not spare
my memory, but do what justice demands
Of you"
Half an hour aferward Mlly was seated
at her fathers desk, reading over and over
again, with her white face and compressed
| lip, letter addressed to herself in her
fathers hand writing And in the next
room, which the old nurse had solemnly
darkened, was sitting in death, the lines
on his rigid face growing slerner and
sterner, making him look even harsher
than he had in life. Without, the storm
having spent its fury, was moaning and
sobbing drearily-but through all and
over all, was the sound of the wafer dash
Ning fiercely, madly on the beach.
But Milly saw nothing, heard nothing
but that terrible secret, which the letter
had revealed. The familiar sights and
sounds within the house, the storm and
the raging sen outside, even that terribly
unfamiliar sight in the next room, was
nothing to her nothing when compared
with the secre, Of her fathers life.
Over and over again she read the letter
daughter" and ending with his signature
Each word in it, even the smallest was
weighed separately, until the reader again
reached the name at the bottom. In The
formal phraseoIpgy, and the clear, dis
tinct hand writing of the dead mau, was
the following traced:
81, Alexander Mason, being of sane
mind, and believing thai Heaven has
heard my prayers and will soon put
merci(ul ending to my life. do soemnly
affirm TO the truth of the following:-
Twenty years ago, 1 was a,lawyer, strug-
Cling for competence. Though ! was
strictly honest, and never descended to
any meanneSS, and had consequently
gained II good character, yet fortune was
slow to come to me. | was not over
young, and therefore beheld with keen
disappointment the years passing on,
which l had once fondly hoped would
bring me fame and wealth In the build |
ing which l occupied was another law
yer's Office lower down than my own, the |
occupant Of which | WAS once very init |
mate with. Both poor and friendless, |
both striving for the same object. Fred
ei:ck Vale and myself became fast friends
even our joys and sorrows Were shared |
in common. In may respects our fates
were alike-we had both known poverty
in our younger days, and we had been
friends at school, at college had gained |
the same honors, aad were at the time OF
which l write, both struggling for a live
lihood.
cit happened one day that man came
to my Office to abuse me for something
that had said or done in case in which
| had been engaged. | did not pay much
|.
be the rawlings of an angry man, and Of
not much Importance. Finally, when
nothing else could move me. he tainted
me with my obscure birth and poverty
he even struck me contemptuously. Then
[ could bear it no longer, but rising sud
denly. feiled HIM like an OK to the ground.
The blow killed him, though, Heaven
knows, did not mean it should-the next
instant | would have given worlds if 1 had
them, to have brought my victim back to .
life. But he was dead--even my slight
medical skill told me that; and in agony l :
turned away from the CLASSY, staring eyes
which seemed to reproach me for the deed
had committed. A thousand thoughts
- l. Il 'h"o"ol' n'y Lrei" with the iapidty
ygg ghpng h Bfson ee eeH BEAs WBEAss m1 ARgg FRaHdd
child were dying horrible death of star t
yation. | saw my name common by {
word all over my native land-and last of ,
Ill, | saw myself dying a disgraceful death 7
On the gallows. One way Of safety sug- |
gested itself to me, but by taking it L a
should commit another great wrong of par q
lllel enormity with this my first crime /
But l could not resist the temptation and {
at an hour when 1 knew
Fredrick was absent from his office, re- d
moved the body from my apartment into d
lis. wished to fix the suspicion of the S
murder upon him, and 1 succeeded ad- a
nirably. He was arrested, but owing to t
he absence of some link in the chain of t
evidence, he was anquitted, without the
eal murderers being brought to light s
But though Fredrick went forth free man b
he faint of murder hung about him. e
People Stunned him, he became terribly t
'oor, his wife died of broken heart, his a
,Yn health failed and he hacann n rnisnrn. :;