New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-11-19
oonn,II,iaI and Frse-Eove Troubles Of an
Aged millionaire. @~
A srRANan MELopRAMA CLOSES IN a MAD nous


A STRANGE MEI.oDRANA CLOSES IN a MAD HOUSE.
Some ten years since, a wealthy merchant of
Boston retired TO the classic regions of the White
Mountains, TO enjoy during his declining years tne
quiet he so much needed, after having lived two
thirds of century among the busy marts OF
crowded city, and during which period lie had
seldom permitted himself to go on pleasure ex-
enrsion beyond the boulevards of the Athens of
America. But having acquired, not competence
merely, but fortune that would enttie him to @
position among millionares, he hoped to find that
happiness inresrement, which he had vainly sought
amid the noisy rounds of business and the mono
tony of mercantile life-
Nor, judging from the surface were his hopes
ill-grounded. Having passed his sStyffth year,
he apparently out OF the reach of those youth
full follies which SO frequently ruin younger men
not protected by active employment. His health
was much better than that of most men OF his age ;
his conduct had always been exemplary, and he
was not required to spend the latter half of his
life in atoning for the fraties of his youth. His
wife, to whom he had been united for more than
forty years. Still lived TO cheer him. and his children
were all happily settled around him. The spot he
had chosen for his retirement was peculiarly adapt
ed to gratifying every legitimate desire. The clas-
sic scenery the pellucid lakes and rivers, the noble
forests combined to crafty the senses. His home
was decorated with everything beautiful and pleas
ing that cultivated fancy could suggest. lis
grounds and gardens were such Us noyeiIsts dehght
to describe, aud artists TO paint; in a word, all
things around him-both in nature and art--Were
all that any rational mind could desire.
But in this paradise the serpent entered. He
who had successfully resisted all the temptations
of the CITY, who had happily overcome all the fol-
lies of youth, fell like shattered citadel, when
! the danger was apparently past.
1t is unnecessary to relate the manner IN which
| the tenptress wound herself into the old mans
| heart, alter sixty eight winters had passed over
| him; but, so she did, and he consented to leave
| home, friends, relatives, wife, and fly, with the
greater part of his fortune, to the West. Arriving
EAit,n bAo he
of 10, took rooms in aretred quarter of the city,
where they lived, unknown to the world, Tor about
/ two years, when the old man, who had been rem
| drred miserable by his new life, was made still
more wretehed by the intelligence OF the death OF
| his deserted, heaFt-broken wife. His sorrow, the
compunctiens Of conscience, the pr0mptings OF his
better nature, however, were Of no avail to dfsen
thra him from the subtle coil OF the serpent vice
| that had firmly fixed his worldly doom.
/ His paramOuf has, up to this time, apparently
| used every eSeriien to make him happy. She
| was playing for an enormous stake-the old man's
fortune-snd she hoped by Kindness to induce him
To settle the greater portion Of it upon her, TO the
1 exclusion ot his children. Now that his wife was
no mere, she determined at once to place herself
i in a position to command that which she had hopee
| to win by caresses. She therefore represented Il
him that oil obstacles to their legal union haf
been removed their transgressi0n might be binttet
out by legal marriage, which was eonsummatet
accordingly.
But The ambitious bride still failed to induce he
husband to settle his estate npon her; and hoping
| that she might by coercion, compel him to do 81
she changed the whole line of her conduct. AM
was as studous hoN to render him wretehed as sh
had before been soiicttans for his happiness unit
he sunk beneath the weight of his cares, and ht
. once well-balanced mind gave indications oil az
erration.
At this iuncture she applied for divorce, havin
been told by legal adviser that she could by tha
proceeding ut once come in possession OF ont
third OF the estate, without WaitGg Tor the O.