The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-10-27
ONE MORE UNFORTUNATEI |
Seduction Of n School Girl and Her
Subsequent Abandonmenf---she BE
comes INSANE and n Homeless WAN
derer---shc browns herself md In-
FAINT Son.

derer---She browns herself md fn-
FAINT Son.
GFrom the Detroit Free Press, 29th.l
At Painesville, Ohio, is very popular
female seminary, where the youg ladies'
are kept under the most careful surveil-
lance, and where one would naturally
suppose tempter could not gain adj
mission. Except on Wednesday after
noon, male visitors are not admitted,
and then no opportunity is afforded
for obtaining private interview,
Attracted by the reputation of this
school, and anxious to give his child
every advantage in his power Mr..
John Colwell, farmer living near
Erie. Pennsylvania, sent his daughter
Della, a very pretty girl, some sixteen
wears of age, to this seminary. For
some time her conduct was such as to
command the respect and esteem ot,her
teacher and to win for her the enviable
position of the model scholar in the
institution. She excelled both in schol-
arship and conduct, and the most flat
ering accounts were awarded to her
parents.
During one of the Wednesday recep-
tiOns, young man named Henry Brand,
plausible and well dressed, yet having
no regular occupation, became acquaint-
ed with Miss Colwell, and from the
sequel it is apparent, succeeded in
making favorable impression. Eva
ding the rules of the school, stolen in
terviews were managed between the
pair, and u clandestine correspondence
kept up for some weeks without detec-
ton. They at last became careless, and
the matron of the seminary, discovering
the affair, forbid Miss Colwel leaving
the house after dark, and put stop to
the visits of young Brand upon recep-
ton days. The precaution was then
taken too late for the happiness of the
poor girl, who, loving the young man,
had placed her honor and her life i'll his
keeping. She determined not to be de-
barred the pleasure of his society, and
rope ladder having been procured, he
was enabled, under the cover of dark
ness, to ascend to her room, which was
in the second story, and there pass hours
in her company. sometimes the whole
night.
Excitement, loss of sleep, and the pre-
occupation of mind consequent uponthlS
course of life gradually told upon the
spirits and habits of study of the young
Girl, and she surely and rapidly retro
gadcd in her studies until her position
became one of the worst and most un-
enyiable in the school. Such course
could not be carried on without eXcit-
inc suspicion and remark, and watch
being put upon her, Mr.. Brand was de-
tected while in the very act of entering
her window. After such discovery 1t
was, of course. q matter of impOSsibillty
| that she could longer be retained III the
institution, and she was, the next day;
after being formally expelled in the
presence of the school, confined to her
room until her parents could be sum-
moncd to conduct her home.
In compliance with request which
Brand found means to communicate 10
her, Miss Colwcll met him at one of the
hotels in the town, and arrangements
for an elopement and marriage were
perfected between the two, they having
settled upon Cleveland as their future
home Before this plan could be carried
out, Mr.. Colwell arrived and found his
daughter at the depot waiting for the
train upon which she contemplated
| leaving Painesville; he at once took
charge OF her, and, after delivering Il
well deserved ChaStiSemcnt to Brand,
started with her for home. The pun
| ishment he had received aroused all the
worst passions i'll the breast of the
Young man and he determined to sue
ceed in attaining the object ofhis desires
ut any cost or trouble. He, there
fore. unknown to Mr. Colwell, took the
same train with them, finding some
means to communicate the fact to Della,
who in obedience to request from him
managed to cvadc the vigilance of her
| father, and at Girard, where train
moving in an opposite direction met
them, to change cars and return with
her lover to Paincsvillc, while her faith
er was rapidly being whirled along i'll
an opposite direction. At the first
station at which the train stopped they
| left it and, on foot, proceeded to a
place where they procured Il conveyance
| to Conneaut, Ohio, and there took
passage for this city on the scow Sea Bird,
which was bound for Saginaw for a
load of lumber. Arriving in Detroit
about the first of July, they pro-
cured board at Germans on Hastings
street, and there lived together for a
short time as man and wife, although
they had never been married and
Brand refused to legalize their con-
nection. The natural results having
ensued Miss Colwell found herself about
to become a mother, and the fact being
apparent to her seducer, he, either be-
ing afraid of the consequences, or be-
coming tired of his victim, abandoned
her in a strange city, without money
and without friends.
The people with whom she was
boarding could not keep her without
that compensation which it was not in
her power to give. Her situation pre-
cluded the possibility of her working
for living, and, overcome by her mis-
fortunes she lost her senses and become
wretched wanderer, without shelter
and without food, In this condition
she remained till about two weeks
since, when she was discovered in an
alley near Hastings street, in the very
pangs of labor. Some charitable per-
SOllS Ill lllt NlClillN tooh hcl w thSh
own home, tended her through her great
trial, and cared for her and her infant
son until yesterday morning, when they
missed her and her babe, the room she
had occupied being vacant. a search
for her resulted in finding, at the foot
of Hastings street, the shoes which she
had worn and the clothing of the child.
In all human probability she has
sought, in watery grave, that peace
which she could never find on earth. |
The river has been dragged, but without
finding the bodies of either mother or
child.
Although Henry Brand did not with
his own hand take the life of this syoung,
confding girl, he is as guilty of murder
as though he had done so. He will go
through life with the brand of Cain on
his brow, man accursed and Stunned.
AS for the victim of his wiles, may we
not hope that she has in this life eSpi-
ated her errors, and that in another and
a better world her sins have been for
| piypn bar