The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1867-05-01

| never shall sleep with an Englishman.
/ The Captain was summoned Whel
NJ. Was convinced that he coul'
not have cabin entirely to himself, h
begged me to take the Englishman'
place. The latter consented to the chang
Of cabins. / became NJ. ks ship
mate He made me read two or thre
letters of his beautiful Creole every day
He had at least forty of them.
! | had been some months in America
when, after landing III New Orleans,
met NJ. X. He said to me, s'Nell
it was perfectly successful"
| cit? what p
"Why, my scheme. I had the hus
band sent to an insane asylum the divorce
was decreed. ard | married his wife,.
NJ. X-spoke with perfect serious
ness. I was full of horror to think of SC
monstrous an act. I said to him : '-You
have restored abundant means to satisfy
your love. Have you no remorse~
"No Ihave no remorse but / have some
regret at having succeeded so WE'LL fit
was not much more difficult to get a sane
man out of mad-ho than to send him
there, to declare a divorce null than to
dissolve marriage, and if it was not i'm
possible to persuade an unmarried hus-
band would have resumed his original
position and mine"
HAS not your marriage proved hap
Ply one?"
"Alas have discovered too late that
happiness is not found in this world, eth
er in the new or old world"
The fascinating Creole who had, with
SO much alacrity, taken measures to get
her first husband adjudged lunatic,
made her second husband so unhappy
by her incessant whims and caprices that
NJ. X-became really crazy. lie was
| carried to an insane asylum upon good
ground of reason, and he soon died there
in state of complete prostration.
As for the first husband, the pseudo
lunatic, he laughed heartily when he heard
the tragic end Of his successor to the IA
vors of his extended half He obtained
liberty, and confessed he had cheerfully
feigned lanacy; because he was afraid he
would really become SO if he did not
get rid ofhis wife.
The greater lunatic of the two was not
he who passed for the madman.-Le don
ateur Unavcrsal.
GATHERING THEM HoME.-We relate
the. following incident Of the late, war,
which came to our knowledge while max
ing trip in the cars, on Monday to Peters
burg. to show how some families have suf-
fered in the South: A young gentleman,
Of fine personal appearance and of soeiable
disposition, occupied the adjoining seat to
US. We soon entered into conversation,
and learned from some remarks he let fall
that he had belonged to the Army of the
West during the war, and that the object
of his visit to Virginia, was to reclaim
and carry home the bodies Of two of his
brothers, who had fallen victims to rapa-
cious war on the battlefield or in the hos
pital, within the borders of our State.
His name-for We are permitted to give
twas E. L. Sykes, and he belonged to
the Fifth Mississippi regiment, Eve could
have sworn that he was Mississippian or
Louisianian,) which was commanded by
his brother, Colonel w. L. Sykes. who fell
at the head Of his regiment in the terri
BILE battle Of Chickamauga. This brothers
body he had already taken home and buri-
ed in the humble church yardat Aberdeen,
Mississippi, their, native town. A second
brother, whose body he had in the cars
with him, named Lieutenant L. w. Sykes,
was an Aid de- Camp on the staff of Gener-
al Gregg's Texas brigade. He was killed
on the 10Th Of August, 1864, in the affair
on the Darbotown road and Mr. Sykes
was on his way to Petersburg to exhume
the remains Of third brother, Lieutenant
J. A. Sykes, who was Adjutant Of the
Seventeenth Mississippiregiment, and died
of sickness contracted in the service dur
ing the campaigns of '61 and 60. These
two he would now take home and place by
the side of their brother, in the family
burying ground at Aberdeen. It was the
last duty he could perform for them. Ola
happy family offour when the war broke
out, he the youngest, alone was left; and
had passed unscathed through the ordeal
of battle from '-Shiloh to the end" Ter
rible war! thou art indeed ruthless sun
derer of the ties of kindred, and fell
destroyer Of family circles? Gather them
home, these jewels of their country, and
deck their tombs with the evergreen OF
grateful remembrance-Rtchmend Ec
| dnainer
STR1KETHE KNoT.-"Strike the knot"
said gentleman one day to his son, who,
tired and weary, was leaning on his axe
over log which he had in vain been try
ing to cleave. Then, looking at the log
the gentleman saw how the boy had hack
ed and Clipped all around the knot with
out hitting it. Taking the axe, he struck