The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-02
HESTER VAUGHAN.

her Pardon.
The New York World, in its yesterday
mornings issue, devoted three columns and a
half to detailing the history of Hester Vaughan,
and the crime for which she has been SEN
fenced to die. The article was headed:-'A
movement to rescue girl from the gallows; a
story of outrage and suffering; sisterly charity
in the City of Brotherly Love; woman's neglect
Of prison work; 10000 petitions for a negro
murderer, and none for an innocent woman -
We make the following extracts from the
article in the World:-
HRR STORY.
She is a little English girl, rather short and
stout, with light brown hair, pretty mouth
and neat teeth, a clean and bright comp plexion,
fine, broad forehead, and large brown eyes
sweet trusting face altogether, showing her
30 be a woman of a confding, viny nature,
who would cling to one she loved through
good and evil treatment, and who would suffer
and keep silence rather than let others know
OF her troubles. Her name is Hester Vaughn.
She has lain in Moyamensing Prison, in
Philadelphia, for ten months, and for five of
them has been under sentence Of death for
murder in the first degree.
''If there is anything in physiognomy or
phrenology," said Mrs. Kirke, 81 could not
believe even after first looking into her face,
that she was guilty of the crime of which she
is charged"
all SAIL THE SEAS OVER, I'LL CROSS THE WIDE
OCEAN.
This is her story
She landed in New York February s, 1866,
with her husband, John Harris, native of
Wales. He married her on the Sd of August,
1865, when she was twenty years old, in Glou-
eestershire, England, where she lived with her
father. Her mother was dead. After being
six months married she left her native place
pleasant region known for its orchards and
gardens and cornfelds, near by where
1.-THE Avon to the Severn runs,
The Severn to the sea;'
and crossed the ocean for the sake Of this
person, who is called John Harris. She says
she thought he was an honorable man and she
loved him. He was house-carpenter, and
she lived with him in this country at places
where he could get work. until finally, in April,
1866, they moved to Pottsville, Pa.
A DEsERTIoN.
Harris had left her several times for num-
Der of days at time without giving very
satisfactory explanation of his whereabouts,
and 'he began to seem verysstrange," " she
says; and she now believes that he had
another wife in this country. While at Potts
vile he told her that he was obliged to go to
Philadelphia to buy carpenters tools, and he
he had stolen her marriage certificate, and
taken with him everything valuable belong
ing to them,
She Las never seen him since.
AN OUTRAGE.
She was handy girl about the house, and
understood all the mysteries Of the dairy, and
to earn support she hired herself out at
Pottsville as maid. She remained there five
months, and then went to Jenkintown and
lived at the house of Mr. Hewetts. She sub
sequently lett Mr. Hewetts and went to another
house as dairy-maid. There she formed the
ACQUAINTANCE of a man whose name nothing
will persuade her 20 disclose, who, with force,
compelled her to submit to his desires, as she
protests, "once, and only once" 1t was in
the dark. She was alone, away from every
body, and she yielded TO mere physical force.
All this was told to Mrs. Kirke and Mrs.
DIR. Lozier in disconnected and ineonsecutive
conversation. She shranll a little from them
at first but when they assured her that they
did not visit her from curiosity but with a
desire to help her, she soon spoke with them
freely, and told all her story to them in broken
parts, and in answer to inquiries while Mrs.
Kirke took down the main facts in pencil.
She told in her plaintive way, yet quite
calmly, of leaving her father, and of her hus-
bands desertion of her; but when she spoke
of the wrong done her by the man whose
name she protects she became tremulous, and
finally broke down and burst into tears.
This man is the cause of her subsequent
shame and misery, but with her quiet, tender,
aud decided refusal, and with an infinite
mercy for those depending on him, she puts
of all questions concerning him.
"He is married now," she says, 'and she ia
an innocent and good woman who is his wife,
and he has child, and there has been misery
enough now, without any more coming out
of it,"
tDid you love him Y' asked Mrs. Kirlze.
"NOW quite emphatically).
"But suppose, Hester,' said Mrs. Kirke,
'that your life or your getting out of this
place should depend on your disclosing his
name Y'
"Well, ladies'" said she, 'T don't know,
but don't think l would ever tell his name.''
THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF HER CHILD.
After three months, feeling her shame, filled
with apprehension of the future, friendless
and deserted, she left Jenkintown and went to
Philadelphia to hide herself in the solitude OF
the great city. She carried a little money
with her, and she hoped to save more by living
frugally and working wherever she could find
opportunity.
She hired a little room at Ne. 7O3 Girard
avenue for So month, and lived there with
only furnace which she cooked by, table,
two chairs, and a mattress for furniture, and
struggled for subsistence. There were plenty
OF temptations, Heaven knows, when she went
out into the Streets to an easier life; and in al
her trouble and struggle, with the horrid fast
Ofher actual disgrace pressing upon her day
by day more heavily, with poverty and misery