Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-12-17

4 WIFE SPENDS TWENTY-EIGuT YEARS IN
SEARCHING FOR HER HUsBAND-sHE FINDS
iHM IN ctEvELAND-THE HISTORY OF HER
SEARCH.
From the Cleveland Herald, November es.h.l
In the beginning of 1910, Henry Letting
well was a well to do mechanic, living near
the suburbs of London, England. In the
month of March of that year larceny was
committed near his residence, and circum-
stances pointed to him as the perpetrator.
He was arrested, examined before one OF
the stpendiary magistrates, and fully COM
mitted for trial. A month after he was con-
victed and sentenced to hard labor in the
penal colony of Australia for period of ten
years, and in less than week thereafter he
was ON his way to tho far off land. His de-
voted wife, who all the time firmly believed
in her husbands innocence, at once made
preparations to follow and remain near him
during his confinement, so that she might
be the first, when his ticket of leave came,
to cheer him with good counsel, and comfort
him with wifely love. The ship containing
the convict arrived safe, and her cargo of
living human beings was at once transferred
to the government Work Houses. Not SO,
however, the ship upon which Mrs. Letting
well embarked, When about half way upon
her Journey the vessel encountered fearful
storm, and after buifeting the waves for two
days, foundered and went down, the crew
and Mrs. Leffingwell barely escaping upon
raft hastily constructed when it was found
that the ship could not be saved. After an
exposure OF several days they were picked
up by the American ship North Wind, bound
from New York to China, where Mrs. Left
ingwell was at length landed, only to find
herself further than ever from her destina-
ton, and with no immediate prospects of
reaching it. After several months ofpatient
watching and waiting, she was enabled,
| Consul, then residing at Yeddo, to procure
passage to Cuba, whence the prospect of
| reaching Australia would be much improved.
Passing over space of a year and a half, In
which Mrs. Leffingwell passed through
many scenes calculated to try firmer resolu-
tions than hers, but through which she clung
TO her resolve with true English obstinacy,
she finally found herself ON the shores Of
| Australia, but as much at loss concerning
the exact locality of her husbands whcrea-
bouts, as she would be of needle for which
she would be hunting in hay NOW.
She perscvered, however, but four long
years passed away before she was enabled
to obtain the slightest trace of her husband,
from the fact that when once landed from
the ship, each convict receives-a number,
by which he is only known to his keepers.
Mrs. Leflingwel knew not her husbands
number, and when she made inquiries fol
him she was always bafiled with the ques.
tion, ''His number, ma'am p AT the end
of the time spoken of, during which hel
means had become exhausted, and she had
been compelled to resort 10 menial labor
she one day picked up Sydney paper, in
which was an account of her husbands re.
lease, the real criminal ofthe larceny having
hann found and aynorfed The apcp1ln1
gave her husbands number and the facts
which convicted him in so precise q manner
that she could not long doubt as to who wa:
meant Her course was marked out at once
Going to the prison authorities of Sydney
she at length learned that ''ticlet Of leav,
man No. 1856" her husbands number hat
left the island for the United States of Arser
lea two weeks after his release. The mex
thing for her to do was to follow him.
lScraping together her scanty means, sh
Ifound she possessed barely enough to pa,