The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-09-26
IFaom the New Orleans Picayune.l
A DETECTIVES EXPERIENCE.
The Decoy's Victim.

| 81 can tell you an event which, al
though it did not come within the
sphere Of my own business relations,
yet was within my personal observa-
ton, and for the correctness of which l
can vouch," said Mr. F, as the re-
porter seated himself to hear some Incl
dent connected with his experience as a
detective.
"a young KentuGkian had come to
the city in the winter of 1S5-, as many
do, purely for pleasure. Ofgreat wealth,
and by no means careful of his personal
associates, he soon plunged iRto ca
reer of dissipation which rapidly fitted
him to become the victim of one of the
most remarkable women of her age.
This person was the wife of noted
gambler. She had apartments at the
most fashionable hotel, and acted as a
decoy to her prodigate and unscrupu-
| lous cousort. She was a Spanish Gre
ole, and possessed every fascinating
! trait which have so distinguished the
woman of her race. But added to the
exquisite beauty of her person, she pOss-
essed an educated mind, aud was in re-
ality fitted to adorn any sphere in sOcie-
ty. Always dressed in robes that ever
enhanced her rich tropical beauty-easy
of access, and to the uninitiatcd suspec-
tible youth upon whom she lavished
every bewildering charm of manner and
address, it is not surprising she soon be-
came q creature at whose shrine both
heart and sense were gladly surrendered.
He accompanied her to the theaters,
balls ana parties, and as the. influences
of her artfully woven meshes became
each day stronger, and lie less capable
of resisting them, she gradually drew
him within the pale of her husbands
evil designs. Her elegantly appointed
parlor became the theater of little card
parties. at which costly wines and the
Establishments Of female beauty formed
a combination of attraction which his
blinded perceptions could not resist.
Step by step he was led along the road
to ruin.
He never saw his peril, or if he did, it
was discerned only to be forgotten in
the smile of his dark. eyed enchantress.
Vast sums had now swollen from the
pittances hazarded ut first. His own
means had been exhausted; his friends
had been appealed to, until they would
loan no longer; still unmindful of his
perilOus career, a criminal step was ta-
ken, and a forged draft supplied him
with the means he could not otherwise
procure. Another and another followed,
until the vast sums he had squandered
had absorbed every dollar Of his inner
itance. And now he awoke from his
dream Of passion, to realize the utter
hopelessness of his condition. Bank
rupt and criminal, single hope still
fingered around the memory OF his
wrecked life and fortune-Ono ray only
of possible happiness was left him as he
brooded on his sin, and that, the love of
the beautiful women who had ruined
him. To him she had become as an Ell
vira to Lamartine, the Heleise of
Abelard, and now in the cleft of his torn
heart he cherished her as a beautiful
flower in sweet memorial of happier
time. He knew she had ruined him;
he knew the beautiful casket shrIned
no jcwelry of purity; but he knew that
he loved her, despite Aer crimes and
his own. Flight was still left him; the
magnanimity of his friends and credit
Ors had left him this. From the COnsc-
quences of his crimes and the scOrn OF
his friends he perceived tho necessity of
this last alternative Of the criminal and
wretched outcast of society. Bnt before
he went he solicited and obtained an
interview with the woman he had look
ed upon as an angel and worshipped
her as such. WHAT passed at that
interview was never known or
ever will be. He had been in her pres
ence perhaps an hour, when the scream
of woman in deadly fright echoed
through the house, followed by the re-
port of a pistol. The startled servants
rushed to the apartment, bnt recoiIed
in horror. In the centre of the room,
bullet through the brain, lay the dead
body of the young Kentuckian-a sui
eide; beside him, rigid and pale as
death, stood the woman; but the light
of reason had fled from her eyes; n just
retribution had paralyzed her mind. The
spell of her enchantments were loosen
ed. and none afterward traced their ruin
to the gamblers maniac wife.