The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-13
stock Quotation. BY Teleurnpn-s p. M.
BODY NO. =
Romance and Renltty-An Unpublished CEnp
ter of the Mississippi Horror.


Every steamboat disaster, with its attendant loss
of life, either developes or terminates some life
of these we td in the iosyie ,L'rnni of Novemo oo
Der ., and transfer to our columns as followss--
dhnE fysts 4se S n ss
hair done up in braids and hanging low the neck the
resting on table, and riding gloves ear ngs orehoad
msnted MTs %me ch No. @ 'ale Iel a
Democrat report or The Sto"eirau disaster.
This was all there was about "Enma Fitch" and
the report went on with the terrible story of the
wreck; of bodies discovered and bodies lost; or
bodies stark and cold OF bodies charred and black
ened and the bodies that had been found were all
systematically numbered, so that the reporter, in
making up the list gave every dead body para
graph and piled them one above another in the
newspaper columns, for the better identification by
the friends who might be searching for the lost.
In all the account, however, there was, perhaps,
no mere significant paragraph than that about the
photograph. Mrs. Emma Fitch was among the lost,
but this was all there was that told OF the unhappy
fate of this singular woman She was well known in
Louisville and her history Is familiar to many per-
sons in this city. If we have been correctly in
formed, Mrs. Fitch, she called herself, was the
daughter of respectable citizen of Louisville now
dead her maiden name was Serena Talbot. When
a girl her parents almost idoliZed her, and when,
as she was budding into WomanhoOd she be-
came the wife OF one OF our wealthiest business
meD, 1t seemed to her doting father that
his darling child was being torn from him forever
| Petted and spoiled though she was and more doll
than awife, the husband loved her and did every
thng IN ms power to promote hGr happiness: He
| drove In her carriage from her beautiful country
| residence whenever she had occasion to visit her
parents. 1ootman and all the modern magnii-
ceDce calculated to inspire pedestrian awe accom-
panied the carriage. and many an envious eye
| turned that way whenever her Shimmerng chariot
| wheels sounded their genteel coming behind two
| spanking bays-or greys, they may have been. She
came @ 10 NE CITY often, aud although she seemed
the happiest OF wives, her father since her mar
| riage, had been the unhappiest OF men,
| and it was not long before her parents were
urging her 10 abandon her husband and return TO her
old home. Strange to say, they ut length succeeded
i'll persuadne her to return, and to the infinite
tonlsnment OF her husband ne was Obliged to give
deal OF attention at the time and much sympathy
was expressed for the husband, who was highly es-
| teemed as aworthy as well as wealthy gentleman.
In order TO be entirely free from him, the capTicous
| Serena wentaway to Washington, where she remained
six months in order TO obtain divorce. She waited
in vain at the capital for the divorce was refused
| Next she made pilgrimage to Indiana, where the
divorce was finally granted, and thus healed OF ma
| ulInOny sne came home.
Here was a most unprcmising beginning for
young woman, and a very extraordinary sort OF life
| followed upon this beginning, rs might well have
been expected. The divorced Wife, in the course OF
| time, lell victim to second love and married an
Se wifi ny ~ te name OF sw % t Gose GerI o against
last man, but strutted his brief hour in this locality
10 some advantage. The ialr serena, as Mrs Swift,
soon developed into an actress, but on making her
debut was Kissed from the stage and her theatrical
career then and there saw the beginning OF its end.
| Her dramatic associations ruined her. and in the
OF time she became separated from her second
| husband, from whom she was frally divorced. Her
father, il is said died OF broken heart after her
1 second marriage
| Next she became notorious as the paramour OF
| Major Fitch a Michigan officer, who was for some
| time Provost Marshal at TINS point. lie was soon
ruined. lie went TO ST. Louis TO escape her, but was
/ more than useless He even lost a situation as
driver OF street cur, so utterly worthless had he
become Mrs Fitch" got aboard the steamer Stone
| wall at st. Louis in company with female friend,
intending to go to New Orleans and both she and
her companion were lost in the terrible disaster at
| Neeleys Landing How they died. whether by fire
| or food, may never be known. The hot names OF
| the burning wreck may have been their winding
SneeU, or the dark waters may nave closed over JleIn
as they struggled with the resistess current. What
ever may have been their fate, certainly the case OF
one looks very much If 1t were terrible retribu-
ton, long withheld but sure as the vengeance OF an
| offended God always is