The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1869-11-04
A STR.,NGE STORY.
Recovery Of a Wife After Ten Years Absence
From the st. Joe, Mo-, Union1 .Ff

TFrem the St. joe Mo-, Union.]
About ten years ago the hand of young
lady, whose father had passed beyond the stage
of mere competence in point Of worldly sub
stance, in the city of St. Louis, was sought by
merchant. Pressing his suit for some time,
he was finally accepted by the parents, and,
being gentleman of means, the marriage
took place with considerable eclat and display
| On his part he was in earnest, ard was an af
| fectionate suitor but by the parents of the
young lady it was degraded to the doeree of
marriage la mode. Their OVID establish.
ment was set up, and the handsomest and
| most elegant appointments provided for lux
urious and wealthy home but it lacked the
very essential that will make palace Of cot,
One of the clerks in the store Of the young
woman's father was the wolf which beset that
| household Between him and her there had
been clandestine courtship, and he was 10th,
when the prize was carried away, to surren-
der the hand Of the woman whose heart he
already possessed. The kind of life the mar
riedl couple led will not bear repeating. The
husband tried every .expedient to win the iwo-
man, who always regarded him with, esteem,
but never with affection. Il
lone morning he found his home deserted
by his wife, anda note telling him not to
pursue her, that it would be hopeless task
He Immediately communicated with the faith
OF ofhis wife, and, to his utter establishment,
found chat the .tfdes achdtes, the confidential
clerk of his father in law, had also abseonded,
taking with him sum of money, but not
enough to endanger the interests and prospects
ofthe house. BY system Of hushing only
knows to those in such entanglements, the
whole transaction was concealed from the pub
lie. The husband wearied out by the absence
of the woman, finally obtained a divorce on
the ground ofdesertion. He married again,
and with his second wife lived happily. Last
summer she died, leaving motherless boy
and girl, both interesting, sprightly children.
The truant woman (this part of the story
we have from her own lips) accompanied her
paramount and lover to the plains The first
year they spent at Central City and other mi
ming points in Colorado, the lover, with his
small capital flched from his employers safe,
and his knowledge of business, being able to
do some mining trade and to make some mon
cy Thence they went to Salt Lake and into
southern Utah, and finally drifted with the
tide of adventure to the mines of Nevada
No tidings of their whereabouts or meander-
ings ever reached the ears of the heart broken
parents and stricken husband AT last ILL
fortune befell them. He grew sick andtheir
Accommodations gradually wasted away, The
States began to have more attractions than
heretofore and they drifted eastward. The
lover, who, in the loose civilization ofthe FROM
tier, regarded himself as the lawful husband,
established boarding house on, the. Central
Pacific railroad.
a Here he died Alone in the world the wo
man came back, and when she landed in
Council Bluffs was utterly pennilcss. r pen
tant only as woman can be repentant, even
to despair, she wrote to her father, but both
parents being dead, the letter fell into the
hands Of the executor, who showed it to the
ibereft husband. The latter came here as
speedily as possible, and met his long lost and
trrant wife, -e. it,. s---..r