The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-08-05
A SAD TALE OF REAL LIFE.
From the Chicaeo Times .JuIv 81

anu sWllt, olllootH HOW Vi everyday COHllHoll-
places, carries beneath its bosom romances of
the most startling interest, to which the most
dramatic conceptions of Dumas and Dickens
furnish only faint analogues. These sharply
wrought, concentrated acts Of human life are
for the most part buried in the obscurity OF
individual experience and it is only occasion
allv that they are brought to light by some
accident. and thus reach the eye of the pub
lie, to enlist the svmpathies, or shock the
sensjbilities. of the reader. In lieu of ability
to sound the depths Of that mysterious stream
of thought and action that we call society,
and reveal the wonders that glitter beneath
the surface, many journals are cursed with
the morbid habit Of fabrcating extraordinary
novelties, and giving them to their credu-
lous readers as bona tide romances of real
life, when the material Of stern fact lies
about and beneath them superabundantly,
only needing the penetrating and thoughtful
eye to discover it. A petition for divorce,
filed within a few days in the Superior Court
of this city, covers a heart history OF the
most fascinating attraction to the Imagination
and in giving some of the details of this
striking episode, it may be stated that they
are most substantially true, and may be re-
lied on as drawn from the best authority. In
the year 1859, when this country was heaving
with the impending throes of that revolution
fair and smiling Swiss valley an interesting
family of wealth and culture, named Junod
A few miles from the city Of Neutchatel,
where the romantic river Seyon makes its
| c7nbouchu1e with the beautiful lake, stood q
| chateau embowercd in trees, and possessing
| all the attractions that art and nature could
contribute to make an enchanting home
Monsieur Junod found his sole pride and
happiness in Il lovely daughter, who had just
shot up into q superb womanhood, that made
her the most admired belle of that portion Of
the conton. The father, a man of stern.
solitary nature, the descendant of long line
of seigneural proprietors, who had exercised
the rights of lordship over all the beautiful
somewhat fallen from the state Of his fore
fathers, still nourished the feelings of ances-
trail pride which had been always character
istic of his race. In the lovely Luce his
daughter, his nature found q free expression
for the deep emotions of fatherly tenderness.
Living in daily communion with the most
sublime and picturesque revelations Of ma
ture, the lofty heights of the Jura, that lifted
their frowning brows into the clouds, the
wilderness of vines, rich with fruit and
blossoms, the waving grain fields, and the
sparkling waters Of Lake Neulchatel, set like
gem in the hoary hills, the young girl had
grown up. absorbing the influences of nature
in her development, till she stood the fairest
| exhibition of all that nature had done. Thus
reared in all the tendcrcst Influences of ma
ture and affection, with every grace of cul
tllre and accomplishment that lavish wealth
could lend, what wonder that troops of suit
ors frcquented the chateau. Many fitted by
family and wealth to aspire to her hand,
vainly offered the tribute of affection. The
lady's heart was untouched; and the fathers
love and pride in the only scion Of his house
dictated to his ambition q choice far above
any that had Yet sued at the feet of his
daughter But the heart that failed TO yield
to addresses from an equal rank and station
wasted itself, as it not rarely does, on what
was beneath it. In some Of the merry
markings, peculiar to the wine-bearing dis
tricts, in which, by the time-honored require
ments of tradition, all ranks meet together
in common jubilee, Mile Lucie met with a
Young man named Gustave Flotrou, of per-
son handsome and attractive, and by trade a
matchmaker. The abnegation of everything
like social distinction enabled Flotrou to APP
proach the lady with a familiarity to which
he would otherwise never have presumed.
The vagaries of Cupid illustrated themselves
in the mutual impressions they made on each
other, in q very remarkable degree. The
lady forgot her rank. her pride the cNpecta-
tions which her doting father had formed for
her future, and fell blindly in love with the
humble matchmaker. He nattcrcd by the
preference, dazzled by her beauty. and, not
improbably, still more strongly attracted by
her fortune, ardently reciprocatcd. The first
meeting was followed by many Others Of
course clandestine in their nature Her in
famed fancy, united the innocent ineXperi
ence of girlhood, gave him every opportu-
| III l, hon
cepted lover The father still supposed that
his daughters heart was of virgin freshness,
knowing no love but the pure and lovely at-
lection of daughter to her father The day
of awakening came at last, and his wrath
and agony of spirit, wounded both in its
pride and its love, can be better imagined
than expressed. The daughter was forbid
den, under the severest threats, again to see
the audacious aspirant, who had thus smitten
the family peace The conflict between love
and duty ended as such wariares commonly
result-Cupid carried the day. The lady 5
determination was, perhaps, stimulated by
another condition Of the imbroglio whice was
not vet been mentioned. She was possessed
of fortune of $4,000 in her own right,
which made her comparatively independent
of those elements of choice which would
perhaps otherwise have influenced her deci-
sion. To condense a long story, she one
night made moonlight fitting with her de
voted swain, and ere Il hours had elapsed,
the twain became one. To avoid the unpleas-
ant circumstances Of living in a country
where all the facts were known, and where
she might any time meet her offended father,
the couple determined to come to the land of
freedom where money is the principal con-
dition of esteem and respect. Nine years
have elapsed, and what Il change has come
over the spirit Of her dream? The man for
whom she gave up all,-lelt u doting father,
and the splendid prospects to which she
might reasonably look forward, instead of
being the devoted atfectionatc husband
which her young love, in its ardent magma
tons, expected to find proved, according to
her allegations, to be Il brute and a sot His
lavish expenditure and reckless pursuit of all
kinds of pleasure gradually dissipated the
noble fortune she had brought him. Nalu-
able silver plate which she had also possessed
was conveyed by him to the silversmith's,
and converted into funds wherewith to pam
per his inordinate appetite The wife's ward
robe, and private jewels even, were not
sacred to him, but appropriated with brutal
disregard of the feelings Of her who had sac
rifced everything to his pleadings, and who
should have been as the apple of his eye.
One stroke of ill-treatment followed another
in swift succession, until Mrs. Flotrou, out