The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-10-29
A strange story.

About ten years ago, the hand OF q
young lady, whose father had passed be-
yondI the stage of mere scompetepce vim
point Of worldly ssubstance, in st. Louis,
was sought by amerchant. Pressing his
suit for some time, he; was finally accept
ed by The parents, and being q agentleman
OF means, the marriage took place with
considerable eclat and display. On his
part, he was in earnest, and was all affec-
tionate suitor; but by the parents of tho
young lady it was degraded to the degree
of marriage q la mode. Their own es-
tablishment was set up, aud tho hand
soonest and most elegant appointments
provided for n luxurious and wealthy
home; but it lacked the very essential
that will make n palace of cot. One Of
the clerks in the store of the young wo-
mans 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 car
ried away, to surrender the hand of tho
woman whose heart he already possessed.
The kind of life the married couple led
will not bear repeating. The husband
tried every expedient to win the woman,
who always regarded him with esteem,
but never with affection.
One morning he found his home de-
serted by his wife, and q note telling him
no. to pursue her, that it would be a
| hopeless task. He Immediately commu-
nicated with the father of his wife, and
to his utter astonishment found that the
tides achates, the confidential clerk Of his
father-in- law, had also absconded, taking
with him sum of money, but not enough
to endanger the interests and prospects
Of the house. BY system of hushing
only known to those in such entangle-
ments, tho whole transaction was con-
oealed from the public. The husband,
wearied out by the absence of the woman,
finally obtained divorce on the ground
of desertion. He married again, and
with his second wife lived happily. Last
summer sho died, leaving motherless n
boy and girl, both interesting, sprightly
children.
Tho truant woman (this part of the
story We have from her own lips) accom-
panied her paramour and lover to the
plains. The first year they spent at Cen
Colorado, the lover, with his small CAPT.
tai, filched from his employers safe, and
his knowledge of business, being able to
do some mining trade and to nuke some
money. Thence, they went to Salt Lake
and into Southern Utah, and finally drift
ed with the tide of ad venture to the mines
of Nevada. No tidings of their where
about or meanderings ever reached the
ears of the hoart-broken parents and
stricken husband. At last, ill fortune
befell them. He grow sick, and their
accumnlations gradually wasted away
The States began to have more attractions
than heretofore, and they drifted East
ward. The lover, who, in the loose civil
lization of the frontier, regarded himself
as the lawful husband, established n
clearinghouse on the Central Pacific
Railroad Here he died. Alone in the
world, tho woman came back, and when
she landed in Council Bluffs was utterly
pennilcss. Repentant, only as woman
can be ropentant, even to despair, she
wrote to her father, but both parent be-
ing dead, the letter fell into the hands of
the executor, who showed it to tho bcreft
husband. The latter camo here rs speed
| lily us possible, and met his long lost
and truant wife.-4S. Joe Union.