Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-05-19

*
NV rings. brooches, watch and chain, which
had BY this time been so frequently
pawned and repawned that / did not care
4 for them-and sold them all in Boston
u These were the last jewels l ever possess
4 el, except plain gold ring which IS thS
wedding ring placed on my hand by my
dead husband Mr.. Mcfarland was un
speakably cruel to me in the faii ano
winter of 1862 and '63. While we board
ed at IS Varick street we occupied the
only sleeping apartment on the parloi
floor, and he could give full scope to his
furies without fear of being overheard
He would lock himself into the room with
me, and give way to such terrible furies
that only the EXTREMIST pride and self.
control prevented me fronf making my
misery known. He brought home what
he professed was prussic acid, and threat
ened to take it, and to force me to take ii
also. He would snatch my scissors from
nv work-basket, and tearing open his
breast, he would brandish them about,
swearing that he would let out his hearts
blood before me. He told me-a shrink
ing girl-that he kept loaded pistols with
which he would at any moment shoot me.
He left me one evening, declaring that he
would shoot gentleman because he had
invited me to join himself, wife and an
other lady in party to some picture gal
lery, although had a most general &C
quaintance with the party and refused the
invitation as soon as made. One morning
during this winter which / am now de-
scribing, after Mr.. Mcfarland had been
out nearly all night in drunken orgie,
and had risen from bed in one of his worst
tempers. I approached him as he stood by
a mirror finishing his toilet, and began to
say something soothing TO prevent the
outburst of ill-temper which l feared was
SOON coming. He turned around and
struck me blow across my face which
made me reel backward.
"From that time took an entirely diff
| ferent course with him when in one OF
these furies. / shed great many tears
under his cruelty, had tried to reason with
him, had tried entreaties and persuasions.
| After this, whenever he was in one OF his
paroxysms, as he himself called them, /
never moved or spoke, but keeping per-
fectly self-oontrolled, as far as could, l
sat quiet, always keeping my eye on him,
because | always fancied as long asI look
ed steadily at him he would not do me
any mortal violence, and 1 believe now, as
believed then, that my life has been
saved by this silence and self-control. He
has sometimes approached me with his
hands extended, the fingers bent like
Ilclaws, as if he were about to clutch my
throat, and cried, How L should like to
strangle your Your life is bound some
time to end in tragedy or, Your blood
will be on your own head )" and has, as L
think, been restrained because l simply
looked at him without saying word. In
these furies he would often sieze and
break anything which was at hand
lamps, glasses, mirrors, and sometimes
the heavier furniture of the room. Often
he would rise from bed in these uncon-
trollable attacks of passion, tearing away
all the bed clothing, tearing in shreds his
own night clothing, throwing anything
he could find which was breakable crash
ing about the unlighted room, till it has
seemed to me as ii there could be no pam
demonium worse than that in which l
lived; and all this he would do without
explanation, or even a pretext for COM
plant against me, and when | knew no
more what excited his frenzy than babe
unborn He would sometimes keep up
this conduct and this abuse forl hours,
without syllable or motion being made
on my part, and would then burst into
tears, beg my pardon, and say [ was the
best woman who ever lived, and then go
to sleep exhausted. Sometimes he said,
Your id silence irritates me more than
if you talked
t4Iu the winter of 1868 and 1864, we
were Mr.. Sinclair's neighbors. One night
while there, Mr.. Mcfarland came home
so bruised and bleeding from some street
broil-not an uncommon occurrence on
his part-that l was obliged to call in, Mr..
Sinclair for old i'll getting him bed.
This was only three or four weeks before
the birth of my youngest child, or 1
should not have done so. Then l kept
Mr.. Mcfarland in his room for more than
a week, carrying his meals to him myself,
that his disgrace might not be seen and
commented on by the boarders."
Mrs. Richardson also narrates her eff
forts to support herself and her children
by writing for the papers and magazines,
the greater part of her earnings being ap-
propriated by mcfarland. She declined
aid from the Sinclairs from motives of
pride, which could not allow her to re-
ceive charity. Mcfarland procured
thousand dollars in January, 1866. by
Matchmaking ar oil land owner of Penn
sylvania, threatening to expose irregular
tiles in his income returns if he did not
give him money. In the winter of 1866
she first met Mrs. Calhoun, and January
2, 1867, after unusually harsh and inhu-
man treatment from Mcfarland, wrote to
her letter, giving a statement of her
wrongs, and appealing for sympathy and
advice, which Mrs. Calhoun answered in
the letters which were read on the trial
In this letter Mrs. Richardson says:
Dear, I try to write these things coldly,
and mechanically. want to do SO, so as
not to be unjust, but I must write you. [
feel must let you know something of
my inner life, and of the struggles no one
can see, or shall die. I don't know what
to do-what course to take. want to be
advised. | have written these mild words
incoherently, know, since writing is not
my natural method of expression, to get
this weight off me, land have tried to write
Justly. | know / must in some way pro-
tect myself from Mr.. Netherlands mode
of revenging any careless word upon me.
/ have half made up my mind to-day to
tell the Sinclairs. [ fear the encroach-
ments of his habits. [ dread my future
so much, and | have my babies to think
of besides. Yesterday he drew two weeks
of my salary at the theater and paid the
weekly board bill; and [ fear will spend
good deal of the money which we need
so much in liquor. Don't come to me
after reading this. fear shall repent
writing it. Yours always, ABBY.
"On the evening of February 20, 1867
says Mrs. Richardson, 'before going to
the theater, I secreted his razors, his
pocket knife, my scissors, and all the ar
tieles 1 considered dangerous, as I fire.
quently did on such occasions, and left
him. When I came home he was still
raging. He frequently had made threats
of committing suicide, often going out OF
doors with that avowed purpose. On this
occasion, about midnight, he babe me an
unusually solemn eternal farewell and
told me that this time he was certainly
going out to destroy himself. He had
done this SO many times that l said moth
ing, and made no effort to detain him. AT
the door he hesitated and asked if [ had
nothing to say in the last parting. J. said,