The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-12-24
9irt1nond 1ispatth.
SATURDAY. ..DECEMBER "a, ls7o.
THE CIRCULATION OF THE DISPATCH
Is LARaER THAN THE COMBINED CIR
cuLAT1oN OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
NEWSPAPERS OF THE CITY.
A Curious Case-Enoch Arden Con.
saderably DfstaHced.

| saderably DfstaRced.
(Peoria tIll.) cor. Cincinnati commerciall ,
| A curious case recently occurred in the
vicinity Of Peoria, ILL.,, and as it has never
been in print, send 1t to you. In 1882 a
| man by the name of John Talbert married
young lady by the name Of Rebecca
Farmer. Soon after the celebration of the
nuptial ceremonies Talbert enlisted in the
- cavalry regiment and went to the
front. he was at home on furlough in 1858.
and returned to his regiment in o few
weeks. In one Of the battles in Mississippi
he became missing, and the body of per-
son supposed to be Talbert was found and
| buried. His friends were informed of his
death, and mourned for him for many days.
| When the - regiment returned, with fly
ing colors. his place was vacant, and his
wife looked at the horsemen as they marched
proudly up the streets of the city, but
looked in vain for the form she would most
have loved to see.
Talbert had been good citizen, and had
| long paid his devotions to the lady whom
he married. Feeling it his duty to join
the army, he had married her before he en-
listed that he might have the right to pro-
tect her when he returned. He was a good
soldier, always doing his duty faithfully,
and when the battle ragged was in his place,
unfnching and determined. When his
supposed body was found, not one of his
former comrades but mourned that he had
been taken from their number.
| The war closed, and Talbert was almost
forgotten. Not much longer than q year
ago his widow took off the weeds of mourn
ing, and gave her hand to young carpen-
ter in Peoria by the name of Simpson. She
had borne child to Talbert in his absence,
and all her love for its father had centered
in this image of the departed one.
] About three months after Simpson and
| Mrs. Talbert were married, the young car
penter fell from the scaffolding of large
building he was at work upon, and his
brains were dashed out upon the ground.
Rebecca Farmer was for the second time e
widow, and the habiliments of mourning
were again donned. Loving hands buried
her dead from her sight, and the world
moved on as before, utterly regardless of
the twice stricken one.
| The child of Talbert had grown into a
lovely girl Of seven summers, and was the
| only love and hope of her mother. Two
weeks since the little one suddenly sickened
and died, and the mother supposed herself
berelt Of all that knew or loved her.
| But now comes the grand denouement.
| While the corpse Of the child lay in her
mothers house, awaiting burial on the NOR
row, stranger called at the poor Woman's
door. A neighbor lady, who had charge
he asked to see Mrs. Simpson. The lady
came down, and found in the supposed
stranger her loDg-lost husband, John Tai
| berthe for whom she had mourned as dead.
He explained his long absence in this
! wise After the battle i'll which he was
supposed to have been killed he found him
selfa prisoner in the hands of the rebels.
He was hurried from one post to another,
| until at last he was taken to Andersonyille.
In that prison-pen he languished for
months, until he forgot to count the passing
time, until the intense longing for home
| completely broke his heart. When ne was
to him. He wandered to New York city
| and lived there for more than year, and
then passed to the great West, where he
lived until a year ago. He recovered
his health of body and mind, but for
several years could not bring himself to
think of returning to his home. He said
there was an intense yearning to see his wife
and child, but by some curious, morbid
feeling, he suppressed the promptings of
his heart and remained away from the
beings he loved, brooding over his curious,
self-'mposed condition. A few months
since he was taken with an irresistible long
ing to return to Illinois and the scenes of
his former happiness, but he desired to do
so without being recognized. He came
back, much changed and altered in appear
ance, visited Peoria, and found his wife
married to another man.
There was fresh agony of mind, and
poignancy was added to the thought that
If he had returned when his imprisonment
ended, or even after his faculties had been
fully restored, he would have found his
wife still mourning for him, and could have
gladdened her heart by showing her that he
was still alive. Now there was nothing for
him to do but to 60 away, as Enoch Arden
had done, and leave Philip Ray to his hap
piness. He could not tear himself COM
pietely from the spot, however. He had
seen his child and its mother on the streets,
and he felt like going forward and claiming
his own. So he removed himself about a
hundred miles from his old home for
to have remained in Peoria, where
he had been pretty we'll known, would have
betrayed him finally. The news Of the death
OF Simpson did not reach him. Though he
receiveda paper regularly from Peoria, this,
to him, most important item of news failed
to meet his eye. But the other day he did
see notice of the death of his child, and in
less than five hours he was beside its coffin.
Not till then did he learn of the death of
Simpson. But when his wife, the girl he
had loved and thought he had lost by one
OF the strangest of the works of Providence,
fell into his arms, he realized that he had
still something to live for, The wife re-
ceived the husband again In place of the
child she had lost, and the neighbors re-
ioioed at her good fortune, notwithstanding
q few of them felt some indignation that he
had remained away 80 long after his impris-
onment had ended. >~