The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1870-05-18
Woman Dranatized.
THE STORY OF A SCHOOL GIRL WHO
MARRIED THE WRONG NAN.

THE STORY OF SCHOOL GIRL WHO
MARRIED THE WRONG MAN.
AS the authority for the following
story is clergyman of this city, no
less noted tor his elnq,fence rs theo-
logical moralist than for his manifold
literary attainments, it may be accept
ed as something wholly without alloy
OF either exaggerated fact or sensation
al fiction. Some years ago the ardnOns
duties of Il volunteer city missionary,
discovered, in the family of IL poor la
bOrer, in one of the most miserable
tenement houses Of New York, two
youthful sisters, whose appearance and
natural abilities were, apparently,
much above their squalid lot in life
school, their home rendered more COM
Portable, and their desire for future
of better surroundings made practica-
bic to them. All went well until the
period If schooling was over, when the
elder aud more interesting of the two,
in an hour of blind, girllsh folly, be-
came the wife of IL young man greatly
her inferior in intelligence and general
worth. To her the story now belongs,
and the romance of her life bean with
the mad act by which, she threw away
every opportunity to ripen her exis-
tence int" Il better reality. Loves
first titfml fever being over, she became
aware of her great mistake, and, after
II brief. inharmo,lious experience Of
niatrimony, withdrew from her mis-
matched husband aud Disappeared
from the citl. Her family and their
good friend, the ,lergy man, were in
greht distress tlerett, fearing that the
unhappy young wife had been driven
TO some desperate resource; but, at the
end nf some weeks, there came to the
minister letter from the missing one.
After coutidins to him the story of her
iut0lerable matrimonial sOrrOws, and
declaring that she had renowned her
unfit husband forever, the writer con-
tossed that she had become an actress
in ii theater of Memphis, Tennessee,
under an assumed name. In this new
capacity she was gaining much sue
cess, and begged her old friend to keep
her secret, and act us her agent in a
friendly watch over the husband she
could no longer live with. She prom
ised to send money, from time to time,
which the clergyman was to apply, az
from himself, t. such aid us the hus-
band might absolutely require; hut
begged that no effort should he made
to persuade ner back to the life never
to be hers again. Convinced that such
persnasinns must he useless, the leclp-
lent of the extraordinary letter sadly
yielded to the inevitable, and wrote to
the actress that he would act as she de-
sired. Consequently, while the de-
tached wife led the life OF a player in
Tennessee, she was sill able tn keep
an eye, through her firend, upon he,
husband in New York, and SEE that III.
did not fall into ahject want. One
day, few weeks ago, a letter from the
clergyman told her that the man whom
she had vowed to love, honor, and obey
was lying sick ut a fever in a wretche,l
garnet to winch he had retreated. tn
I he day after the arrival If this news
she abruptly closed her engagement at
the Southern Theater, and disappeared
flom Memphis. Two days thereafter,
il nice, henignant old lady appeared in
the New York tenement house III which
lay .he fever patient. distributing
tracts aud inqniring for sick persons to
visit. The pe"ple Of the lower -four
t"ld her about the dying man in the
garret, and, with basket on her arm,
she Went mp to see him. There he
was. tossing ard delirinns in, burning
fever, with naught to smooth his path
way to the grave or cool its scni ching
air. She filled his room witt, comforts,
employed II physician and n nurse, and
made daily visits to the place thcreaf
ter. No>onc knew who she was, nor
where she came frm; bur the rough
men of the roukrry raised their shabby
hats to her and the slutternly wnmcn
blessed her when she passed. Nutl,in.
could sHve the sick man; he grew
wn' ST, and III his lrlrlnm often called
for his wife. Just before death the old
lady disappeared from the bedside, and
III her place sat yOung woman richly
dressed. The sufferer was too far
gone to recognize her, but she was his
wife. In the ,liSgu ST. of the old wo-
man she had relieved his last wants,
and III the end She gave. him christian
| burial. The last act al her marriage
life being finished, the draniitiled wu-
man re, called herself IT, her SISTER aud
their friend, the clergyman, but only
to say good hy before returning to the
South. Her last words as she started
fora Memphis We're: III hope l shall not
die in Il theater, as poor President Lin
coin did" 1t was IL presentiment. On
the very night OF her reappearance as
an actress she fell violently i'll in the
theater, and before morning dawnetl
had gone to join her husband in anOth-
er wOtld.-[ New York World.