North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1870-05-18
McGREG0R, IOWA, WEDNESDAY, MAY Is, 1870

ings in the fall, and paid their board dur.
ing the fall and winter with her earnings.
AT Christmas, in '62, she felt so hopefu
with the readings she had begun, that she
sent Mcfarland to New Hampshire to get
Percy. He took all the little stock of
jewels she had and sold them in Boston.
| Mcfarland was unsocial and cruel to
her in the fall and winter Of '62 and '63.
They occupied the only sleeping room on
the parlor floor of 80 Varick street, and he
could not give full scope to his furies
without being overheard. She was study
ing hard for the profession for which he
designed her, and to make success IN the
readings by which she was supporting
both him and herself. lie would lock
himself into the room with her, threaten
to take poison and make her, take it,
snatching up her scissors, and, tearing
open his breast would brandish them
about, swearing he would let out his
hearts blood and told her he kept loaded
pistols, with which he would at any mo-
ment shoot her. He fell out with her one
evening, declaring he would shoot gen.
tleman because she had invited him to
join himself, her and another lady in a
party to some public picture gallery. he
really professed TO be jealous, however.
for her conduct gave him no cause, no
show of cause. In the morning during
the winter, after Mcfarland had been uut
nearly all night in a drunken oryr. he
struck her blow across the face, which
made her reel backward. Although he
had often pinched and hit her in some Of
his fits of drunkenness, he never before
| struck her so cruel o blow. Withou.
raising her voice, she said, IL shall ne, er
be able to forgive you for such an outra ye. =
Before that she had shed tears under his
cruelty, and tried to reason with him, bu.
afterward, whenever he was in one of his
paroxysms, as he called them, she never
moved or spoke, but kept se;f-control as
far as she could, looking him in the eye,
because she fancied it would preveat any
mortal violence. She believes now, as
then, that her life has been saved by
silence and self>control.
He sometimes approached her with
hands extended, fingers bent like claws,
as if he were about to clutch her threat
and strahgle her, and would say Your
life is bound sometime to erd in trag.
edy,' or "IIow l should like to strangle
you." He was only restrained because
she looked ut him without saying word
In these furies he would often sieze and
break anything which was at at hand.
the heavy furniture of the 70 ,m, and
crushing things about the room till it has
seemed to her there could be no paade-
monium worse than that in which she
lived, and all this he would do without
explanation, or even pretexr of CON-
plant against her, when she knew no
more what excited his frenzy than IA babe.
He would sometimes keep up this conduct
and this abuse for hours witho. sA able,
or motion being made OIL her part, and
would then burst into tears and beg her
pardon, say she was the lest woman that
ever lived, and then 80 to sleep ey yhau,ted.
She never told him after that winter he
could forgive or could love him, althous h
he sometimes implored her to do SO, be-
cause she could not say SO with truth.
Generally she told him she pitied him,
which was true. Sometimes he said
"Hour silence irrtates more than it you
talked" But she was sure her course
was best. When he struck her this blow,
in 1862, she told Mrs. Cleveland, sister
of MIR. Greeley, the only person to ~hom
she spoke of Mcfarland otherwise than
in ! manner becomming a wife t. speak
Of husband till the winter of 1867, and
she devoted all her woman's skill and tact
to hide his conduct from observers. In
the spring Of 1868, Mcfarland got ap>
| pointed to a position in the Office of u Pro
vost Marshal, for which she, under
his orders, interceded through MIR.
Greedy. AS soon as he got his office, she
ceased preparations for the stage, and
went to her fathers, remaining short
tine. THIN Mcfarland summoned Ler to
New York with Percy, who was i'll at the
time, saying he would burn her father
house over his head if she didn't come.
She arrived in New York in August
After few weeks the physicians said
Percy would die if not sent back to the
country, and she again returned to hel
fathers and staid till November. During
the previous winter she met Mrs. Sinclair
often ut Mrs. Cleveland's, and been shown
great kindness by her. Her influence was
given in securing the appointment TO,
Mcfarland. In the winter of '63 and '64
they were Mr.. Sinclair's near neighbors.
One night Mcfarland came home Sc
bruised and bleeding from a street broil-
q not uncommon occurrence-that she wa,
obliged to call on Mr.. Sinclair for aid in
getting him to bed. She kept him in bee
a week, and brought his meals to him her
self. From the spring of 1863 to the ial
OF 1864, Mcfarland sent her home three
times and moved her to eight different
boarding houses. If for one moment she
was in peaceful possession of shelter
his habits or dissatisfied temper drove him
to change.
At last, in the fall of 1864, Mr.. Sin
clair offered them rent free his unoccu
pied farm house, on the Hudson River
where they staid all winter, and in the
summer took a small tenement, also in
Croton, which was furnished cheaply
with two hundred dollars borrowed by
Mcfarland from her father. His conduc,
was more endurable in the summer o.
1865. He lost his place under the
government, and made no attempt to do
anything. She suggested that she woulc
have to give readings again. He.swore
terribly at her, but made no other
answer. She went on with the readings
and with the money saved thereby, ,-wen
to her fathers, leaving the children will
her mother. She gave other readings
and with the money paid the physician
who attended her at Danny's birth, now
18 msnths old. She also arranged t,
print little book for children Return
ed to New York to occupy small rooms
over stable ON Thirty sixth street
which Mcfarland had hired Thi
winter she says: II made desperat,
struggle for life. had my two babies
the younger just weaned. 1 had thi
man half Of the time coming home in