Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-12-23
A CURIOUS CASE.
Enech Arden Considerably Dis.
~ iTilf liN taueed.

airy regiment and went TO the front.
He was at home on furlough in 1863,
and returned to his regiment in few
weeks. In one of the battles in Missis-
sippi he became missing, and the body
of person supposed to be Talbert was
found and buried. His friends were in
formed of his death and mourned for
him many days. When the regiment re-
turned, with flying colors, his place was
vacant, and his wife looked at the horse
men as they marched proudly up the
streets Of the city, but looked in vain
for the form she would most have loved
to see. .a
Talbert had been good citizen, ard
had long paid his devotions to the lady
whom he married Feeling it his duty
to ioin the army, he had married her be-
fore he enlisted, that he might have the
right to protect her when he returned!
He was a good soldier, always doing has
duty faithfully, and when. the battle
ragged was in his place unfinching and
determined When his supposed body
was found, not one of his former com
rades but mourned that he had been
taken from their number.
/ The war closed, and lTalbert was al
most forgotten. Not much longer than
year ago his widow took off the weeds
of mourning, and gave her hand to q
young carpenterin Peoria by the name
of Simpson. She had borne a child to
Talbert in his absence, and all her love
for its father had centered in this image
of the departed.
About three months after Simpson and
Mrs. Talbert were married, the young
carpenter fell from the scaftolding OF q
large building he was at work upon, and
his brains were dashed out upon the
ground. Rebecca Farmer was for the
second time widow, and the habillments
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
lovely girl of seven summers, and wal
the only love and hope of her mother
Two weeks since the little one suddenl.
sickened and died, and the mother sup
posed herself bereft of all that knew O
But now comes the grand denouement
While the corpse of the child lay in he
mothers house, awaiting burial on tn
| morrow, q stranger called at the poo
woman's door. A neighbor lady, VIII,
had charge of the mourning house, ad
mitted him, and he asked to see Mrs
4 Simpson. The lady came down, an
found in the supposed stranger her long
lost husband John Talbert-he for whom
she had mourned as dead. =.
He explained his long absence in Thu
wise: After the battle, in which he wa
supposed to have been killed, he foun.,
/ himself prisoner in the hands OF tn
rebels. He was hurried from one pos
to another, until at last he was taken t
Andersonville.. In that prison-pen h
languished for months-until the intens
longing for home completely broke hi
heart. When he was liberated, he says
everything was blank to him. He wal
, dered to New York city, and live
| there for more than a year, aud the
passed to the great West where he live
until a year ago. He recovered his healt
of body and mind, but for several year
could not bring himself to think OF r.
) turning to his home. He said there wa
; an intense yearning to see his wife an
child. but by some curious, morbid fee
: ing. he suppressed the promptings OF h
I heart and remained away from the being
! he loved, brooding over his curious, sci
: imposed condition. A few months sine
I he was taken with an irresistible longln
! TO return to Illinois and the scenes OF h
I former happiness, but he desired to
! 80 without being recognized. He cam
+ back, much changed and altered IN al
E pearanoe, visited Peoria, and found h
t wife married to another man.
n There was fresh agony of mind, an
n poipnancy was added to the thought thu
n # he had returned when his imprisol
n ment ended. or even after his facultiC
V had been fully restored he would hay
!. found his wife still mourning for hir
q and could have gladdened her heart B
! showing her that he was still alive. No
. there was nothing for him to do but to
+ away. as Enoch Arden had done, an
V leave Philip Ray to his happiness. d
d could not tear himself completely frool
n the spot, however. He had seen b
\ child and its mother on the streets, an
he felt like going forward and clalmll
h his own. SO he removed himself abo1
hundred miles from his old home; f
$ to have remained in Peoria, where |
!, had been pretty well known, would bay
i betrayed him finally. The news of Sim
( som S death did not reach him. Though
t received paper regularly from Peori
e this, to him, most important item
o news failed to meet his eye. But Il
; other day he did see notice OF II
n death Of his child, and in less than fly
n hours he was beside it's coffin; Not II
S then did he learn of the death OF Sim
d son. But when his wife, the girl he ha
/ loved and thought he had lost by one
r the strangest of the works Of Providenle
n fell into his arms he realized that ne ha
e still something to live for. The wife r
|: ceived the husband again, in place
o the child she had lost, and the neighbo
e reioiced at her good fortune, notwit
? STANDING g few of them felt some indi
!. nation that he had remained away
i long after his Imprisonment had ende