Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-05-20


reading Of stage parts. In June 1861 he
sold all their little furniture, in Madison,
and brought her East, first going to her
fathers to leave little Percy, so she
could devote all her tine to the stage.
At New York he began drilling her, and
sent her to Mr.. and Mrs Geo. Vanden-
hoff. to be fitted for the stage. She also
began to give readings in the fall, and
paid their board during the fall and win
ter with her earnings. At Christmas,
1862, she felt SO hopeful of doing well
with her readings, she sent Mcfarland
to New Hampshire to get Percy. He
took all the little stock of Jewels she
J possessed, and sold them all in Boston.
In the fall and winter Of IS62-63, they
occupied only a sleeping room on the
! parlor floor Of No. S8 Varick street and
he could give full scope to his furies
without being overheard. She was
studying hard for the profession for
which he designed her, and to make a
success in reading, by which she was to
support both him and herself He would
| lock himself into the room with her
threaten to take poison and make her
take 1t, snatch up her scissors, and tear
! ing open his breast would brandish them
about, swearing he would let out his
]
/ ed pistols with which he would at any
moment shoot her.
He left her one evening, declaring he
would shoot gentleman because he
had invited her to ioin himself, wife and
another lady in party to some public
| picture gallery. He merely professed to
be jealous, however, for her conduct
gave him no shred of cause. One
morning during the winter, after McFar-
1 land had been out nearly all night in
drunken orgie, he struck her blow
across the face which made her reel
backward. Although he had often
pinched and hit her in some of those
! fits of drunkenness, he never before
struck her so cruel a blow Without
raising her voice she said 81 shall new
er be able to forgive you for such an
outrage" Before that she had shed tears
under his cruelty, and tried to reason
with him, but thereafter, whenever he
was in one Of his prOXysms, as he called
them, she never moved or spoke, but
keeping self-controlled as far as she
could, looking him in the eye because she
found It would prevent any mortal vio-
| Ience. She believes now, as then, that
| her life has been saved by silence and
| selfconuol. He sometimes approached
! her with hands extended, fingers bent
like claws, as if he were about to clutch
her throat, and cried "How l should
| like--lil1e-to strangle you" or, "Your
| life is bound some time to end in a ira
! gedy," or, "Your blood will be on your
own head, ," and only restrained him be-
cause she looked at him without saying
a word. In these furies he would often
seize and break anything which was at
hand, lamps, glasses, mirrors, and some
times the heavy furniture of his room.
! Often he would rise from bed in these
uncomfortable attacks of passion, tear
ing away bed clothing, tearing in shreds
his own night clothing, throwing any
thing he could find which was break
able, crashing about the unlighted room
till it has seemed as if there could be no
Pandemonium worse than that in which
| she lived. And all this he would do
without explanation or even a pretext of
complaint against her, when she knew
no more what excited his frenzy than a
| babe unborn. He would sometimes
| keep up this conduct and this abuse for
! hours without a syllable or a motion be-
! ing made on her part, and would then
burst into tears. beg her pardon say she
was the best woman that ever lived, and
| then 90 to sleep exhausted. She never
/ told him after that winter she could for
give or could love him, although 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,
| ''Your id silence irritateS me more
than if you talked, but she was sure her
| course was best. When he struck her
this blow in 1862 she told Mrs. Cleve-
land, sister of Mr.. Greeley, the only
| person to whom she spoke of Mcfarland
otherwise than in the manner becoming
a wife to speak of her husband, till the
winter of 1867, and she devoted all her
woman's skill and tact to hide his con-
| duct from observers. In the spring of
! 1863, Mcfarland got appointed to a
| position in the office of a Provost Mar
! hal, for which she, under his orders and
against her own feelings, interceded
| through Mr.. Greeley. AS soon as he got
his office she ceased preparations for the
stage, and went to her fathers, remain
| ing a short time. Then Mcfarland
summoned her to New York with Percy,
who was i'll at the time, saying he would
| burn her fathers house over her head if
| she did not come. She arrived in New
! York in August. After few weeks,
| physicians said Percy would die if not
sent back to the country, and she again
returned to her fathers, and stayed until
! November. During the previous winter
she had met Mrs. Sinclair often at Mrs.
| Cleveland's and was shown great kind
ness by her. Her influence was given to Sc
curing the appointment for Mcfarland.
In the winter of 1868 and 1864 they were
Mrs. Sinclair's near neighbors. One
night Mcfarland came home 50 bruised
| and bleeding from a street broil, a not
uncommon occurrence, that she was
obliged to call on Mrs. Sinclair for aid
in getting him to bed. She kept him in
bed week, and brought his meals to
MIN herself. From the spring of 1862
to the fall of 1864, Mcfarland sent her
home three times and moved her to
eight different boarding houses. If for
one moment she was peaceful in posses
sion Of shelter, his habits or dissatisfied
temper drove him to change. AT last,
IN the fall of 1904, Mr.. Sinclair offered
them, rent free, his unoCcupied farm
house on Hudson River, where they
stayed all winter, and in the summer
look a small tenement, also in Croton,
which they furnished cheaply with two
hundred dollars borrowed by Mcfarland
from her father. His conduct was more
endurable. In the summer of 1865 he
lost his place under the Government and
made no attempt to do anything. She
suggested that she would have to give
readings again. He swore terribly at hel
out made no other answer. She wen
on with her readings, and with money
, saved thereby went to her father S
Leaving the children with her mother
! she gave other readings, and with th'
: money paid the physician who ATTENDED
ner at Dannys birth, now eighteeI
months old. She also arranged to prin
! a little book for children, and returned
20 New York to occupy small rooms il
! ihirty-sixth street, which Mcfarland
mad hired. This winter, she says, &"
{ made desperate struggle for life. ] hat
my two babies, the younger Just weaned
/ had this man half of the time coming
4, home intoxicated, and l had nothing
! out my woman's heart and hands t
! look to for support. gave all the read
: lngs could. did all my own hous
/. work. When at home / took faithful