The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-20
A Sad story,

[From the New York Evening Post, Jan. III
Here is story of the saddest side of
New York life
Not many days ago there was fashion,
able marriage in one Of our uptown
churches. The bridegroom was remark
ably handsome man, of nearly thirty years
of age, we'll known in what is called
fashionable society as an agreeable, liberal
bachelor and "ladies' man." The bride
was lovely girl, belonging to one of our
best known families, and esteemed for her
character as much as admired for her
beauty. The friends of both were present !;
and nothing surprising occurred at the
ceremony, save that all present, remarked
upon the appearance of the bridegroom.
He was apparently SO oppressed by some
great sorrow or anxiety that he could not
smile nor command a cheerful word.
The pair had spent but few days to-
gether, when the husband, after an inter-
almost crushed in mind, hastily called at
his late bachelor rooms, which he had not
yet given up, burned large number of
papers, packed up few precious articles,
aud suddenly disappeared; and no one of
his friends now knows where he is to be
found.
But one dreadful truth reached their ears
too quickly. At one of our new hotels in
the centre of the city, but few blocks
from the church in which the marriage
was performed, there were found woman
and several children bearing his name, and
she found no difficulty in establishing her
right to it. She is many years older than
he. They were married when he was
scarcely more than boy, and have never
published the marriage; but they never
quarrelled nor separated. He still sup
ported her aud visited her. and on the
very day of the second marriage, at noon,
he made her long visit in his usual man
ner.
This event has been a sudden shock to
both families, and the absolute concealment
of bis marriage from all his friends for
many years, while his wife and children
openly bore his name in public hotels in
this city, is as unaccountable to them as it
will be TO others. The young man was for
several years an internal revenue officer 10
this city, but for some years past has been
employed in bank down town. He has
paid three thousand dollars year for the
board of bis wife and children, while re-
ceiving salary Of only two thousand, and
has yet maintained his bachelor life with
lavish expenditure. In his rooms are said
to have lain not far from hundred suits
of clothes, with expensive books, and many
other evidences of wealth. But his ac-
counts at the bank are said to be entirely
correct. His full understanding of what
he was doing appears from the fact that
he carried to the altar pistol, with fixed
purpose, as he afterwards said, of blowing
out bis brains there if the ceremony should
be interfered with. ~
We draw no moral from these facts.
But the very shock they give to all who
know of them, is proof that crimes of
this kind find no sympathy or liberation
in this community and that the standard
of morals here is not SO low as some
writers have said. who appeal to such |
cases as these for illustrations of New
York society, instead of what they really
are, frightfuI and exceptional outrsges
upon 1t.