Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-09-12
Love, Jealousy and Murder. :

Try house near Wavcrly, ILL.,, during the
Christmas holidays Of 1870, u young far
ner Of the neighborhood and the particu-
lar rural belle, who was supposed to 70.
oiprocate bis partiality for her, attracted
the attention Of the embarrassed company
by unequivooal signs of . serious breach
Of good feeling between them. The arri-
val Of the girl under escort Of an adm;rer
whom she had previously treated with
marked Indifference, and the subsequent
appearance Of the yeomnn alone and in
an apparently sul!en humor, were the
first occasions Of surprise to the assembled
merry makers; but the common feeling of
wonder grew still more serious when, ur-
on the fair coquctte's curt refusal to dance
with her lately favored swain, the latter
denounced her in round terms and high
voice as faithless flirt, aud threatened to
cast her cavalier Of tho evening from the
nearest win.ow. The insulted woman
burst into tears, angry words passed be-
tween the rivals, and when finally the re-
monstrauces of older friends induced the
now furious young farmer to retire from,
the scene, the pleasure uf all the guests
had been so edectually destroyed that the
whole company soon broke up in some:
thing like panic. What had caused the
alienation Of the lovers and this ensuing
scene was never known. in .Waverly.
Rumor explained it in verious ways, and
speculative comment on the subject varied
with public fancy until the spring Of the
following year, when tho heroine of the
affair was married to the person who hud
been her companion at the merry -makines
From the night Of the latter, her co.
strangely discarded suitor never spoke to
hsr again, and soon after her mariage
bimseif m lrried q young woman to whom
he had paid some earlier attentions, and
moved to Evansville, Ind. Hero he and
his bride lived in seeming harmony, if not
very passionate devotion, until towsr1s
the Christmas holidays again, when q
dreary change apy cared to come over
both Of them, md tho few. acquaiptauces
they had made in tho. + he " homo believed
that some secret trouble had 'bcf.llen
them.. While this impression remained,
the young wife was found dead in, her bed
ono morning, Of what q coroner's jury
pronounced disease Of the heart. A
foreknowledge Of this fatal affection had,
it was thought, been the cause of the
gloom noticed in both husband and wife,
and tho former, in his Increased depres-
sion and silent doggodness under his be-
reavement, received the commiserativn Of
those to whom he deigned no other +x-
preston Of feeling than m obvious desire
MOTTO be questioned sb0utit. There was
q mystery here, however, even .as thcra
had been in the very different affair at
Waverly. The glum, uncomnunicative
widower moved again, some distance out Of
Evansville; where, as the Journal of the
latter place relates, he, mas recently died,
literally of \ broken heart and remorse
after making startling confession to a
kind old woman who, from motives Of hu'
manity, attended and soothed his last hours
His vito, whom he had married more from
spite against another than from love for
herself, confessed to him, some montht
Faieer their marriage, that iu the desperate
Fh0pe of winning him buck to bis former
allegiance to her she had turned his later
sweetheart against him by managing to
introduce one Of his old undated love.
letters to he,s self into the envelope of q
letter he had intended for her rival, and
pretending, when called to account by the
latter, that the writer was playing them
both falsely at the same time. She bad
interrupted the true letter md changed
it. and told this ingenious f;4lsehood
about it, with the results above described
Upon hearing the confession, extorted
from her by remorso and u consciousness
that she was still unloved, hcr husband
decla, ed that he would never forgive h.,
while he liv ed, and warned her to leave
him before his hatred made himtdo thai
for which he would never he forgiven
She did not heed his warning, hoping dcs
l'c:ately, perhaps, that her love nil Sh
yet plead Tor her; und according to hi.
own recent dying confession, he smother
cd her 10 death while she slept.