Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-15
A MATgIMONIAL MtDDLE.



1n och arden Case ] ~ England.
From the New York World, April %
That romantic valley Of Wales throuef
which flows the river Rhondda is noted IA
Engilsh preginciah story fJr The number OF
surrey young yeoman adVenturers going
rom u yearly TO see, 4 fortunes in Australia,
inuia, canada, The West Indies, and OF
laee' tne .rican diamond fields. II
- va, aOou. twelve years ago, however,
WIEN stories of gold in Australia
r most tempting, that the valley Of
AhesRhondda saw the strongest exodus Of
It's ambitious spirits, and among these lat
ter, going to Melbourne, was one whose
subsequent social exploits are celebrated in
the Western AlGt This particular young
Welsh traveller, who had sold small pat
Fimonial farm for she means of voyaging
went, it is said, from the town of Ponty-
pridd (Which was near his birth-place) to
Swansea, there to visit some distant rela-
tives, before setting forthupon his proposed
10000 miles of journey, and in Swansea
fell in love with q Young lady who had the
misfortuneto be atfianeed to an earlier
sutton. A weeks time was enough for his
capiiyation, proposal and rejection;
and as he blamed the fair enslaVer for
not having told him of the hopelesslless Of
his suit in time to save him the humiliation
of i'mitten,o it was with rather embit-
tered idea of womankind that he presently
took discounted departure to Cardiff, and
from thence, by way Of London, sought
the Southern Pacific and a fortune. Indeed
the disappointment disgusted him with his
country, and this resentful sentiment put
Kim fr,o 1,rrsr1Or- IN. n
back thither Of bis experiences away from
home. Thus, when in 1863 he reappeared
in Pontypridd, accompanied by. hand-
some wife and youthful daughter, and
giving signs of having "done well" as a
gold miner, rome of his old relatives
and friends of the valley knew aught of the
lady's extraction or history. She seemed
like a Welsh woman, but remained mys-
teryto the good people of her husbands
native place until, after few weeks of APP
parent happiness with her in Pontypridd,
that husband disappeared, carrying his lit
tie daughter with him, and it presently be-
came known that he had gone back to
Australia. Then the deserted wife, indig-
nantly and in self-yindieation,to told her story.
She was the same young woman whom the
adveRturer had met and loved in Swansea,
when she was pledged to another lover,
and soon after the departure of the
disappointed suitor on his long yoy-
age, had married the object of
her first choice. The union brought hap
piness for few years, and then, impatient
at his narrow circumstances and seized with
the gold fever, the husband went to Aus
tralia in the track of his late rival. Return
ing to the home Of her parents, the wife
waited many months in expectation Of let
tiers from him, and falling to receive any,
was induced al last to follow him to the dis
tant golden land. Her father gave her the
money for her tedious, anxious journey
across two oceans, and she finally
reached Melbourne, only to be informed
that her husband had died of some kind
of ship fever soon after his arri-
val at the same port. Sick at heart, and
without money enough to return home, she
was giving away to despair, when what
seemed to her like miraculous providence
produced hotel meeting between herself
and her rejected old admirer from Rhondda
valley. The miner, who was on a chance
visit to the city, was oveTjoyed at the re-
union, sympathized with her in her great
sorrow, treated her at once like a sister, and
oAgCl q lev mCCho AChOhCu AOlllCl OOlub-
ship. In short they were married, remained
four years at the mines, and, as has been
shown, returned 70 Wales at last with their
little daughter. Such was the story
told of herself by the now de
serted wife, who seemed wholly
at loss to account for her desertion, and it
was not many days before she was again
fastening to Australia 10 pursuit of the fu-
gitive husband and their child. Pontypridd
heard no more Of the story, until three or
four mont ago, when the mining adYen-
turer appeared there once more with his
child, alleging that the cause Of his flight
thence in 1869 was his abrupt discovery
that his wife's first husband, instead of dy-
ing, as had been reported in Melbourne,
was stil living as a storekeeper in the Vi
cinity of Shelby. Horrifed at this
revelation, he had not even shown
the Australian letter containing the
news to his wife, but returned at once
to Melbourne, with his child, for either
confirmation or disproof of the shocking
story. The latter was but too true; the
first husband was still living, and heartily
ashamed that he had never informed his
wife or her family of his existence; and il
was the lot of the second husband" to tell
this to the poor woman when she overlook
him soon after at Melbourne. This strange
addition TO the strange story made great
stir in Pontypridd, and the returned
Australian intensified the sensation by
his very obvious design of securing q
new wife. Disdaining to notice the
scepticism of some critics as to the
excellence Of his general character
and even presuming to aspire matrimonial
| ly to social rank much above his own, he
was able, by his travelling air, romantic re-
| lations, and reputation for wealth to secure
| the hand and heart ofone ofthe most respect
able young ladies of the place. The mar
rage took place about three weeks ago, and
was almost Immediately followed by anoth.
! er sensation" The Swansea wife, fresh
! from another Australian pursuit, came tC
demand her little daughter whom, as she
said, she had travelled 10000 miles once
more to regain. The child's father
refusing to give up the little girl
husbands, appealed to the public
for sympathy, and with such eloquencC
that excited popular sentiment induced The
| Australian to make a compromise. He
agreed that the child should be taken by he
UlOJn0f 10 LH0 nome OF the laLJ6lS parent!
in Swansea, there to remain and be edU
Gated until old enough to choose a future
for herself. Apparently agreeing to thi
proposition with delight, the lady from tht
vicinity of Sydney was allowed to take the
girl with her for few days to hotel of the
town. From thence she and the little mait
a few days later mysteriOusly and suddenly
disappeared, were traced TO Cardiff AM
thence by mail train to London, and ar
now on their way back to Australia ant
| the "first husbands" home. So ends on
of the latest typical rOmances of reality
not more curious in its incidents thar
from the usually prosaic country of its orr
! gin; and by its circumstances of eXtraOrdi
nary travel, wonderfully significant OF th
realization of ancient fictions of supernatu
raj transportation in modern common
! means of land and ocean transit