The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-10-25


not so unhappy under domestic tyranny
as he feared she must be, she would confer
a lasting favor upon the most disconsolate
of men. Miss Wilson could not conceal
from her guardians that their ''victim'
was her correspondent, nor very well an
sWer MIR. Dodds' surprise that she would
have been invited to postal correspondence
by his eccentric son, but after some consid-
Grafton she decided that they must not
read the lackadaisical epistle for themselves.
Its mention of the ''heartless female inter
loper' was enough of itself to forbid that,
and might have made the affair altogether
an awkward infiiction not only for the
young lady herself but for her sentimental
complacency under it. There was romance
III the idea of corresponding under such
circumstances with half-cousin whom she
had never seen, and to make it more alb
sorbing there must be community of mys-
tification and misery about it. So after
merely informing her scarcely satisfied
adopted parents that their son had written
to ask her if they were all WELL and request
line from her on that subject i'll response,
she Straightway penned to the wine mer-
chant in San Jose reply letter of the most
desolate description. He was unhappy, she
was unhappy, we were unhappy, you were
unhappy, they were unhappy. Such was
about the substance of her missive, and
very cheerful it must have been to the
young man to whom it was sent. He re
sponded appropriately, she wrote again
similarly, and the interchange of wretched-
ness was an established system. This ar
rangement did not make the young lady
domestic situation any pleasanter, as Mr.
Dodds, taking umbrage at his SON 5 neglect
of himself, now took sides with his wife,
as he had not done actively before, and be-
gan treating his ward coolly. The latter
did not fail to confide this new misery to
her sympathetic correspondent, who was
thereat inhamed to vehement champion
ship; and all four of the partners of this
wrong-headed ludicrous family quarrel
were discomftted accordingly. Fatuity
rather than wiclleduess being the root of
the whole trouble, foolishness rather than
greater ha m was the ikeliest result; yet
the end was not so wholly silly as it might
have been. At a crisis III the mailed mis-
cry of the two postal sufferers, the CalifOr-
nian revealed to his sister in af1lictiOn that
her letters and sOrrows had produced an
inefaceable impression upon his heart and
that he could never know peace again in
this world if she would not consent to fly
from the intolerable despotism of her un-
happy home and give him the right to pro-
tect and cherish her henceforth as his wife.
They had never seen each other yet, but a
correspondence Of years had made them
better known to each other than all the
spoken words in the world might have
done, and if she could but summon cour-
age. based upon implicit confidence in him,
to come to him to California, and there ac-
cept him as her husband, they might be
happy yet. For some time the girls mai
denly instinct shrank from this decisive
proposition. and many more letters came
and went on the subject but at last, driv-
en- desperate by the increasing complca-
tions Of her self-made discomfort at home,
she yielded to the persistent entreaties OF
her persistent lover Quarterly payments
came to her from her late fathers estate,
and upon receivina the latest of these she
took secret leave of the Dodds homestead
in Michigan and fled by the Pacific railroad
to the prolIered welcome of her long time
correspondent. The Sacramento Union,
giving the sequel, says:
''The railroad telegram published yestcr-
day announced among others, the name
of Miss Emma Wilson, of Michigan, in the
list of coming overland passengers. \ eS-
terCay. at noon. Miss Wilson was met al
the Roseville station by r. d. Dodds, who
had come from San Jose to meet her, and
teIegraphed clergyman from Rocklin tC
be present. While the greater number OF
the passengers were at dinner, Mr.. DCdds
and Miss Wilson were married i'll the car.
The clergyman returned TO Rocklin ard
the married couple, upon the arrival of the
train at Sacramento, took boat for san
Francisco
1t may be added as pleasing conclusion
to this scarcely more natural than comic
romance of real life, that upon the arrival
of the pair in San Jose, about nine days
ago, the husband found there letter from
his father, which had been written imme-
diately after the flight of Miss Wilson, and
with an evident comprehension of the di-
rection and the purpose of her elopement.
1t must have been communication full OF
fatherly common sense and emlnently eff
cient to develop the same neglected faculty
in the recipient for the latter, according
TO further local chronicle, while not relin-
gushing his prosperous wine business, is
making preparations for speedy visit with
his bride to his old home in Michigan, and
the freedom with which he tells his love
story to everybody for the apparent pur-
pose of having the more frequent opportu-
mites to declare that he has acted like a
fool towards his old folks, gives ample
proof that he has reconsidered his STEP
mother. and found that lady-to say the
| least-as much sinned against as SHINING.
THEODORE TILToN, of the Golden Age,