Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-06-16
THE wALwORTH TRAGEDY.
About the secret Marriage and the
Causes which Led TO the Divorce.

.
About che secret Marriage ana the
Causes which Led TO the Divorce.
3 A Saratoga special gives the following
account of the causes which led to the
parricide:
Mansfield Tracy Walworth was thrown
into the society of his step.sisters, after
his fathers marriage to the widow OF
Colonel Harden, and without the idea
occurring to their seniors that they would
ever dream of being anything nearer to
one another than brother and sister.
Mrs. Walworth was a strict Catholic,
and the marriage between the young
people would have been extremely dis
tasteful to her, since. in the views of the
churches, this relationship by her new
marriage was such as TO forbid the form
ing of closer ties; but the young people
knew nothing of these ecclesiastical
regulations, and cared little for aught
save themselves and so grew to love
each other stronglY-Aso deeply, indeed,
that the passion after awhile obscured
their reason. Then they secretly phghted
their troih to each other, and lookup the
relation of man aud wife. A few brief
months of wild happiness followed. AS
was inevitable, the secret exposed itsel!f,
when the betrothed wife was evidently
about to become mother. Then a
scene of recrimination followed. The
young couple made the excuse that they
had promised themselves to each other.
and recognized one another by solemn.
words of agreement between themselves
as man and wife, and that this agree
meht, according to civil law, was mar
riage. There was then but one recourse
left, and that was to make the best OF an
unhappy passion, and unite them by for
NAL ceremony Of the church 10
this cheerful assent was giyens
aud it was accordingly done. The
ma rriage that had become a ne
eessisY was formally solemnlzed,
and three months afterward Frank d
Walworth was born. AS might be ex-
nected. when the passion cooled the
connie looked upon each other with
changed eyes, and each come to think
that their choice would have been differ
ent had they not been thrown together
in common household. Hence 1t hap
nened that they quarreled, and finally
separated. Each was jealous of the
other and each ,despised the other for
youthful weakness and indiseretiea. het-
ters passed between them, containing
recrimination, and some Of their strange
missiyes came into the possession of the
Young parrieide. Taunts upon his mother
angered him, and there is reason to
believe that he totally misunder-
stood the reflections made on the
subject of his own illegitlmacy.
He thought his father reflected
on his mothers chastity after marriage.
Fired with false chivalry, he did not stop
10 question his mother, and the mother
had naturally concealed her weakness
from her son. 1t was enough for him
thot a slur had been cast upon her name
and his own. He took his fathers lite,
and thereby published his mothers $ early
frailty to the world. Her best friends
lament this more bitterly than the MUIR
der for which her son is imprisoned.
The correspondent says: This story.
is freely canvassed by all residents OF
Saratoga, where the marriage caused
great scandal at the time. 1t accordSs
WITH what know about the history OF
the Walworth family"