The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-16

A STRANGE FAMILY HIsToRy-CIRcuMsTA
cEs OF THE pARRIoIDE's BIRTH
S1rafo1d LETTER 10 tbe fro,L;c

STRANGE FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
oEs OF rnE..pARRIoIDEs BIRTH.
Saratoga letter to the Graphic.
The terrible ending of the Walworth
family quarrel has let loose food of Cos
sip in this usually quiet village, and it
threatens to cause more than nine days
wonder. There are many old and middle
aged people here who remember the mar
rage of the chancellor's youngest son to
his second wifes daughter, twenty years
ago and the scandal it oocasioned give
the substance of the 'rumors as they are
flying about, not vouching for their anthem
ITCHY, but merely stating that they are gen
orally believed by those who ought to know
whereof they speak.
Mansfield Tracy Walworth was thrown
into the society of his step-mothcrs daught-
or after his fathers marriage to the widow
of Col. Hardin, and without the idea oc-
curing to their seniors that they would even
dream of being anything nearer to one
another than brother and sister. Mrs. wal
worth was strict catholic and the marriage
between the two young people would have
been extremely distastcful to her since, in
the eyes of the church, their relationship
by her new marriage was such as to forbid
the forming of closer ties. But the young
people who knew nothing of ecclesiastical
regulations, and cared little for aught
save themselves, and so grew to love each
other strongly-so deeply, indeed, that pas
sion after while, obscured their reason.
Then they secretly plightcd their troth to
each other, and took up the relation of man
and wife. A few brief months of wild
happiness followed. As was inevitable,
the secret exposed itself, when the bctlro-
thed wife was evidently about to become a
mother Then Il scene of rccrimlina-
ton ensued. The young couple made the
excuse that they had promised themselves
to each other and recognized each other by
solemn words of agreement between them
selves as man and wife, and that this agree
incnt according to the civil law, was mar
riagc. There was then hut one recourse
left. and that was to make the best of the
unhappy passion, and unite them by a for
NAL ceremony of the church. To this
cheerful assent was given and it was ac-
cordingly done. The marriage that had be-
come II necessity was formally solemnized
and three months afterwards Frank II.
Walworth was born.
As might have been expected, when pas
sion cooled the young couple looked upon
each other with changed eyes, and perhaps
each came to think that their choice would
have been different had they not been
thrown together in the common household.
AT least this is the way in which the story
is told Hence, it happened that they quar-
relied, and finally separated. Each was
jealous of the other, and perhaps each des-
pissed the other for youthful weakness and
lndiscrction. Letters passed between them
containing recriminatiOn, and some of these
strange missivcs came into possession of
the young parrcdc. The taunts upon his
mother angercd him, and there is reason to
believe that he totally misunderstood the
reflections made ON the subject of his own
illegitimacy. He thought his fathers hints
reflected on his mothers chastity after mar
riagc. Fired with false chivary, he did
not stop to question his mother, and the
mother had naturally concealed her weak
ness from her son. 1t was enough for him
that Il slur had been cast upon her name
and his own. lie took his fathers life and
thereby published his mothers early frailty
to the world. Her best friends lament
this more bitterly than the murder for
which her son is imprisoned. Had the
mother known what secret grief was rank
ling in the boys heart, her confession
might have saved two lives and hidden
from public view the almost forgotten
skeleton in the WalwOrth homestead Now
il is exposed to the gaze of,all, and fresh
shame is heaped uponan old honored name