Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-07-03
II. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor.
AurelIa,s Unfortnnate- Yonng Man.

Ihe facts In the following case came
to me by letter from a young lady who
lives in the beautiful city of San Jose
she is perfectly unknown to me, and
simply signs herself "Aurelia Maria,
which may possibly be a fictitious name.
But no matter, the poor girl is almost
heart broken by the misfortune she has
undergone, and so confused by the con.
hcting counsels of misguided friends
and insidious enemies, that she does not
know what course to pursue in order to
extrcate herself from the web of diff
culties in which she seems almost hope
lessly involved. In this dilemma she
turns to one for help, and snpplicates for
my guidance and instruction with NOV
ing eloquence that would touch the heart
OF statue. Hear her sad story:
She says that when she was sixteen
years old she met and loved, with all the
devotion Of passionate nature, a young
man'from New Jersey, named William,
son Breckinridge Caruthers, who was
some six years her senior. They were
engaged, with the free consent Of their
friends aud relatives, and for time it
seemed as if their career was destined
to be characterized by an immunity from
sorrow beyond the usual lot of humanity.
But at last the tide of fortune turned;
young Caruthers became infected with
small pox Of the most virulent type, and
when he recovered from his illness his
face was pitted like waffle mold, and
his comeliness gone forever. Aurelia
thought to break off the engagement
first, but pity for her unfortunate lover
caused her to postpone the marriage day
for season and give him another trial.
The very day before the wedding was
to have taken place, Breckenridge, while
absorbed in watching the fight Of bal
loon. walked into a we'll and fractured
one of his legs, and 1t had to be taken
of above the knee. Again Aurelia was
moved to break the engagement, but
again love triumphed, and she set the
day forward and gave him another
chance to reform.
And again misfortune overlook the
poor youth. He lost one arm by the
premature discharge of Fourth OF July
cannon, and within three months he got
the other pulled out by carding ma
chine. Aurelia's heart was almost
crushed by these latter calamities. She
could not but be grieved to see her lover
passing from her by piecemeal, feeling,
as she did, that he could not last forever
under this disastrous process OF reduc-
lion, yet knowing Of no way to stop its
dreadful career; and in her fearful de-
spair she almost regretted, like brokers
who hold on and lose, that she had not
taken him at first, before he had suffered
such an alarming depreciation. Still
her brave soul bore her up, and she re-
solved to bear with her friends unnatu-
raj disposition yet little longer.
Again the wedding day approached,
and again disappointments oversbad-
owed it; Caruthers fell i'll with the cry
sipelas and lost the use OF one Of his
eyes entirely. The friends and relatives
of the bride, considering that she had
already put up with more than could
reasonably be expected of her, now
came forward and insisted that the
match should be broken of; but, after
waVering awhile, Aurelia, with a gener-
ous spirit that did her credit, said she
had reflected calmly upon the matter,
and could not discover that Breckin-
ridge was to blame. ..-..
So she extended the time once more,
and he broke his other leg.
1t was sad day for the poor girl when
she saw the surgeons reverently bearing
away the sack whose uses she bad
learned by previous experience, and her
heart told her the bitter truth that some
more of her lover was gone. She felt
that the field OF her affections was grow,
ing more and more circumscribed every
day, but once more she frowned down
her relatives and renewed her betrothal.
Shortly before the time set for the
nuptials another disaster occurred.
There was but one man scalped BY the
Owens river Indians last year. That
man was Williamson Breckinridge Ca
ruthers, of New Jersey. He was hurry
ing home with happiness in his heart,
when he lost his hair forever, and in that
hour of bitterness he almost cursed the
mistaken mercy that had spared his
head.
AZ last AureliA is in serious perplexity
as to what she ought to do. She still
loves her Breckenridge, she writes, with