The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1874-08-21
Mrs. TiltOn.

ing 10 say OF hfs. llltou, tue uuioItu-
nate victim OF two as graccless scoun-
drels, as ever lived-her husband and
her pastor:
In all t..s history OF misfortune we
never read more plainlive story than
Mrs. Tilion's. Between these two men,
each of wh0me moulded her TO his will
she was as plastic as clay. AS she has
described herself. she was terrible un-
happy women. Her husband made her
home blight. Her spiritual guide and
pastor, knowingly or uuknowmgly,
made the blight curse. She lived In
al atmosphere OF pure oxygen, in which
there was not an atom OF hydrogenic
comfort and beauty. Even II she fell, il
was only as an angle might fall but
whatever DE the truth ia that regard she
has, indeed, been compelled ito live on
the sharp aud rugged edge OF anxiety,
pmorse, fear, despair" She was not
so much as allowed TO put on the APP
pearance Of serenity and happiness
AT one time her husband stood by her
bedside extorting from her confession
of crimiuality. Another man, IL he had
believed what she wrote, would have
killed her seducer. Then came Mr..
Beecher, who found her upon her bed,
white as marble, with closed eyes, as in
a trance, and with her hands upon
her bosom, palm to palm, like one in
PRAYER" "ns | look back upon it,"
somewhat flippantly says Mr.. Beecher,
1.-The picture ia like some forms carved
in marble that had seen upon monu.
ments In Europe" II was picture OF
woman wrongcd and suffering as no
women had ever suffered before, and
her childish moan, what can do y is
the condemnation Of both these men.
They tossed her breaking heart between
them as d football in their play. II
was Antenor and Agamemnon outwit-
ting each other, but carefully STIMULATING
that the one should be saved aud the
other profitcd, whatever became of the
wretched Helen. What right had these
two men 10 stand separately by the bed.
side Of that feeble woman, crazed In the
immensely of their quarrel and her own
weakness, and demand, each in his turn,
the wrii.en testimony which was to dc.
stroy her? 1t was wrong to turn trail-
ty into virtue aud make us feel the
proioundcst compassion for the victim
of the contest between these powerful
combatants. Mrs. Triton must, indeed,
have beena good woman, or she could
not have 50 acted rs to injure herself
and wrong others while two fierce men
quarrellcd over her misfortune. SO far
as she is concerned it is the saddest
theme of which poe; ever sung or com.
poser set the melodies of sorrow.
Looking back over this domestic trage-
dy by the aid of all the light that has
been shed upon it we can see no sign of
brightness and beauty except in the suf-
fcrings of the woman. The mad scenes
of which we get glimpses on the lyric
and dramatic stage are but tinselled grief
Ito hers, even whom the Imagination
makes The illusion completesl. 1t is
only since Mr.. Beecher's statement was
published that we are able TO realize
what was mcnt by the alusion to "the
poor child lying there and praying with
her folded hands" If she was guilty of
all that her husband charges her with
he made her not less miserable than If
he had placed a scarlet letter on her
~ lloIlbIUl w
all tie world. If she was innocent we
have no words TO condemn the crime OF
Ter husband; but even then Mr. Beech
O. has triiled with her honor aud his own
by his bargaining and letter writing and,
worst of all, by his payments OF money
to conceal what never occurred. 1t
nay not be possible ever to know fully
and completely the right and the wrong
Ior this matter but, whatever the truth,
Elizabeth Tilton has been sacrificed, 10
the shame of humanity and the Won
I der of the world There is crime in
this case which is new to criminal litera-
ture, and il can be accounted for upon
none OF the ordinary theories of crimi-
Inality. 1t would be fantastic to say that
Its causes are to be found in tho atmos-
pherc, and yet it is almost impossible TO
escape the conclusion that there is a
moral oxygen in the mir of Plymouth
parrish which distorts every impression
that Is wrought upon the eye, the heart
or the brain Of its unhappy victim.
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rpl,c ~ .n,,,,J,t Ia MiI1le Tennessee,