Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-05-02
Throekmorton's Ghost.
r.nnis RennhIIcnn

-. Ouis Republican
: They have 6 very interesting aven
! ing Nemesis IN Louisville, poses
: ing some attributes not found IN a
I eie mythology, and surprising Il
ere ton of modern fiction. The pc
pIe u Louisville knew that Miss E
: len Goodwin had been following Ma
John II. ThrOckmOrton like his shaC
, ow for the last twenty odd year
They knew that Miss Goodwin belong
ed to q respectable family, had prop
erty Of her own in town, end was
cultivated and an intellectual woman
Of excellent business qualification
withal.
They also knew that Maj. ThrOck
morton was the son of Maj. Avi
ThrDckmOrton, the well-known pre-
prietor of the old Calf house, VIII
onSe threatened to throw Charlie
DIckens out of third-story WIndo'
Of,his hotel fors insolence, and cam
very near robbing the world Of Amer
lean Notes" ''Martin Chuzzlewit,
and all the novelist's subsequent grans
crePtions. This suggests that l
Didkens had known the subsequen
stOfy of his landlords son and ElleI
Goodwin he might have made some
thing grand out of 1t. The facts are
now in course of development in {
q chancery court, before which Miss
1 Goodwin has been brought on writ
dc lunGticO inqHireRdO
y Louisville has the. sPeetacle OF 8
Ipersistently shadowed mas, OF heroic
a.gfnre, hendsome face and command
/ ing presence, growing grsy m tins
shadow. Wherever he went in the
city or out of it, he could look around
and see the same woman, following q
few PAGES behind him. Whoever saw
and recognized him, looked again,
and was sure to see the woman on his
track. It was always the same, sum-
mer or winter, shine or storm, at
mid night, noon day or in the early
morning. Wherever Maj. Throck-
morton was, near by Ellen Goodwin
was sure to be. He travelled, and
she was on the train or boat; she got
off where he did. She was by his
side in New York, st. Louis or New
Orleans, all the same. When he cali
ed on a friend she waited on the op-
posite side of the street for his reap
pearance. If he went into a saloon
to take a drink or q dinner, she stood
thirsty and hungry of heart, on the
outside. She never molested him or
even spoke to him unless he first
spoke to her; but it was her calmness
that maddened, and her dumbness
that Ideafeated him. If he stopped
and asked her why she followed him
thus through life, she told him it was
her fate aud his, and that he had never
wronged her. He walked on and she
followed. Sometimes she wrote to
him asking an interview, and stating
that if ne granted it she would pur-
sue him no more. When he gave her
an audience she told him it was
ruse to get very near him and hear
him talk, aud that she had no inten-
tion of leaving off from following af
ter him. Her friends and relatives
had long since given up efforts to dis
suade her from her mad pursuit of
this man. 1t has now been going on
for twenty-three year,, and he is gray
and she is faded/and sallow, and
weary with watching and tramping.
At length she appears before court,
and several witnesses, among whom
are her sisters, are endeavOring to
prove that she is a monOmaniac. The
evidence goes back to her school
days, when Throckmorton, then in
the pride of manhood, courted one
of her elder sisters, bat scarcely ever
spoke to ELLEN. She was a little girl,
and the courted sister says Throck-
morton never had any opportunity TO
wrong the girl, and believes she has
followed him in pure malgnity.
Ellen Goodwin was herself placed on
the stand as witness in her own be-
half, and the doctors and lawyers
and experts were set to watch her to
see some evidence of insanity crop
ping out of her discourse. They fail
ed to see it. Her defence of her con-
duet is in substance as follows:
She said that in 1919 or 1850, while
she was yet schoolgirl, Maj. Throck-
morton visited her mothers house to
call on her eldest sister, whose ac-
quaintance began at the theatre that
becoming acquainted with her ELLEN
Godwin), he had songht to gain her
and that he beng then an
attractive man of the world, and near
" twenty years her senior, and she
being an inexperienced and trusting
he had won her heart and
acquired an influence over her which
enabled him to control her every ac-
tion; that he visited her house while
her sister was away teaching school;
that his visits were to her, and when
her sister met him there, it was only
when he'stayed until her sister return
ed from school; that she and Mai.
became engaged to be
married, and that he then accom- !
plished her ruin. During a period |
of year after he had first seduced |
her, they continued that relation, at
the end of which time, on some tri-
fling excuse, he broke off the engage
ment and ceased his visits to her and |
ignored her acquaintance and even
ler very existence, denying that he /
lad ever known her. She was still IN |
with him, however, and, be-
ng then young and inexperienced /
no other way of winning |
lim back TO her, she began to walk /
1n the street where he was accustom- /
ID to pass, in order that they might 1
meet and that he might reconcile him
self to her After a long and fruit
ess effort of this nature, finding that /
ne had determined to abandon her |
'orever, she deliberately, and after /
earnest and long consideration, re-
7iewing all the past, and calculating
IN the future, determined that, as he |
lad wrecked her life and her hopes
md her happiness, she would wreck
his; that as he had abused her, so
she would follow him even unto the
end of his days-that her shadow
would be always across his path to
remind him of the wrong he had
lone. She felt that she could marry
no other man; that in doing so, she
would be a living fraud She had
the effect of this upon her
own life and upon her relations; but
that the wrongs to her Outweighed
all other considerations. Her pur-
pose was fixed, and she had follow
ed it faithfully ever since. 1t was
not a monomania- 1t was a deliber-
ate act, which she had begun wit
tingly, and could forego whenever |
she chose. She had no purpose to |
iniure him bodily, but ''left his |
health and life in the hands of God"
So the ghost spake, and it appears |
to be an honest ghost. Other wit |
nesses examined in her behalf testi- |
fed that she is a woman of eXtraor- |
dinary business capacity and mem
tai power. She had been employed
on a newspaper in New York for
several months, while she was there
in pursuit of ThrockmOrton, and
was offered a permanent situation
on the editorial staff, which she de-
clined, saying that Hher pursuit in
life was not literature, but Throck-
morton" She soon followed him
back to Louisville. Her writings in
prose and poetry were read in court,
to the surprise and delight OF the
audience. The Louisville court will
be badly puzzled to know what to
do with "Throckmorton's Ghost.