New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-21
Aurelia,s Unfortunate Young Man.

me by letter from young laOy WHO lives
in the beautiful city of San Jose; she is
perfectly unknown to me, and simply signs
herself .Aurelia Maria" which may pos
sibly be fictitious name. But no matter,
the poor girl is almost heart broken by the
'misfOrtunes she has undergone, and SO
confused by the conflicting counsels of
misguided friends and insidious enemies,
that che does not know what course to pur-
cue in order to extricate herself from the
web of difficulties in which she seems al
moet hOpelessly involved. In this dilemma
she turns to me for help, and duplicates
for my guidance and instruction with q
moving elOquence that would touch the
heart Of statue. Hear her sad story:
She says that when che was sixteen
wears old she met and loved, with all the
devotion of q passionate nature. young
man from New Jersey, named Williamson
Breckenridge Caruthers, who was some six
years her senior. They were engaged, with
The free consent of their friends and rela-
tives, and for o 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 smallpox of the most virn-
lent type. and when he recovered from his
illness his face was pitted like q waffle
mould and his cOmeliness gone forever.
Aurelia thought to break off the engage
ment at first, but pity for her unfortunate
lover caused her to postpone the marriage
day for a season and give him another
trial.
The very day before the wedding was to
have taken place, Breckenridge, while alb
sorbed in watching the fight of balloon,
walked into well and fractured one of his
legs, and it had to be taken off 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 machine. Aurelia's heart
was almost crushed by these latter calami-
ties. She could not but be grieved to see
her lover passing from her by piecemeal,
feeling, as she did, that he could not last
for ever under this disastrous process of re-
duction, yet knowing of no way to stop its
dreadful career; and in her fearful despair
she almost regretted, like brokers who hold
on and lose, that she had not taken him at
first. before he had suffered such an alarm
ing depreciation. Still her brave soul bore
her up, and she resolved to bear with her
friends unna tural disposition yet little
longer.
Again the wedding day approached, and
again disappointment overshadowed it: Ca
ruthers fell i'll with the erysipelas and lost
The use of one of his eyes entirely. The
friends and relatives of the bride, consid-
ering 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 off but after
wavering while, Aurelia, with a generous
spirit which did her credit, said she had
reflected calmly upon the matter, and
hot ;Iuo
to blame.
So she extended the time once more, and
he broke his other leg.
1t was q sad day for the poor girl when
she saw the surgeons reverently bearing |
away the sack whose uses she had 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 growing more and more |
circumscribed every day, but once more |
she frowned down her relatives and re-
newed her betrothal.
Shortly before the time set for the nup-
tials, another disaster occurred. There |
was but one man scalped by the Owens
River Indians last year. That man was
Williamson breckenridge Caruthers, of
New Jersey. He was hurrying 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.
At last Aurelia is in serious perplexity as
to what she ought to do. She still loves
her Breckenridge, she writes, with truly
womanly feeling-she still loves what is
left of him-but her parents are bitterly
opposed to the match, because he has no
property and is disabled from working, and
she has not sufficient means to support both
Now, what should she do ~
she asks with painful and anxious solicit
tude.
1t is delicate question; it is one which
involves the lifelong happiness of woman
and that of nearly two-thirds of a man, and
"A responsibility to do more than make
mere suggestion in the case. How would
it do to build to him If Aurelia can af-
ford the expense, let her furnish her
mutila.ed lover with wooden arms and
wooden legs, and glass eye and a wig,
and give him another show; give ninety
days. without grace, and if he does not
break his neck in the meantime. marry him
and take the chances. 1t does not seem to
me that there is much risk. any way, Au-
relia, because if he sticks to his singular
propensity for damaging himself every
time he sees good opportunity, his next |
experiment. is bound to finish him, and then
you are safe. married or single. II married,
he wooden legs and such other valuables
rs he may possess revert to the widow, and
you see you sustain no actual loss save the
fragment of a noble but most I'M
ortunate husband, who honestly strove to |
10 right but whose extraordinary instincts
we're against him. Try it, Maria. have
hought the matter over carefully and we'll,
md it is the only chance see for you. 1t
would have been a happy conceit on the ,,
'art of Caruthers if he had started with
lis neck and broken that first; but since he
las seen fit to choose different policy and
tring himself out as long as possible, do
e has enjoyed it. We must do the best we I