Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1874-06-25

ter was Autographed, and dis
! tributed broadcast over the city.
This led to
AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.
A clerk in the postoffice in
formed Taylor that he remem-
bered having mailed the letter
which had been sent to the ST.
Louis post-office from Chicago,
with request that it be for
warded to Fort Wayne. He
produced. the Chicago envelope.
The handwriting OH it was the
same as that on the St. Louis
letter. Now, the chief of POI
lice at Chicago was inform
ed of the matter, and, in
company with Mr.. Taylor,
who had repaired thither from
St. Louis began to search
for the missing Jennie. At
that time Chicago was not
very large and the search did
not last long.
A SIGNIFICANT LINK.
A woman named Mollie Scot
ton, upon being shown Jenny
Taylor's photograph, recognized
her at once, and said that the
girl had stopped at her house
one night in June. She had
seemingly been under the in
fiuence of liquor and had been
in the company of dark-haired
man Of thirty, whom she had
caIleI Frank. This Frank had
told her that he had eloped
with Jenny from Fort Wayne,
and that he intended to marry
the girl the next day. In effect,
he had said, in her presence, to
Jenny:
Jenny. you are going to
marry me tomorrow, are you
not?"
To which question the girl
had replied, with a heavy tongue,
in the affirmative. 1t is a sin
gular fact that John Taylor had
not thought Of Frank Davis
threat until then. Now the
dread eltainty flushed up
on him that his darling child
was in the hands Of the ex-con-
vict, whom he knew to be ami
mated with savage hatred to-
ward him. The unfortunate
man was almost overwhelmed
when the dread certainty dawned
upon him. The police began
to hunt for Frank Davis, whose
photograph was procured from
the State prison at Jefferson
vile, Indiana, where the war;
den pronounced the above-men-
toned mysterious letter to Tay-
lOr to have been written by the
discharged convict. But Frank
Davis could not be found. AT
ter spending three dreaded
weeks in Chicago, John Taylor
returned broken-hearted to
Fort Wayne. Hitherto people
had disliked him as a heartless
usurer, but his boundless grief
softened all asperitics toward
him, and the poor old man was
universally pitied. He died the
following year, having never
rallied from the dreadful blow.
MISUNDERSTANDING
But he had been scarcely
three weeks in his grave, when
who should make his appear
ance in Fort Wayne but Frank
lin Davis. The excitement
caused by his arrival in that
place was heightened yet more
when the errand on which he
had come became known. 1t
was nothing less than a claim
upon John Taylor's estate, in
the name of his and Jenny Tay-
lor's little son David, whose
mother, he said, bad died in
child-bed.
Davis asserted that the girl
had eloped with him Of her own
free will; and that she had gone
with him to Chicago, and then
to Michigan City, where they
had been married. He produced
the certificate of marriage, and
also that OF her death, which had
taken place a few months ago.
The lawyers at once got hold
of the case, which, on account
of the wealth of John Taylor,
promised to be a complicated
and lengthy affair. Davis, how
ever, was arrested on complaint
of Mrs. Taylor's brother, Zach
arias Garriott, who charged
him with having forcibly and il
legally abducted the girl
There was no evidence to
substantiate this charge, and
Davis was released. But no
sooner had he left the court
'housc than he was met by the
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