The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1874-06-13
The Shadow of n Great Sin.
TnRocKMonroS's Guosr.

The trial Of Miss Eliza Goodwin, who
was recently brought before the courts
in Louisville upon writ tie Mnutiao
'nqmrendo, and discharged, developed
train OF circumstances which not only
Guido the creations Of the novelist and
romancer, but can only Gnd their parali
el in the gloomy aud grim Nemcses Of
Grecian mythology. Miss Eliza God
win is a member of a respectable family,
we'll educated and cultivated lady,
who, wheu mere school girl, twenty
four years ago, made the acquaintance
of Major John Throckmorton, an accom-
plishcd and fascinating man of the
world, then twenty years her senior.
Ills influence upon her amounted to an
infatuation which she could not control
She was eonfiding and inexperienced.
like most school girls of idealstic ten
denc!cs, and she very soon engaged her
self in marriage to him When he had
secured this advantage, he ruined and
then abandoned her, but the shadow Of
the darkness into which she fell cnvelo
ped him also, and it has never left him
or her. and never will, although he is
growing gray with years aud passing
the years of passion and shc is faded.
weary woman, out of whose life hope has
disappeared, aud for whom remains only
the passive obedience to fate. ,Wbeni
SHE found nersei a0lndaheI sflss Or, mn
throw herself into the slums. She did
not break under the calamity which
wrecks so many lives. Shed i'll not hur
ry herself 3ut of the world. The disas
ter revealed her to herself, and all tn,
aimlcss aud restless elements of her life
crystal'zcd into ono settled purpose
which, fer over twenty years, has abs r
bed. every other purpose, hope thought
and energy of her ssbeing She calmly
and firmly came to her resolve after long
meditation. She could not marry any
other man, for that would be an irrepara
h!e injury. She had no desire to iniure
her bctrayer, as she stated during the
trial. She left his health and his life
in the hands Of God She did not stop
to weigh any effect her purpose might
have upon her relatives or society at
large. In the scope OF her purpose
there were but two persons in the worll
her bctrayer and herself For two
long years she sought by every means
IN her power to win him back to her;
but when she found this was frui.less.
when she found that he hal forever
abandon ed her, and that no in nflucncc of
hers conld ever reach him. then she
determined that, as he had wrec ked her
life, she would wreck his; that as he.
under promise Of marriage, had cloudcd
her whole life with unhappiness, he I.
should help her bear it, by suffering in
kind, and that the memory of the ruin
he had made should ever be fresh and
constant She has thus far fulfilled
her purpose. For twenty years she has
been his walking and sleeping thought,
aud no effort Of his has been powerful
enough. no strategy cunning enough, 20
shake of the sileut, relentless spectre
which has followed him with rcproach.
iul eye and iron purpose, as calm, and
rigid, and silent as though she were tn Q
very embodiment Of Fate Wherever he
weut in the city of Louisville she was
few PAGES behind him. Did he 90 to
call upon friend, he knew she would
be upon the opposite side Of the street
when he came out. He went to New
Orleans, and when he arrived IN that
city she was there also. He went to
New York, but in the thousands Of
strange faces which passed him in the
busy streets, there was one familiar fac
always near him. His own shadow did
not follow him more surely and persis
tently than she followed. 1t was all
the same Summer or Winter, in Spring
or Fall, in storm or shine, by day or by
night. Thus the years went on. She
never molested him. She never person
ally interered with his business or his