Weekly Trinity journal., 1874-06-20
SATURDAY. JUNE 30, 1874.
THROCEKMORTON'S GHOST.

natico inquirendo, and discharged, de-
veloped train of circumstances which
not only Guido the creations of the novel
ist and romancer, but can only find their
parallel in the gloomy and grim Nemesis
of Greek mythology. Miss Goodwin is
member of a respectable family, we'll
educated and cultivated lady, who, when
n mere schoolgirl, twentyfour years
ago, made the acquaintance Of Major
John Throckmorton, an accomplished
and fascinating man of the world, then
twenty years her senior. His influence
upon her amounted to an infatuation she
could not control. She was confding and
inexperienced, like most schoolgirls Of
idealistic tendencies, and she soon engag-
ed herself 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 envelop-
cd him. also, and it has never left him or
her, and never will, although he is grow
ing gray with years and she is faded,
weary woman, out Of whose life hope has
disappeared, and for whom remains only
:he passive obedience to fate. When she
found herself abandoned she did not
throw herself into The slums. She did
not break under the calamity which has
wrecked so many hearts. She did not
hurry herself out of the world. The dis
aster revealed her to herself and all the
aimless and endless aims of her life crys-
talized into one settled purpose, which,
for over twenty years has absorbed every
other purpose, hope, thought and energy
of her being. She calmly and firmly
came TO her resolve after long medita
ton. She could not marry any other
man, for that would be an irreparable in
jury. She had no desire to injure her
bstrayer, as she stated during the trial.
"She left his life and health in the hands
of God" She did not stop TO weigh any
effect her purpose might have upon her
relatives, or upon society at large. In
the scope of her purpose there were but
two beings in the world-her betrayer
and herself. Fer two long years she
sought, by every means in her power, to
win him back to her but when she found
this was fruitless, that he had forever
Abandoned her and that no influence
of hers could ever reach him, then she
determined that as he had wrecked her
life, she would wreck his ; that as he, un-
der promise of marriage, had clouded her
whole life with anhappiness, he 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 walk
Ing and sleeping thought, and no effort
of his has been powerful enough, no
strategy cunnir g enough, to shake off the
silent, relentless specter which has follow
ed him with reproachfll eye and iron
purpose, as calm and rigid and silent as
though she were the very embodiment Of
Fate. Wherever he went in the city of
Louisville, she was a few PAGES behind
him. Did he go to call upon a 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
there she was there also. He went to
New York, but in the thousands Of
strange faces which passed him in the bu-
sy streets, there was one familiar face al
ways near him. His own shadow did
not follow him more surely or persist
emily than she followed him. 1t was all
the same in summer or winter, in spring
or fall, in sto;m or shine, by day or
night. Thus the years went on. She
neye personally interfered with his bust
ness or his enjoyments. She never spoke
to him unless he spoke to her, and then
the burden of her communication was on
ly that it was her fate to follow him thro'
life, and his fate TO be followed.
In all these years Major Throclxmorton
has grown gray in the shadow, and
Throckmorton's ghost has grown faded
and pale and weary with her restless
wandering. A la he could endure her
calmness, her silence and her constant
presence no longer, and he brought her
before the courts upon the writ to which
we have alluded, and sought to establish
the fact that she was insane, her insanity
taking the form of monomania. But
this was her opportunity as well as his
1t was the opportunity she bad long
wished, and for the first time she had the
chance to tell her story before a public
tribunal.
There were doctors and experts in at
tendance, who. narrowly watched this
woman as she related this twenty years
story, but they found no traces of insan-
ity in it. There was but one expert who
deemed her a monomanac, and he has
been connected with an insane asylum
for thirty years and acknowledged that
he expected liberal fee for his opinion.
lie concluded on general principles, that
Miss Goodwin was insane because she was
different from other women, as other wo-
men similarly situated would have griev-
ed till they died, or recklessly gone to
the bad-a ruling which would consign a
great many sane people, who happen to
be inflexibe in purpose, to the insane
asylum. The jury did not accept the
opinion of the expert, but acquitted her
and left her free to do as she pleased
During the trial she did not follow
Throckmorton, and there will be some
curiosity as to her future course. This
episode may divert her from her purpose,
since she has had the opportunity to tell
her story in the most public manner and
to vlndicate her course. Whether she
abandons or continues to follow him,
Y1offarc littlo pot,