The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-05-06
Th ThrOckmOrtOn's Ghost,

Ile old creek myth that gave personality
to mans sins and errors, and depicted them
sweeping resistless and terrible through his
life; haunting him with dread forebodings in
his most sunny and prosperous hours scourg-
ing hlm with knotted, merciless whips in
his adversely; unappeasable save by death or
atonement this fable is seldom so enacted
before the ordinary, bodily senses as to be-
come patent, and force itself upon recognition
with the eternal verify of its meaning. Such
vivid, compelling entrance has it made into
the common place of life, for once in Louis
vile, Kentucky; such an avenging minister
of fate and such a wretched victim have ap-
peared in the chancery court of that city,
and the novelist or dramatist has in their mu-
tual history of flight and pursuit a theme
worthy of rehearsal and analysis.
At first, the story is not new. Twenty
two years ago John Throckmorton was a gay,
handsome, wealthy man of fashion; courted,
petted, and all the more, as the way of the
world is, because he had the reputation of
gallant rake; and Ellen Goodwin was a sweet
natured. beautiful schoolgirl of fifteen.
Among his other affairs of the heart, Throck
morton felt that Irritation with her would
do credit to his taste, and doubtless, too, he
was enamored of the innocent creature
Standing, with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and girlhood sweet.
1t was easy for him, shining down upon her
in splendor like young god, from his hight
of twenty-eight years, to win her maiden
love, impose upon her trusting heart with
easy promises and in two years of assiduous
devotion conquer the treasure of her virgin
purity and then for him it was as easy to
abandon her. For her, however, the matter
was far otherwise. When she realized his
perfidy,-and that was not until all essays at
reconciliation had failed, and the trifling rea-
son he had alleged for his estrangement PROV
ed lie,-she became transformed into fear
full being; simple, affsctionate girl no longer,
she became as one of the Eumenides.
When Throckmorton left his hotel, one
morning, twenty years ago, Ellen Goodwin
followed him at little distance; and through
all the wears since she has shadowed his foot
steps. 1t was at first matter of rare amuse-
ment to the favorite ofsociety, and in the fes-
tive gatherings of his intimates it fed their
laughter. He fled the avenging presence, but
in vain. He tried to gain respite by compro-
mise, and she, like the fierce heroine of the
French play, "Article Al" imposed ON him
the command that he should visit her at sta
ted times. This became as uncomfortable as
the persecution of her pursuit, and desperate
ly he broke away, and went to New York.
Thither also went Ellen Goodwin, and while
her fine education and talents gained her
bread in writing for daily journal, she gave
her victim no relief from her surveillance de-
clining an offer of permanent position be-
cause, as she stated in the trial., her pursuit
in life was not literature, but Throckmorton.
He returned once more to Louisville, and
there the slender form, always clad in black,
and the pale, sad face of the fateful woman
came to be spoken of by the children in the
streets as 'Throckmorton's ghost"
Only once did he obtain remission of this
Orestean misery; while he was a soldier of
the rebellion; when he came back, having es-
capeu the fate the poet gives to him.
Who could win maiden's breast
RUM and leave her,
she resumed her vigilance. Often has he
dreamed OF the love of woman, only
to have her warning hand In a moment ruin
all his hopes. In his evaporation, he has Of
cred her unmanly insults, has set lewd wot
men to converse with her, and even in ho-
rage knocked her down in the street. AT last
he arraigned her for insanity, asking her COM
mitment to an asylum. In the trial he deni-
ed that there had ever been any intimacy,
and alleged that she was seized with an mex
plicable, insane desire for his presence, which
he had at first humored; but the trial has
Just ended, and the verdict, pronouncing
Ellen Goodwin of sound mind, was received
with enthusiasm by the populace; and Ellen
ceases her long pursuit. Her own testimony
was a revelation of her character; let 1t speak
for her.
"When awoke from my dream, l saw
that my life was a wreck and waste. Mar
riage 10 another man would have maze me
living fraud The man who had wrought
nv ruln unheeded my sufferings, and seemed
untouched by care. There was no legal re
dress for me unless l made public record CT
nv shame in the courts. determined ID
avenqe myself / deliberately planned and
deliberately carried out my purpose; to be
perpetual shadow in his path; to keep ever
before him a living monument OF the rum he
had wrought. / considered the duty owed
to nv family, but my own wrongs were great
er than their rights I did not consider the
world, but believe the world is generally not
very much shocked when libertine is killed
though I cannot do murder. l believe that
have done the community no harm, and
know that l have done this man no wrong
but, on the contrary, have done right
Yet, under wise counsel, l have already re-
solved to spare myself the task OF further
furnishing him, and will leave him in the fu+
ture to an indignant worlds and just Gods
vengeance.
So Christianity shapes the world that even
the Eumenides, appearing in human life for
wo to the wrong-doer, must fain drop Their
ayenging appearance and let the final Meme
sis take her victim in secret, and boy his re
morsetul soul in agony veiled from view Of
his fellows. Yet it is a marvellous embodi
ment of the antique myth that this historl
presents; and brings more boldly into relies
| the crime OF the seducer than thousand ,v T9t
gar suits for damages in the courts. In, lns
fault would be less frequent VERSUS, were sue
"ghosts,n as Major rThrockmorton,s common
Tho cry Of conscience is readily, though
dearly. stiaed but perpetual memorial q
sin, worse than the skeleton @ az oe tne Sanque
always at hand, ghost that VIII not DOWN a
| the hidding.-is more serious Matter.-