The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-03-17
MRS. THOMAssEN's STATEMENT.

Her noontide pOmps, to US, who fade and fail,
Our hands from hers withdrawn?
MRS. THOMASSEN'S STATEMENT.
Her Ignorance Of Her Husbands Early
! History.
Mrs. Thomassen, wife of the dynamite
iend, gives the following story of hel
life from the time of meeting her hus
band:
| During the summer of 1865 Mrs
| Thomassen, then young girl, was stop
ping at little country village in Illinois.
| 1t is a quiet, sequestered spot, shut of
from the world by great tracts of wood
land and ranges of hills, which, from the
advantages they offered sportsmen, drew
together quite a number of pleasure
seekers. The population of the place
was made up principally of French and
| Germans, and only an occasional Ameri-
can ever sojourned at it very long. Dur
| ing her residence here there came to the
| house at which she was boarding an
English looking gentleman suffering from
rheumatism. He was tall, broad-shoul-
dered, with a ruddy complexion and a
profusion of light-brown hair. This
man was Thomassen. Why he came
here he did not divulge, but limited to
the young girl into whose company he
was necessarily thrown that he had been
a blockade runner and was now seeking
concealment in this t-of-the-way place.
Their acquaintance ripened, and in the
autumn of the year she became his wife.
| They first took up their abode in St.
| Louis and lived there for awhile, Thorn
assen devoting himself entirely to his
bride and forming no associations outside
his hotel. All this time he talked inces-
sanity about his adventures in the war,
often expressing a fear that pursuers
whom he dreaded would get upon his
track. At night, his sleep was troubled,
and he frequently started up, eXclaim-
ing that the dagger of an assassin had
been at his throat. One night in the
middle of winter, while all the residents
of the hotel were asleep, there came a
knock at the door, which ThOmassen rose
from his bed to answer. In a moment
he came back, hurriedly dressed himself,
and, without any explanation, departed
Days passed away, and Mrs. Thomassen
neither saw nor heard anything of her
absent husband, until the thought that
he had deserted her began to dawn upon
her. She waited patiently, however,
and one day he came back as suddenly
as he had departed, and told her that he
had narrowly escaped with his life, and
that she must prepare to leave st. Louis
at once. That afternoon they took the
train for New York, and travelled day
and night in the most severe weather till
they reached it. So intense had been
the cold, and so exhaustive the excite
ment Of the trip, that Mrs. ThOmassen
had to be conveyed to her hotel in an
almost numb condition, and had to have
restoratives applied Immediately on her
arrival. But no delay would be suffered.
The steamer Hermann, of the Bremen
line, was to sail in couple of days, and
on her they left for Europe on the 18th
of January, 1866. After twelve days
passage they reached Bremen, and fron
it proceeded to Dresden, where they re-
sided for several months.
Once in Europe the fear of some i'm
pending danger seemed to leave Ihom-
assen, and he became the bluff, jovial
fellow which the acquaintance he made
there have since described him to be.
Most of his time was spent at home, and
he delighted to visit all points of interest
about the city and its suburbs in the
company of his wife and to describe them
with truthfulness and facility which
must nave D6en IIlc ISSuIC Vi very CA
tensive reading While here he joined
the American Club, and became a ia
vorite with most of the members, his
genial humOr and a generosity which
always distinguished him, recommending
him to them all At this time the Aus
trian war was drawing to close, and
day after day Thomassen occupied him
self only with the newspapers. Before
~. i l. A iaa
nothing so pleased him as a perusal of the
papers, and for narratives of murders,
battles and sudden deaths, he had
special zest So absorbed would he be-
come at times in this reading that he
would lose control of himself and rave
about scenes of bloodshed described in
it as though he were mad. When the
accounts of the last battles of the Aus
trian war got into print sudden desire
seized ThOmassen to visit these fields of
carnage, and while his wife was still suf-
fering from illness and grief for the loss
of a child he caused her to ride in his
company, along the route the contending
armies had taken in the last campaign.
Over every field where the havoc had
been greatest they went, and, although
the man evinced a wish to conceal from
his wife some of the horrors spread along
the way, he seemed to gloat over the
awful sights and to be ObliviOus to any
thing but them. Very hurried prepara-
tions had been made for this strange
Journey, and so when they passed through
districts where the villages had been
burned and the fields devastated, they
suffered intensely from thirst and IA
tigue. but even this would not deter him
from continuing on his route. Strangely
inconsistent with this morbid passion for
looking upon death in its most revolving
aspect was his conduct upon visiting
hospitals where the wounded were
brought. He conversed with them, en-
couraged them and frequently wept over
them; and, when he saw the dead borne
bv their comrades to their last repose, his
ewes would fill with tears, and he would
keep repeating, "Poor fellows, / pity
them" On his return to Dresden the
doctor attending his wife reproached him
with the folly of his journey, saying it
was the act of a crazy man; at which he
become thoughtful, and desisted for a
while from speaking of the horrors he
had seen on the way.
In short time Thomassen announced
his intention of going 70 America. He
hired house In the uburbs OF Dresden,
bade an atfectlOnate farewell 10 his family
| and corresponded with them so far as he
was able on the way. His stay in Amer
lea was very brief, as he returned on the
| steamer which had taken him there. He
had telegraphed his arrival on reaching
Bremen, and on the night when she ex-
pected him, Mrs. ThOmassen sat up
awaiting him until worn out by fatigue,
| she fell asleep. Suddenly she was awak-
ened by loud knocks on the door, and a
voice she recognized as her husbands,
| threatening and swearing She ODened