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

fore. From that time he lost his good
humor, avoided his friends, and sat
apart, gloomy, taciturn, and disposed to
resent any disturbance whatever. His
children, too, whom he had formerly de-
lighted to fondle, were now neglected,
and no effort OF his wife's could dispelhis
settled melancholy. He was also subject
to fits of dizziness, and when questioned
about it said he had had touch of sun
stroke, but would soon recover, and en-
treated to be left to his own thoughts.
A marked characteristic of his at this
time was his aversion to people for whom
he had formerly hada a great liking. Time
and again he expressed his feelings to-
ward them with passionate earnestness
indicative of actual hatred, and whenev-
er he had occasion to mention them his
speech was most violent and abusive
Suddenly, however, he became more
cheerful, and announced his intention OF
going to America again. He made the
! necessary preparations, and took passage
Tor England. For while letters came
from him dated from different hotels,
and then correspondence suddenly
ceased Time passed, and Mrs. Thomas
sen, in her little house near Dresden,
vainly awaited some news of the absen-
| tee. Her money was almost all expended,
| and, living among strange people, she
| knew not what resource to seek. Tele-
grams sent by her to England were un-
| answered, and fears of some dreadful ac-
cident began to force themselves upon
her. While in this strait she received
| a communication from her husband, an
| nouncing his arrival in America and de-
cIaring his intention of speedily return
ing.
One day some time after this, while
seated with her children, ThOmassen en-
tered the room suddenly, hesitated for a
moment, and then cast himself beside
her, weeping like child. In answer to
her inquiries he said, in a strange, ram
bling way, ''Oh, how I longed for this
moment! was in the house all last
night"
''the doors were all locked and bolted." !"
"Well, [ was about it," he replied.
:" / walked around it again and again"
Mrs. Thomassen eudeavored to dismiss
such fancy from his head, and he at
last admitted that he had not been there,
but had seen everything in imagination
lust as if he were For few weeks he
remained about the house, displaying
some of his former cheerfulness, and fire.
quently laughing and chatting with the
children. His wife reioiced at this i'm
provement in his health and disposition,
and tried to believe that he had resumed
his old course of life again, when one
stormy night he burst into her room
muffied to the throat, and with the rain
streaming from his garments.
81 did not want to grieve you by tell
ing you," he said, in voice that trem-
bled with excitement; "but l have to
90 away for a week or two"
She began to weep as she parted from
him. when he turned and whispered, 81
must 20 now, but this will be the last
time"
He went away, and in few days came
letters from him dated at Bremen and
Bremerhaven. The language of these
missives was strangely rambling, the
words misspelled, and traces of tears
blurring the ink on every page. These
indications of a troubled mind seemed
portentous to Mrs. Thomassen. She felt
a presentiment that something dreadful
was going to happen, and day after day
looked for news from her husband. For
a long time she heard nothing of him,
till one day there came a telegram from
the North Lloyd steamship company adj
dressed to "Mrs. Thomassen," and bear
ing this dispatch:
~ am sick. Come on here.
THoMAssEN."
Through the misdirection of the en-
velope she was not sure at first that it
came from her husband. So she tele-
graphed to the steamship company to
inquire, and they sent a detective to
Dresden to bring her up to Bremerhaven.
She had heard about the great explosion
there, and fancied for a while that her
husband had been standing by and sus-
tanned some injury, but the detective,
while concealing the facts of the case, in
timated that ThomasSen had been wound
ed by his own hand. This intelligence
increased her anxiety and dismay, and
served to divert her attention from the
curious crowd which gathered at every
station on the route to see her, and 1t
made her unmindful of their scrutiny.
On reaching Bremerhaven another de-
tective awaited her. whose attendance,
she imagined, had been secured by the
kind forethought of her husband. While
Wanting on the platform for a cab she
was surprised to behold vast concourse
of people, expecting some public demon
stration and crowding all the streets and
byways which opened on the main thor
oughfare. Soon over the faces of the
multitude q look of pity passed as there
moved into view a long train of hearses,
stretching far up the avenue, which sshe
was told, bore to the grave the victims OF
the explosion. The sorrow depicted on
the faces of the relatives who followed
the sad COrtege moved her womanly
heart, and the tears of the wife were shed
in pity for the victims of the husbands
fatal plot. On reaching her hotel the
inspector of police called upon her and
from his lips she first heard the awful
story of Thomassen's crime. For a
while, she says, she was unable to realize
or comprehend what she had heard. Ina
state of stupor she asked the official to re-
peat it again, and during the subsequent
examination to which she was submitted
she had barely strength to answer the
questions put to her. On asking to see
her husband the official at first demurred,
and afterward agreed to an interview
only in the presence of witnesses and
with the understanding that all conyer-
sation should be carried on III German,
with which language, Mrs. 1homassen
SAYS, her husband was quite unfamiliar:
1t was only when he was speechless and
at the point of death that she was per-
mitted to see him. In a large room in
the hospital, whittier he had been taken,
Thomassen lay. His breath came hard
and labored, and his whole frame trem.
bled convulsively when his wife was led
up to the bedside. His eyes fixed upon
her face with look of recognition, and
when the doctors inquired if he knew
her he pressed her hand tightly and
strove, but in vain, to speak. For
few moments Mrs. Thomassen was al
lowed to remain by the dying man, and
soon after she was led away he breathed
his last. Then began series OF exam
nations by both magistrates and curious
persons of no official standing, coupled
with suggestions from the German press
which the American residents felt called
upon to resent, until wearied by this
kind of persecution and longing to Sc
cure retirement from the unenviable
publicity into which she had been
brought, Mrs. Thomassen came to
America.
The following curious advertiser mt
was published in Londonderry, Ireland,