The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-06-22
Drowned Herself.

The New York City papers report at
length, the story of a young woman of
nineteen, who had been betrayed into
marriage with man who had another
wife living. She was born in this coun-
try, her parents being well-to-do Eng-
lish people of the laboring class. Her
childhood was spent in the lower part
of the city, but she was carefully reared
by her parents. Her mother died when
she was seven years of age, and her
father died few years later, leaving
his daughter with step-mOther. When
she was fourteen years old she attracted
the attention of Mr.. Miles, father OF Mr..
w. II. Miles, cashier of the Sixpenny
Savings Bank, who took her into his
family. The girl was bright, inteli-
gent, good-looking and ambitious, and
lost no opportunity of improving her
condition. AS result, when she reached
her nineteenth year she was measur-
ably accomplished young woman.
At this time she formed the acquaint-
ance-most unfortunately, as it has
since prOved-of young man named
James Abbott. He, too, was intelligent,
not devoid of personal attractions, and
apparently well-to-do in the world. The
young man made favorable impression
on both Hannah and her friends, and, as
their acquaintance progressed, stated
that he was possessed of a small amount
of property, enough for two people to
commence life with in a modest way.
The two became engaged with the full
knowledge and consent of her friends,
and last September they were married.
A few days after, the little money Alb
bott had professed to have accumulated
disappeared. But the little wife cheered
hi m in ba cold xuaS lose and
resolved that they would yet recover it
and do even better.
Three weeks after the marriage she
made the discovery that Abbott had a
wife still living. Then began the heart
breaking and despair, which ended in
suicide. She said "she had only her
good name, and as that was gone, her
life must go, too"
James ABBOTT was tried in the Special
Sessions before Judge Gildersleeve, and
sentenced to two years in the State
prison. Here are two women, one mur-
dered and the other foully wronged, and
two years in the State prison is regarded
as adequate punishment for James Alb
bOtt, the guilty man who is the cause of
this misery and death.
Two things, at least, should be said of
cases like this. First, the woman de-
CClNCA AbLO 0uCh q WIZ vas
before respected and respectable, is just
as respectable after it as before, has her
good name all the same, and will be as
truly respectable as ever, if she contin-
ues in well-dOing. No woman need
rush to suicide for such cause as drove
this poor girl to death, for tender SYM
pathy will be felt for her by every one
who knows that her misfortune was
not her fault.
The next thing is, that for so heinous
a crime as that committed by Abbott,
the punishment shall be Imprisonment
at hard labor for life. All that such a
criminal could earn, over what he would
cost the State, should be paid regularly
to the women he had wronged. Such a
sure punishment would deter others;
and the number of sneaking, cowardly
villains who watch for the orphan girls,
whose inexperienced and unsheltered
| lives make them especially exposed,
will diminish just in proportion to the
magnitude of the punishment and the
! risk they run. Let it once be established
that imprisonment for life with hard
work waits for such men as James Alb
bott, without the possibility of pardon,
and the girls whose father and mother
are dead will be measurably protected
| by the State from the monsters who
now get so light and inadequate a SEN
| tence.-Er.