The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-09-11

other Lover to Accomplish 1T
and Killing Herself the Night
Before he was Hanged.
From the Cincinnati Commercial
or the many crimes committed on
the sacred soil of Kentucky there
never has been one for romance OF
incident, chivalry of motive, tragedy
Of ending equal to that of the Beau
champ affair. Though transporting
many years ago, its details have
lost none of their freshness, and the
high standing Of the families aDd
their persistent efforts to suppress
everything relating to it, have tend
ed to perpetuate its remembrance.
and FENDER e q romance that even
at this late day all Kentuekians love
to talk or and wonder over. The
murderer. or infatuated avenger of
another's wrongs, was j. 0. Beau
champ, the son of respectable far
mer near Bowling Green. He was
q young law student Of unusual
promise, whose talents and address
had attracted the favorable notice
of the aHterward murdered Solomon
p. Sharpe, at that time Attorney
General Of the State. Young Beau
champ was OF ardent temperament,
entertained exalted ideas Of wo-
man's purity, and once upon his va
cations CHANGED to meet Miss Anna
Cooke, beautiful young lady, who,
during his absence in the pursuit of
his studies had, with a widowed
mother, taken up her residence near
his fathers farm.
1t was a case of love at first sight.
Miss Cooke was melancholy as a
lovers lutte. lived in great privacy,
and her mysterious movements and
intentional withdrawal from society
threw around her halo of mystii-
cation that fired the ardor of the law
student and made him a willing
slave at her feet. He called upon
her, actually forced himself into her
presence, and borrowed books of her
simply to afford him an excuse to
call again. She repealed his adj
vances in q manner that only lured
him on. He prosecuted her with
kindness and haunted her with at
tentions. He proposed, was rejec-
ted Ahe would never marry. He
persisted with an excess of passion
and ardor that induced her TO tell
him her story, and wrung from him
promise of revenge.
She had been betrayed, she said,
by Col. Sharpe. Her case was a Pc
culiarly sad one. Col. Sharpe had
been raised in her fathers family.
The sacred rites of hospitality he
had repaid by filching the daugh-
tiers virtue. Aud she, like many
another, became mother ere she
was a wife. She had beea famed
for her beauty, yet her disgrace had
withered its charms and crippled its
powers. Her family had been
wealthy, but adversely had over
taken them. Her father and male
relatives were all dead. There was
no one 10 avenge her wrongs. Beau
champ, tied to her fate by the silken
cords Of desperate love, as well as
by the romantic notion of a chival-
ric temperament that urged him to
wash ont by assassination or chal-
lenge the wrong done, readily took
an oath to hurl Sharpe to the doom
he deserved.
Sharpe will not fight" said Miss
Cooke, when Beauchamp announced
his intention of calling him out she
is too great coward That was
in 1921.
The Legislature was in session at
Frankfort. Beauchamp readily found |
Col. Sharpe ut the Mansion House.
The Colonel recognized him cordial
". "Pye come TO Frankfort to see
you on important business" and
Beauchamp took him by the arm, !
saying. Lets take walk. 49, |
--t They went to retired spot by the
river side. The bell at the Mansion
House rang for supper. TTn
Beauchamp turned upon Sharpe
with anervous manner and eye spark
ling with anger. :" Do you remember
the last words Miss Cooke. whom
you ruined, spoke to your
Sharp stood as if transfxed.
II am the avenger whom, in the
spirit of prophecy, she. the last time
you ever saw her, warned you would
right her wrongs" aH
Sharp stood still, deigning no re-
ewiIl you fight duel with me?''
"MY- dear friend" cringingIy
spoke the Attorney General, Il can
not fight you on Miss Cookies ac-
count"
defend yourself. then, coward
and villain that you are," shrieked
Beauchamp, drawing an enormous
dirk.