The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-10-18
Special to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Special to the Cincinnati Enquirer
This delightful rural country scat is nov
enjoying sensational affair that has
eclipsed anything of romantic nature
ever known i'll Hoosierdom. II is re.
plete with startling developments, and coulc
by the ability of Il dramatist, be shaped
into an intensely interesting play. Here it
is all the talk, for nothing has so deeply
engrossed the attention of the people as
this romantic and novel affair The facts,
as briefly narrated are as follows:
Twenty years ago there lived in Illinois,
young man named John Morningstar
Himself, wife and infant daughter consti
tuted his family They We're in INDECENT
circumstances, and it was not long ere
John enlisted in the regular army, and upon
the breaking ont of the rebellion, he with
his regiment was dispatched South for
active service.
In an engagement that followed John
was wounded and separated from the
regiment of which he was a member
AS time went by he conceived the
happy plan of removing to the Golden
State and there engage in mining with the
hope of securing to himself and the loved
ones at home a sufficient amount of the
easy circumstances. He accordingly Jour,
neyed to California, and there engaged
himself at work as a common laborer and
miner. And there we leave HIM to return
to what had once been his home
His wife awaited the return of her hus
bond, but he came not Four or five wears
passed away, yet no John came to occupy
father and husband place Shortlyafter
this Mrs. Morningstar married again. hay
ing given her husband up as a sacrifice to
his countrys cause. The second husband,
one Ben Scott, q drayman. located here in
this growing town and carried on his busi>
ness, barely able to support his family.
Time flew, and the young girl grew to
womanhood. To support herself she work
ed out among friends receiving the custom
airy servant girls wages
In the meantime, the now forgotten
John Moningstar kept on with his pick and
shovel. He several times wrote to his
former home but letters never reached his
wife. She, giving him up as dead, removed
to NOwler, as stated before. Had he been
able to secure funds to defray his expenses
he would long ago have returned aud
sought his family, but the inevitable some
thing hindered, and the invitation to con-
tnue prospecting among the mountains of
California remained open 50 far as poor
John was concerned. Twenty years had
passed, when prospecting in a new region,
he struck bonanza, and John was almost |
instantly convicted into a Croesus He |
sold his claim and and struck out for Hi |
nois, his pockets full of money. His search |
for his wife and child soon brought him to |
Fowler, and when yesterday he came and |
found another in his place there was a sur
prise little less than a calamity. The stu
alton may be imagined Scott and wife in
their poverty stricken home confronted by
this modern Enoch Arden. Mrs Morning
star Scott Is III quandaIy. The law says
That an absence of seven years without any
intelligence received Of the missing man
during the time Is pyim0 .t1cje evidence of
his death, but since Mrs. Morniupstar mar
ried before the close of the seven wears
after her husbands disappearance it rather
affairs.