The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-10-22
TIE DAILY STAR
SHADOW OR SUBSTANCE!

the ONCE Oh an enlneht legal urn.
A day or two after my admission to
the bar, the senior member handed me a
bundle which, he said, contained the
papers in the case of Farren VS.. Hill
lard.
He added that the case would come on
for trial in about two weeks.
The facts of the case were as follows:
There had lived, for many years, in a
certain city a maiden lady who was
known by all as Miss Betty Farren.
She was a good and pious woman, who
spent her life in doing deeds of charity.
She lived in her own house, with no
other companion than niece-the or
phan child of brother now many years
dead.
She was we'll to do in the world, her in
come amounting to three Thousand
pounds, which was more than enough for
the simple wants of her household, and
left her large surplus with which to
carry on her schemes for doing good.
Miss Betty, as she was familiarly
called, loved with all the strength of her
ardent nature the young girlof whom she
had the sole care from her earliest in
fancy.
At the age of two-and forty, it was rea-
sonable to suppose that Miss Betty was
no longer amid the shoals and quick
sands which surround those who are still
steering for the matrimonial harbor, and
that she would finish the voyage of life
as plain Miss Betty Farren.
She always wore happy, quiet, con
tented look, discharging earnestly the
duties of life, and loving, as have said
with all her soul, her fair niece, now
blooming into beautiful grlhood.
But the minds of women are never
made up on the alluring subject of mat
rmony.
1t talwayspossesses charm for them and
when you least expect it, they slip the
moose over their hitherto happy heads
preferring, it would seem, the hazard Of
a new existence, which gives some prom
ise of greater degree of happiness, to the
certain quietude of the old life.
So it was with Miss Betty
A man had come into the town by the
tame of Hilliard.
He rented an elegant house not fal
from where Miss Betty resided.
He was widower and the father OF
three children.
He lived in style which indicated a
man of fortune.
Soon after his coming he formed the
acquaintance of Miss Farren, and ere
long Mr. Hilliard was constant visitor
at Miss Betty's house.
1t soon began to be whispered that Mr.
billiard was constantly seen at Miss Bet
ty's residence, and the good people Of
the town were not very much astonished
when it was announced that they wert
to be married.
This event occurred; and Mrs. Hill
lard, with her niece, went to reside in
the stately mansion of her husband.
In the course of time it became known
that the marriage was an unhappy one.
Persons said that Mr.. Hilliard was q
man of brutal temper, and had married
his wife only for her fortune.
This she had had the good sense, priol
to her marriage, to settle upon herself
free from the control of her husband, ant
with the right to dispose of by will.
To her friends it was but too plain tina
Mrs. Hilliard was not the happy, con
tented woman that she had been, an,
very soon it became apparent that he
health was failing under her changed con
dition.
The marriage was a childless one, an
she clung with more than usual fondnes
10 her niece.
Day by day she grew sadder an
weaker.
At last the doctor became a constan
visitor at her house, and then the clergy
man was called to do the last solemn bu;
mess of his Office.
When it was known that she was dcaC
there was many sad heart for acts G
wel-nmembered kindness done by til
good little woman.
She bad hosts of friends, and some G
them did not hesitate to say that her lii
had been worn away by the harsh, ur
natural treatment of Mr.. Hilliard.
In few DAYS he produced her vii
and offered it for probate.
lit ICtllllSS VI tllC CllilC
we're shocked TO learn that Mrs. Hilliar
had, with small legacy to charitabl
uses, and another to her niece, given tn
bulk of her fortune over to Hilliard an
his children of the first marriage.
Under the advice of Mr.. Holt, Mi
Florence Farren decided to resist tn
will, and this was the case in which Iwi
to make my maiden speech.
The only course Lscould pursue in a
lacking the will was to show the circun
,tances under which Hiliard had alwa,
lived with his wife, the great love al
affection which she had ever shown fl
her niece, and to argue therefrom tn
the unnatural and cruel disposition whit
she had made of her fortune was Il
result of force or undue influence us
by her husband.
1t was only by inference that cou
adopt this line; there was no direct pro
of force or undue influence used by h
husband.
Indeed, the will which he offered h
been drawn by highly respectable att
ney. who WAS present at its execute