The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-02-26
A California Romance.

A San Francisco paper of a recent date
says: Abour four months ago Mrs.
Bertha Heyduck, lovely young Ger
man lady, had the misfortune to lose
her husband, to whom she was tenderly
attached, and to whom she had been
married several years. They lived IN
st. Louis. MIR. Heyduck fell from a
window, receiving fatal injuries, and
died, leaving fascinating widow in in
digent circumstances. Mrs. Heyduck,
overcome by the loss she had sustained,
sold her effects for enough to pay the
expenses of herself and child, five years
old, to this city, where her mother,
brother and stepfather resided, hoping
through their influence to procure en-
ployment. But, alas, for human hopes
No cordial welcome greeted the grief
stricken widow and her fatherless child.
She was given to understand that she
must depend exclusively upon her own
exertions for a livelihood. Heart
broken, without money and friends, she
vainly sought employment without sue
cess. Last Saturday evening some diff.
Guilty occurred between Mrs. Heyduck
and her mother, which SO incensed the
latter that she angrily turned the penni-
less widow and child into the street.
For moment the poor woman was COM
pletely overcome, but remembering an
acquaintance, Mrs. ~Dwyer, No. AT
Bush street, to whom she had been in
troduced since her arrival in this city,
she sought the hospitable home of the
kind lady and with trembling limbs at
tempted to mount the stairs leading to
the home of the Dwyer family. Her
strength, however, failed her, and with
a cry of despair she sank upon the stairs
insensible, and, with her child closely
clasped to her bosom, fell to the bot.
tom. The noise of her fall aroused the
inmates and they crowded into the hall,
where they discovered Mrs. Heyduck
lying senseless at the foot of the stairs.
It was singular coincidence that just
four months to day previous to the
evening Mrs. Heyduck met with this
accident her husband lost his life. The
mother and child were Immediately con-
veyed to an adjoining room, where, after
the proper restoratives had been applied,
the former recovered consciousness-the
child having sustained no serious injury.
Among those sympathetic persons pres
ent was J. W. Martin, a friend of the
Dryers, q gentleman not only we'll
known in the city, but also throughout
the entire Pacific coast. For years he
has been in the service of various steam.
ship companies of San Francisco, and is
at present steward of the Tam O Shan
ter, which plies between this port and
Seattle. So impressed was he with the
beauty of the fair widow, and so stirred
by the tale of sufferings and hardship
that his sensitive heart was touched,
and before the evening closed he laid
his hand and fortune at her feet. Mrs.
Heyduck accepted the generous offer Of
the chivalrous steward, and on Monday
evening the two were joined in the holy
bonds of matrimony by the Rev. Mr..
Williams, of the Episcopal church, on
Folsom street, the bride, in the absence
of her relatives, being given away by
Mrs. Dwyer. The bride is a brunette,
about twenty.three years OF age, re.
fined in manner, and is an accomplished
musicidn.