The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-05-28
A Sad Story from San Francisco.

We copy from the San Francisco Chronicle,
of April -, an account OF a sad occurrence in
that city. Our main object Is TO show hu~~
generously and nobly an ex Mobilian, Mr.. \.
X. Lightfoot, interested himself in the cause
of the helpless and the injured The account
will speak for itself:
The Chronicle ON Monday announced the
mysterious disappearance on Saturday last OF
Mrs. Annie Kline Townsend and her daugh-
ter Maud. And trace of either has vet
been found, and as there is only too much
reason for her friends TO fear that she sought
suicide as a relief from long pressing and APP
parently irredeemable temporal difficulties,
| and caused her little daughter to share her
fate, brief retrospect OF her rather remarka-
BILE life, and statement of the causes that
led to what is feared has been the sad conclu-
sion OF it, will be found of interest. Her
maiden name was Annie Kline, and she was
born near Nicksburg, Mississippi, being the
daughter OF Ninion Kline, an exceptionally
wealthy cotton planter, and the very type OF
the patrician, hOspitabe Southerner of the
ante-bellum DAYS. Miss Annie was raised
with every possible surrounding that devoted
parental love could suggest and boundless
wealth supply. During the she was Wis
iting friends in Nicksburg during the Federal
occupation of the city. She was the typical
hghbred, beautiful and enthusiastic South
ener, and in her devotion to the cause OF her
State she made her way from the city with a
important dispatches concealed on her person.
She was captured, the papers discovered and
| after long imprisonment she was tried by
court-martial, convicted spy and senten-
ced to be shot. The Federal General Dana
offered to pardon her if she would disclose the
| names OF the persons by whom she had been
entrusted with the papers.
THE .I5-aHTY SOUTHERN BEAUTY
Turned on the General and defantly told him !:
You have it in your power to murder me,
but not to make me murder the friends that
! trusted me- Execute the sentence" The
| sentence undoubtedly would have been exc
cuted but for the strenuous efforts OF Brevet
| Maior-General {. Z. Gooding, who finally
succeeded in having her pardoned and freed.
| But this experience did not deter her from
farther efforts TO help the Confederacy, and so
we'll known was she for her desperate parti-
san=hip that at the time of the ASSASSINATION
of Lincoln she was accused OF being an ac-
complete, notwith standing that she then
! in Georgia, and a company OF cavalry was
| ordered to effect her arrest \ warning of the
order was conveyed to her She utterly
innocent of this charge, but in the excitement
| she believed she had urgent reason to fear
punishment before she could establish her in
nocence, and leaping a horse she fled
| through the night. She concealed herself and
| horse during the days and travelled only at
nights till she reached the borders OF an ex-
| tensive swamp. Into this she penetrated and
in it remained safely concealed notwithstand-
| ing the search made for her, maintained in
food by trusty coiored people till her friends
! had established the fact that she had had
| nothing whatever to do with the terrible crime.
| Her father utterly ruined by the war and
the daughter, having been married to William
| Townsend came to San Francisco Mr.
Towsend has long been an invalid. and about
two years ago Mrs. Townsend, who was
VERY ACCOMPLISHED LADY,
And had pronounced talent for painting and
modelling, determined to turn her requirements
to account. She started mandatory of ar
! tificial French flowers at the corner of Geary
and Leavenworth streets, and was so success
| full that she had established business
which Melted her a profit OF 500 monthly.
! But the disasters that had pursued her from
her youth up had not forgotten her. In July,
! 1877, when riot afoot from the Atlantic to
| the Pacific, Chinese wash-house adjoining
! Mrs. Townsend's factory was sacked by the
mob and fired, and the fire extending ia the
house OF Mrs. Townsend, it was burned to the
| ground, with all her material and utensils, her
! furniture and clothing, the husband and wife
and little child barely escaping through the
| throng with their lives. She retained an at
| torney to prosecute her claim against the city
| for 81 200, but he neglected to institute suit
within the year prescribed by the statute, and
| the claim was consequently barred She then
endeavored to have the Supervisors acknoWI-
edge the justice OF her claim. No action hav-
ing been taken in the matter, she finally re-
tanned Messrs Lightfoot x Carter as her attor-
neys in the place OF the dereliet