The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-07-15
MRS. CHECKLEY,S CHILD.
The Romance Of the Late Disaster ON
Long Island Sound.
New York Sum-


Among the victims of the disaster
was Mrs. R. S. Checkley, of Boston, the
circumstances of whose death were
tragic to the last degree. Mrs. Check
ley was returning home from this city,
where she had been to recover from
runaway husband her little 3-year-old
daughter. Mrs. Checkley, having as
certained that her husband was in this
city, came here about four weeks ago
with a warrant for his arrest on a
charge of abandonment. A week ago
to-day a policeman, in Twenty-ninth
street, near Madison avenue, was hailed
by q woman who pointed to man on
the porch of house and said, II want
you to arrest that man. He is my hus-
band, and he has run away from me
for him." This woman was Mrs. Check
ley. Her husband, who is said to be
sculptor, was carving the door stoop Of
the new brown-stone front.
The policeman took Mr.. Checkley to
the Thirty-fifth Street Station, followed
by Mrs. Checkley. Superintendent
Wallihg was telegraphed to, and he re-
piled, ordering the prisoner to be sent
to the Police Central Office. Before
leaving, however, Mrs Checkley de-
manded ofthe prisoner the whereabouts
of their child. Mr.. Checkley said she
could be found at 1877 East Twenty-sev-
enth street. Mrs. Checkley went to
the house desi gnated, and returned with
her daughter
Superintendent Walling, who had
been fully informed Of the case, sent
Mr.. Cheeky before Justice Duffy in the,
Tombs. The prisoner told the Justice
that he was ready to go back to Boston
and live with his wife again. This he
had also told Superintendent Mailing,
and everybody else to whom he had
spoken about the case. Under the cir
cumstances Justice Duffy thought it
quite safe to let the man go on parole.
as the only charge against him was that
of simple abandonment. At the ap-
pointed time on the following day
Checkley appeared in court, but Mrs.
Checkley was not there to press the
charge. She had secured the child,
and that, it seems, was all she wanted.
She told Captain Murphey in the Thirty
fifth street police station that she would
never live with Chechley again, and
that all she came to New York for was
to recover her child.
Mrs. Checkley said she was II wears
old, and gave her husbands age as q.
They had been married four years. She
was very delicate woman, Of an excit-
able nature, and apparently very well
educated. She was very lady-like in all
her ways. Mr.. Checkley, she said, had
run away from her, taking their only
child, and had, she believed, married a
woman in this city.
Mr.. Checkley gave the police the out
He said that prior to his marriage he
had been q medical student, and was
almost prepared to. graduate Mrs.
Checkley, Or Miss Adelaide E. SWEET, as
she was then called, was lady of some
means, but confirmed invalid, having
been given up by several phi ysicians:
The medical student got al idea that
he could help her, or at any rate pro-
long her life for several years. To be-
gin with, he married her. They lived
together about four years, when to his
great surprise, Mr.. Chcckley was in
formed that his wife had previously
been married, and that her first nus
band was still living This, Mr.. Check
ley says, is the way he left his wife. The
reason why he took the child with him
was that his mother persisted in feed
ing it on medicated food when the
child stood in no need of it. Besides,
he was very much attached to it, and
could not bear to part with it,
On Friday evening Mrs. Checkley.
with her little girl, took passage in the
Narragansett to go home to Boston. A
few minutes before the steamboat went
down lifeboat manned by men who in
the excitement had forgotten to take
any oars aboard, foated under the stern
of the sinking vessel. There, by the
light of the fire, a woman was discover
ed on her back upon the surface of the
water, with a little child riding upon her
breast. 1t was Mrs. Checkley, and the
child was her daughter Lily. Both were
pulled into the lifeboat Mrs. Checklev
was exhausted and almost unconscious.
When she found herself aboard the
boat she thought she had been rescued
without her child, and after moaning
some tender words about her sslost
baby" she died. The child, however.
was saved, and on Sunday night Mr..
Checkley, who was still in this city, re-
celved telegram from Boston inform
ing him of that fact He took the next
train for Boston, and by this time he is
on his way back in the undisputed pos
session of his child,
! In order to test the quality of the
milk dispensed by the dealers to the
people of Chicago, DR.. De Wolf pro-
cured fifty bottles of the tactical fluid, as