Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-11-24

A startling discovery has just been
made, the details ofwhich have rarely
been equalled either in truth or fiction.
A few days since a blue eyed, golden
haired woman called on the attorney
general. in company with a colored
girl, and asked for an indictmen.
against lack Seymour. a negro, for
assault with intent to kill.
Her name, she said, was Annie
Ray, and
HER STORY,
if true, is enough to arouse the whole
country. ID detail it was as thrilling
as any story Of the tabled Arabian
Nights, and her words carried with
them a deep conviction of their truth.
She said she formerly lived with
her parents in Mississippi. When
about ten years of age, there came to
her fathers house a strolling negro
fiddler, who staid all night, and in the
morning, after playing a few choice
strains for her own private ear, per-
suadsd her to accompany him to
Memphis. She agreed, and taking by
roads and stopping at isolated places,
they finally arrived in the city. He
built
HIGH WALL
around his house, on Alabama street,
near johnson avenue, and installed
her as its mistress. There she re
NAMED in utter ignorance of the great
outside world, literally buried
alive. The fiddler was deter
mined his eyes alone should watch
the progress of her budding woman
hood. From being a child and his
slave, she became a woman and
HIS MISTRESS.
His foul appetite feasted upon her
blooming beauty. As time grew on,
he became more jealous Of her, and
sought even to exclude the rays Of the
glorious sun from her lonely prison.
In the center of a great city this poor
creature, unknown and unnoticed, in
a gloomy den unkissed by the rays Of
the sun, without affection or caress
save the foul touch of her seducer,
she pinned and languished for the un-
known.
About six months ago she slipped
out of her prison, and rushed into the
very arms of a young negro woman,
once the slave Of her aunt, who recog-
nized her at once, and in the evening
started back with her to
HER PRISON
to ascertain the meaning Of this strange
affair. Arriving at the door, they
found it locked, and were refused ad-
mittance, but the mar lack Seymour
rushed out with a drawn knife, and
clutching the girl by the throat, was
about to plunge the blade into her
auttering bosom, when her companion,
America Mitchell, clutched his arm
and saved her life. The pair then
got away as quickly as possible, and
since that time the poor girl has been
with her new-found but hum
BILE friend, on Alabama street, not
far from seymour's home. But she
has been ia
FEAR OF HER LIfE,
and with good reason, first sought
through her attorneys, Messrs. Taylor
& Winters, for a peace warrant, but
upon their advice applied to Attorney
General Turner for a warrant for as
sault and battery. The case was pre-
sented to the grand jury, who found a
bill against Zack Seymour, and
he has doubtless been arrested ere
this.
Seymour is a baker at Specht &
Walters establishment and is de-
scribed by those who know him as
being about 6fty-fve years old, black,
wrinkItd and repulsively ugly.
The woman Annie Ray is about
twenty four years If age, blonde, and
very pretty, but as ignorant as it is
possible to imagine any one. She docs
not know any one street from another,
aud beyand. the fact that her parents
lived somewhere 10 Mississippi knows
nothing of them.
The publication Of this may serve TO
unrayel one Of the darkest and most
mysterious mysteries; for so straight
forward is the manner and bearing Of
the woman that conviction goes with
her words.
800 pound bear, at Clements.
Go 10
SEESSEL'S