The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-07-30
MAI. THRocKMoRTON'S SHADOW.
\ WOMAN FOLLOWS FOR TWENTY FIVE
YEARS THE MAN WHO HAD
WRONGED HER.

bachelor of siXty-tive, a famous beau of
a quarter of century ago, and the lover
of Sallie Ward at the time when that be-
witching Southern girl captured the son
of the Puritan Governor Lawrence, of
Massachusetts,. When the young bride
went to her New England home, Throck-
morton followed. 1t is asserted that
jealousy of Throckmorton, which Mrs.
Lawrence was too proud to resent by ex-
clamation, was in reality the cause which
led to the separation of Lawrence and his
wife. Sallie Ward came back to her ia
theirs house. and a divorce was granted
Lawrence on the ground of desertion.
The lady gave no explanation. Throck-
morton still lowered around devotedly.
but was not rewarded by the lady's hand.
She married Dir. Hunt. and after his
death became the wife of Mr.. Armstrong.
wealthy pork man. When this gentle
man died, it was rumored that at last
Major Throckmorton was to be blessed
for his lifetime devotion. but the hand
some widow drives about in the finest
private turnout the city affords, and has
paid no more attention to the addresses
of the ma or than in the days of her girl
hood. The beauty of the Kentucky
belle. S;.llie Ward, made her fame world
wide. and the persistency with which
the Major followed her gave a certain in
terest in the eyes of the multitude. but
it was another woman who held him up
to the gaze of mankind, a woman who
Swallowed him more constantly than he
haunted the path of the famous belle.
Throckmorton was pleasing and friv-
olous man of the world when he first met
the school girl, Ellen Goodwin. He was
about thirty years of age; she was tif-
teen. Her family was at least the equal
Of his, and to an older sister he had been
paying attention. The girl was impul-
sive, interesting and innocent. He de-
liberately set to work to reign love and
to gam her heart. Having gained it, he
threw it aside without concern and went
his way.
Soon after yelled figure appeared on
the streets of Louisville, girlish form
that moved silently after the man where
ever he went. She never spoke to him,
neither upbraided nor reviled When he
entered the hotel she stood at the door;
when he emerged from his club honse
she was waiting. In New York, in New
Orleans, she was at his side, phantom
like. He jocularly spoke Of her to his
friends as his . Hell's Delight"
Ten years passed. Her old friends de-
cided her crazy for keeping the thing up.
Fifteen years rolled around. the police
knew her, they watched her faithfully,
as some harmless, demented thing. and
passed her from beat to beat as she
plowed her way homeward in the wee
sma hours of the stormy night. No hu-
man cvered offered her harm or insult,
although she often stood all night before
the places where her guilty lover was
hidden. Twenty years were gone; her
friend had died father, mother school
mates. Her hair had thinned and whit
cned; her form stopped, a cough sounded
holloway on the air; her step was more
feeble: yet none the less it tracked a
portly, gray-haired. fa>hionably attired
man from mansion to mansion ON New
Years day. from tlIeater 10 club room,
night after night
Twenty-three years passed. Even the
little children grew to know the plain,
shabby, blaek-robed woman. and tiny
fingers pointed at Throckmorton S ghost.
Young girls looked wondering after her
as she passed them silently. Wives
sighed or smiled pitingly-they were so
secured and sheltered-when her gar
ments brushed their own Mothers
grasped their girls more closely suppos-
ing this woman's wrong should be the
fate of their daughters in the days to
come. So, for twenty-threc years, the
phantom, silent. certain logged the be-
trayer's step. At last his friends had
her arrested as Il lunatic. and through
their misguided precaution, the man and
woman were brought face to face in the
court room at Louisville. Then it was
that all the city woke up to the knowl-
edge that this woman was neither crazy
nor fool.
Her language was eloquent, her man
ner refined, her face firm. The whole
sad story of her life was told-her vow
to follow him until the hour of retribu-
ton. her persistent watching, her silence
and revenge Before the woman he had
wronged Throckmorton quailed, and his
tioning to which he was exposed. At
last, one evening. as j was walking on
Jefferson street. near the court house, a
great shout assembled: cheer after cheer
went up. The old court house rang with
applause. Men threw up their hats.
Ellen Goodwin was acquitted, and Throck-
IoSl "stS idlt. loI Tic W OIHdll,
having brought him to the bar and told
the story of his perfidy said that her
work was done, and she would haunt
him no more.
Throckmorton. conscious Of his guilt.
had refrained from arresting her, greatly
as she annoyed him, during all the twen-
ty-three years, and the story would have
been untold and she would have lived
and died, regarded by the presenet gene
liant majors friends interposed their we'll
meaning blunder. There never was a
trial in that city that equaed this in in
terest. At its close the entire room was
filled with shouts. which these outside
took up, until the whole city rang with
the news of the vindication. The jurors
crowded around and shook hands with
the accused, and persons who for years
had passed her without recognition asked
pardon of their old friend.
After the trial my friends tell me that
Ellen Goodwin never, in any way, noticed
or spoke of Major Throckmorton. A
time spent in retirement, and then the
desire seemed to awaken in this blighted
heart to know and feel some of the hap
py things Of life. from which she had de-
barred herself. Her shabby black was
laid aside: plain clothing took its place,
and study, books and music filled the
hours One day the guests at the Gait