The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-21
MAJOR THRocK
SHADOW.
A Woman Silently Follows for
Twenty-three Years the Man
who had wronged her.
From the Cincinnati Commercial

Major John X Throckmorton. of Loui-
vile. a mar Of leisure and Of sty'e,
bachelor Of s.. a famous beau Of a quar-
ter of a century ago, and the lover q
the beautiful Saliie Ward a. the time
when the bcwitching Southern Girl cap
tured the son OF the Puritan Coy La9-
renee, Of Massachusetts. W hen til,
young bride went to her New England
h0uIe, fhfOckmorton toiiowe /. II i,
asserted that Jealousy OF Thrpch morton,
which Yrs. Lawrence w4S too proud u
resent Dy explanation, W. IN reality til,
cause which led to the separation .
Lawrence and his wife. Saliie Ware
clme back 10 her father, house, and d
divorce was granted Lawrcnc. on the
aOlnd Of desertiou. The lady gave no
explanation. ThruckmOrten still how
cred around devote!ly, but was not re
warGad by the lady hand. She mar
ried DR.. Hunt, and after hi, death be
came the wife Of a wealthy pork man
named Armstrong. When TINS gentle
man died, il was rumored thar at last
Major ThrockmOrtou was to be b e>sed
for his lifetime devotion, but the hand
some widow drives about 10 the finest
private turnout the city affords, and has
paid no more attention to the addresses
If the Major than In the days If her
girlhoud. The beauty Of the kentucky
belle, Sallie Ward, made her fame
worldwide, aud the persIstency with
which the Major followed her gave him
4 certain interest in the eyes of the null
titude, but il was another woman that
held him up to the gaze OF mankind,
-..o III. .l,l,"al h,., ,,n-, .,n
stantly than he haunted the path of the
famous belle.
Throckmorton vas a pleasing and
frivolous man of the world when he first
met the school girl. Ellen Goodwin He
vas about 30 years Of age; she was Is.
Her family was at least the equal of his,
and to an older sister he had been pay
ing attention. The girl was IN p%ulsive,
interesting, and innocent. He deiiber-
ately set to work to feign love and to
gain her heart. Having gained it, he
threw it aside without concern and went
his way.
Soon after a yelled figure appeared
on the streets Of LOUISVILLE girlish
form that moved silently after the man
wherever he went. She never spoke to
him, neither upbraided or reviled
When he entered the hotel she stood at
the door; when he emerged from his
club house 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 He'll De-
light"
Ten years passed. Her old friends
decided her crazy for keeping the thing
up.
Fifteen years rolled around, the pc
lice knew her, they watched her faith
fully, as some harmless, demented
thing, and passed her from beat to
beat. as she ploughed her way home
ward in the wee sma' hours of the
stormy night. No human ever offered
her harm or insult, although she often
stood all night before the places where
her guilty lover was hidden.
Twenty years were gone; old friends
had died-father, mother, schoolmateS.
Her hair hadi thinned and whitened
her form stopped, a cough sounded hol-
lowly on the air; her step was more
feeble: yet none the less it tracked "a
portly, gray-haired, fashionably attired
man from mansion to mansion on New
l. car , LAY, lIOm IIlcdtIc anu CluD
room, night after night.
Twenty-three years passed. Even
the little children grew to know the
plain, shabby, black-robed woman, and
tiny fingers pointed at Throckmorton's
ghost. Young girls looked wondering
ly after her as she passed them silently.
Wives sighed or smiled pityingly-they
we're so secure and sheltered-when her
garments brushed their own. Mothers
grasped their girls more closely-sup
pose this woman's wrong should be the
fate of their sweet daughters in the days
to come. SO, for twenty-three years,
the phantom, silent, certain, logged
the betrayer's steps. At last friends OF
his had her arrested as a ~lunatic, and,
through their miguided %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 knowledge that this woman was
neither crazy nor a fool. Her language
was eloquent, her manner refined. her
face firm. The whole sad story of ner
life was told-her vow to follow him un-
til the hour Of retribution, her persistent
watching, her silence and It venge. Be
fore the woman he had wronged Throck
morton quaiied, and his bravado was
not equal to the cross-ques.ioning to
which he was exposed. AT last, one
evening as | was walking on Jefferson
street, near the court house, a great
shout assembled cheer after cheer went
up The old court house rang with APP
plause. Men threw up their hats. FL
len Goodwin was acquitted. and Throck-
mOrtons ghost was laid for the wo-
man, having brought him to the bar
and having told the story of his perfdy,
said that her work was done, and she
would haunt HIM no more.
Throckmorton, conscious of his guilt,
had refrained from arresting her, great
ly as she annoyed him, during all the
twenty-three years, and the story would
have been untold, and she would have
lived and died, regarded by the present
generation as a mOnomaniac, had not
the gallant Majors friends interposed
their well meaning blunder. There
never was a trial in the city that equal
ed this in this interest. At its close the
entire room was filled with shouts,
which those 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.
Alter the trial, my friends tell me that
Ellen Goodwin never in any way noticed
or spoke Of Maio: Trockmorton. Atime
:, ent In retirement. and then the desire