Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-09-07

"There was human life to be rescued,
and |, more from love of adventure
/ than anything more pralsewcTthy,
united my efforts with the rest TIE
result was that i nearly lost my life,
\ While in the waves | was struck in the
head head by q floating spar and
1 knocked se<selesS. | was carried to
! the hut of one Of the fishermen. where
| was i'll for weeks. His daughter, a
handsome girl, nursed me. OF course
/ fell in love with her.
"She could not write her own name,
Bell and | have been, as concerns
women, fastduous man. But there
was about her nameless charm, an
| indescribable fascination, and felt for
her sake the world was well lost. | did
not dream OF melting her to dishonor.
battled little while against my mad
ness, and then | asked her to become
| my wife. She consented, and we were
married.
"No, do not shudder, dear You
have heard the worst. Ishould not tell
you, did the telling end here.
But to go back. OF course | tired OF
her. She had the temper of n fiend,
and showed it now that she dared.
In three months | knew that misery
was the price of my folly, but at no
cost could buy back my freedom. |
tried, God knows, to do nay duty. |
tried to make a lady of her But it is
God alone who plants the Unborn in
stinct which makes one woman differ
| from another woman.
! 81 offered to bring her to my home,
and introduce her to my world. She
laughed in my face. She refused to
come. | found then-how shall | tell
you, my pure, white love?-Ilfou then
that among her own class she had
lover, whom she could help with my
money. | had been her tool Per
haps the law would have freed me, but
was too wretched for that. The man
was on the sea, away from my ven
geance. provided her with an ennu-
al sum for her support, and left her,
"For ten years | never saw her face;
but the last year | was abroad | heard
the last amount of money had been
undrawn, and the woman was believed
to be deao. returned home to make
| investigations and have the news con-
! firmcd. Then, my darling, remem-
bered and sought the little girl whom |
had bound by II sweet, testing promise.
| ] found a woman more lovely than any
| dream OF my fancy-a woman so true,
so womanly, that | read in her eyes
that she held her promise, not as Jest,
but truth. Can you guess what such a
revelation was TO NE?
| / waited only to make sure that
might speak, then, when the words
were bursting their imprisonm
when the sky was blue and cloudless
above me, when the air was laden with
| the fragrance OF frUition, the thunder
bolt fell. learned that my wife still
iived-nay, more, | met her face to
face. She needed money, and had
| found me out. So coarse, so degraded
had she grown, that | shrank in nor
ror.
II met her demands. and then more
like dead than a living man, cast
about how | might meet death. / be-
lieved there was one way by which
might still retain honor--I entered the
army. fought as men fight to whom
| life is yalueless; but death rarely comes
save to those who shun it. At the last
fight was badly wounded
"For weeks was nursed by strangers
When | recovered, the war was ended,
and my name still reported among the
list of missing. | was glad that it was
so; | determined to give no sign OF
my existence, when | suddenly learned
that | was frenzy wife was dead
and had died as miserably as she had
lived.
"Had I then the right, my darling,
to offer you life wrecked of its youth
and its health? For time | hesitated
yet not for long, 1t is she, said, who
must decide; and so, my love, wait.
The night is falling-oh, Bell. shall it
be always night henceforth to me?"
"Not if my love can make the sun
shine was her answer, mid her tears;
and SO after the waiting, came the rest.