Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-10-04
AN ERIE ROMANCE.
Why Pretty Mrs. Hattie Powell is
Missing,
A Forged Letter Leads 70 Her Disappear
ance and the Illness Of Her Lover
The Life of Fanny Bry-
ant the Suicide.

ERIE, p, October Sin the paper7 of
every Place along the lake shore between
Buffalo and Cleveland there is an adver.
tisement that is attracting much attention
and especially in this city, where the ad-
vertisement says, the lady sought is pre-
sumed to be hiding. In addition to the
advertisements over thousand postal cards
have been received by Erie citizens, beg
hing them not 10 conceal any knowledge
of q little lady named Hattie Jane Powell.
From one OF the searchers who arrived in
Erie this morning. the gentleman mainly
interested in discovering the lady, the fol-
lowing facts were learned. 1t is a romance
in real life and reads like play: Some
months sgo a wealthy young gentleman
from Cincinnati met Mrs. Hattie Jane Pow
ell,
A Young and Attractive Widow
from California. At their first meeting
they fell in love with each other, and a
correspondence begun which eliminated
in an offer and acceptance Of the gentle
mans hand. The wedding day was ar
ranged and the marriage feast being pre-
pared by Mrs. Powells friends in Syracuse,
when on the journey to that place the
prospective bride caught cold and was at
tackled by that most unrOmantIc of all NAL.
aides, the toothaChe. She was compelled
to stop off at Rochester, where she re-
mained very sick for several weeks, her
comely face swollen and distorted by the
inflammation from her raging tooth. Her
ardent lover was apprised Of her condition
and
Would Have Flown 10 Her Side,
but she commanded him to stay away.
With wOmans vanity she reCoiled from the
thought of permitting him to behold her
face when robbed OF the beauty that he
had raved about, and although in ner love
for him she would have gladly welcomed
him under any circumstance, by dishgure'
ment she now permitted her love to be
subordinate to her pride. In impatience
the gentleman waited the recovery of his
betrothed and at last the glad news OF her
restoration to health came, and that he
was to meet her at the depot at Syracuse
on the 23d. The day came, the train came,
but not the lady. Almost distracted with
dismal fOrebOdings
He Hurried TO Rochester,
and learned that she had left several days
before. In bis despair at losing her the
lover became frantic and Csme very nigh
getting himself put into a lunatic asylum.
At the house of a mutual friend he learned
tidings that threw him on q bed OF sick
ptss ane brought ON brain fever. A few
days before Mrs. Powell, his hancee, left
src received letter in what she supposed
to he the handwriting of her lover. ltcon-
taired The cruel news that he had married
snrthtr. that be understood her beauty
was marred forever by her illness, and that
he WAS too proud and sensitive to take
plan or perhaps hideous bride home, and
that to
Guard Against the Temptation
10 DO so had united himself to another
Broken hearted by this exhibition OF heart
lessness and conceit, qualities which she
never suspected him Of, the lady laid bare
her anguish to the mutual friend and mys.
teriously disappeared. A designing scoun-
drel and rejected suitor is supposed to have
| forged the letter to break off the match.
! Thousands of dollars have been spent by
the gentleman in searching for her, with
| out success,