Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-05
A REAL ROMANCE.
4 RueG,Uay Husband BECOMES Immensely
VenIhy-His Wife's Experience.
New York Letter.

UCutCly-ItS
New York Letter.
middle-aged woman applied to the
authorities last Wednesday night for aid in
an effort to re establish relations with heI
husband, whom she had thought dead for
twenty years, but now learned to be alive
and possessed of great wealth, at the an
tipodes. She was told to return on the
following day, but did not do so. Instead,
she called at the British consulate, but
without obtaining the ADVICE she sought.
Yesterday a reporter found her at
No. 48 Greenwich street. Her name is
! Mrs. Mary Mccartney, at least it is the one
she chooses to be known by. Mrs. McCaf-
frey is forty-fve years old, and has had a
long battle with poverty, in which, unaided,
she has come off victorious. Twenty six
years ago she, then fresh from Ireland,
married Edward Mccartney, young mar
BILE cutter in this city. For year or more
they lived happily at Hastings on the
Hudson, where her husband was cutting
marble for the Charleston custom house
Then the appropriations were cut OF and
the quarries abandoned. The couple came
to this city with their little baby, girl,
and then their trouble began. 1t was
about young brother of Mrs. Mccall
frey. Her husbands family was large and
thriving, and the young lad went sparkling
the girls. 1t was agreed by the McCaffrey'e
that he should marry one; but his sister
said no. Her brother boarded with her,
and in slack times helped exc out the sup
port of the family. She did not want him
married and'young people around On both
sides the question seems to have been an
economical one. The marble cutters wife
stood her ground so firmly that one morn
ing, after much quarreling, her husband
went away to return no more. Some
time after she heard that he was at
work on Staten Island. Then his trail was
lost again, and this time apparently for
good. Mrs. McCaffrey's baby was little
over a year old when its father deserted
her house. A dollar and half was all the
money he left in the house for the support
of both. His family were living all about
and had plenty, but Mrs. Mccartney was
not the woman to go begging from them.
She made survey of her house, and find
ing that she had food enough for three
days at least, went resolutely to work to
earn her own living. 1t was hard and up
hill work for years, while baby was young,
but what with sewing, washing aud
other work, she managed to keep the
wolf from the door. So passed half a
score of years. The marble cutter had
never been heard from. by his wife. Then
came wooer. The offer tenn pted her with
a prospect of easier days. For the first
time since the split in the family she sought
her husbands mother and asked If her soa
had been heard from. Never" was the
answer, ''you are a free woman. Edward
is certainly dead" So, without obtaining
divorce, she married again. Two years
after, after having borne into the world a |
baby boy, she became for the second time, |
and this time without doubt, a widow. |
Her husband died in her arms, and she |
was left once more to face the world alone. |
She buckled down to her work ata once, |
and did it without finching. Thus some
sixteen years had passed since her first |
marriage and her daughter had grown to |
years of discretion, when the shadow.of |
the first great trouble came into her life |
again. 1t fell across it with deadly dark |
ness in the departure of her daughter, who, |
in turn, left her mother to take up with |
her fathers people. The widow steeled |
her heart against the sorrow and lived for |
that bring US down almost to the present |
of the daughter softened at last |
the hearts of both, and they |
met in the silent compact to forget the |
past and to try to smooth the rocky road |
to the future sufficiently to travel it to- |
gether. Then it was that the widow |
learned that her first husband was not |
only alive but possessed of large estates i
and works as monumental sculptor in |
Queenstown, Otago county, New Zealand. |
Her daughter, during her residence with |
her grandfather in New Jersey, whittier |
the Mccartney family had moved years
ago, had found it out. He had been in |
correspondence with his folks after a |
lapse of dozen years, during which |
he was supposed dead. The re-
moval of the McCafreys had |
caused his letters to miScarry, until |
the marble-cutter, receiving no answers to |
his letters, bethought himself III the end of |
addressing one to Glen Cove, Long Island, |
where brother of his had owned property. |
The brother was not there any longer, but |
his agent found out the family in Passaic |
and put the letter in their hands. Thus, |
after Mrs. Mccartney had become widow
in real earnest her husband from whom she |
had never been divorced came back to life. !
Upon the occasion of his daughter'svisitt to
her grandmother she was put in communi
cation with him and in letter received from
him found money, coupled with an earnest
request to come out and keep house for
him. McCaffrey wrote that he owned large
property and was unmarried, with no heir
to his wealth. He did not mention his
wife, but wrote that he longed for his
daughter. His business circulars accom-
panied the letters, showing that he was
what he represented. He had worked up
slowly in his trade and accumulated riches |
by hard work. and thrift. The fact
that Miss McCafrey was about to
marry young man of her choice, |
dry goods clerk, bound her |
here, however, and she refused to go to her !
father. The widow, upon hearing her |
daughters story, though the matter over |
deeply and at last decided to consult coun-
sci as to the propriety of taking steps to |!
establish her right of dover in her hus-
bands property, and hence her visits to |
the authorities and the British consui's |
Office. McCaffrey is now On his way to
this country to see his daughter and aged !