Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-29
Chained to the Seal.

s'o" = A0AsSA1' 9o' yoUu,6 A"~y Va ~
haps twenty years. She was Hastily
dressed in a neat gray silk. and a dia-
mond necklace glistened at her throat.
Her face was an intelligent and attract
i've one, but her bright blue eyes had .
meaningless look, and were fixed stu
pidly upon some object at the front of the
Cal. Her hands seemed to rest easily ut
her side, and such would have been the
impression q careless observer would
have carried away. As the conductor
and reporter stood in the aisle for a
moment longer than was necessary to
observe the above, however, a clamping
sound was heard, and the young lady
seemed to be trying to free her arms
from something that kept them firmly
fixed to her side. Stepping = little
nearer, q delicate pair Of steel handouts
could be plainly seen. attached to her
wrists. They were separated, however,
and to each was fastened q small but
stout chain that was firmly secured to
the seat. Behind the young lady sat a
gentleman Of not over twenty-five years
reading a book. 1t was not %dif1icultFto
understand, by the occasional sharp
glance that he directed toward the lady
in front of him, that she was in his
charge.
81 am taking her to New York." he be-
gan, ''where | hope to secure for her
such treatment as will speedily restore
her to sanity. l need hardly tell you
that she is my wife. We were married
about two years ago in one of the rapidly
growing Western cities. This young
lady wa n of the brightest and most
refined of her sex in the city.
81 regret to say that at first my bust
ness as a merchant kept me closely CON
fined, and not infrequently into the
night. One evening on going home
from the store my wife met me in the
hall with the same meaningless stare
that you observe upon her face at
present. Never having noticed any
thing in the slightest degree indicative
Of insanity, Iquite naturally guessed that
she was playing a joke on me, and pre-
tended not to notice her. All during
the evening, however, she walked about
the rooms. her eyes fixed directly before
her. At last. becoming thoroughly
alarmed, 1 slipped out into the hall and
out the front door, returning q few mo-
ments later with a physician. He gave
her one searching look, and then, turn
ing to me, said: She is q maniac The
advocated perfect seclus;on,
and she was placed in q nicely furnished
and heated room by herself. But she
grew worse instead of better, and finally
became violent, and insisted on pulling
out her hair by the roots, disfguriAg her
face, and tearing her clothes in shreds.
Her mind WIS completely gone, ssl
from the time I returned home on that
eventful evening she has never recog-
nized me Or any Of her many relatives
and acquaintance.
"When she became violent I insisted
upon a more careful examination of the
cause of her sudden dethronement Of
reason, and just back Of her forehead
we discovered a leng scar that looked as
it might have been caused by a heavy
blow from some cruel instrument. This
led me to think that possibly a burglary
had been committed, and, on searching
through the dressing-case in our sleep
ing-room, I discovered that all her dia-
monds had been stolen. I could get no
clew to the strange crime, bat the story
was plain. Thieves had entered the
house and struck her insensible with
some blunt instrument. She had been
rendered unconscious and awoke with
her reason gone. The handouts on her
wrists seem a cruel precaution, but
without them she would be absolutely
beyond control. I shall take her to one
of the ablest physicians in the East, and
hope to return with her soon, perfectly
cured" This ended the strange story.
cit is the strangest case I have ever
seen in my five years of railroading,"
said the conductor, as he mounted the
platform of the last car. s.She has
neither moved nor spoken since VIC left
Chicago, and keeps her eyes fixed in
that same unffinching way before her."
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.