Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-03-20
THE RELUCTANT BRIDE.
The Strange story OF a beautiful
WOman,s Terrible Deed.

The Strange Story OF a Beautiful
Woman,s Terrible Deed.
Ben Perley Poore, the veteran Journal
ist and Washington correspondent, tells
this strange story in the Boston Budget;
'sAmong the stories of real life which
I have heard told at the capital, one of
the strangest was of widow in Virginia,
who was left with several children,
among them very beautiful daughter
about fifteen years of age. The widow,
finding herself embarrassed, opened a
boarding house at the county site, and
among her boarders was Mr. W,
wealthy merchant, over forty years Of
age, but very fine-looking man. The
gentleman was the prop and stay of the
family; gave employment to the sons,
educated the daughter at fashionable
academy" and, very naturally, on her
return fell desperately in love with her,
when he should have preferred the
mother. He pressed his suit with perse-
verance, but the beautiful Mildred re-
sisted his appeals and the opportunities
of all her friends. Finally, however, after
two years Of assiduity and delicate gal
lantry on the part of Mr.. W., and the com
bined tears. entreaties, threats and per-
secutions of her family, the fair girl
reluctantly stood before the altar and
became his wife. The next evening a
arge party was given them, but in the
midst of it Mr.. W., being attacked with
vertigo and sick headache, was COM
PEELED to withdraw His young wife
hung over him in the silent watches Of
the night, apparently in deep distress,
and insisted on giving him a potion; she
poured out wineglassful of laudanum
and he swallowed it unconscious of its
nature 1t acted as an emetic, but left
him stupid and wandering. His senses
reeled. One moment he lay motionless
as if on the brink of the spirit world. and
the next he would leap up conyulsively,
strong man in his agony. Mrs. w.
denied all admission into his chamber.
At length he fell into dead sleep. She
then stopped for a moment over the
smouldering embers, approached the bed,
gazed at her sleeping husband, and
holding heated ladle in her hand at
tempted to pour a stream of melted leaf
in his ear. She trembled, and the hiss
ing liquid, intended to scald the brain
and thus kill without a trace, fell upon
his cheek. He shrieked in excruciating
torture, and the jewellers in the adjoining
saloon rushed into the chamber.
There writhed the still stupid hus-
band, the lead rivited deep into his
cheek. and there stood the fiend-wife,
her bridal tillets yet upon her brow, the
instrument of death in her hand and an
empty vial, labeled laudanum, lying on
the floor. The fearful realities of the
cause flashed upon every one, and, in
the confusion of the moment, she was
hurried away and taken to another State.
On searching the apartments an old mag
azine was found containing the confes-
sion Of woman who had murdered five
husbands by pouring lead into their ears.
The laudanum and the lead, it was as
certained, she procured from the store
of Mr.. W. a few days before the mar
riage, and the ladle was part of his we'd
ding gift. The grand jury next morn
ing found bill against the fugitive, and
the Legislature, being in session, forthwith
decreed an absolute divorce. What renders
ed this case more extraordinary was that
Miss 7. was proverbial for the blandness
of her manners and uniform sweetness
of disposition. The sequel of this ro-
nance is yet more singular Years rolled
away, and w. continued wretched and
solitary man; but the spell of the en-
chantress was still upon his soul. He
closed his store, sold his estates, collected
his ample means and traced her to her
distant retreat, to make new offer of his
hand. She had just married gentleman
of high standing, acquainted with all the
details of her career, shuddering at the
tragedy, but incapable of resisting her
charms Poor WI Then, indeed, did
the iron enter his soul. "The deadly
arrow quivered in his side.n His early
love, his fuctuating courtship, his mar
riage and the catastrophe, the fight, the
divorce, his years of misery, the new birth
of his passion and now his disappoint-
ment, final and forever, came crushing
over him like an iceberg in the tide of
bitter memories, and he prayed for
death.