Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-12-26
The Face Behind the Bars.
From the New York Times.

est mansions on Madison avenue, have
iron bars like those of prison or asy-
lum. If these iron bars were only half
way up the window passersby would
conclude that the apartment SO pro-
tected was the nursery" and they
we're so arranged to guard against ACCT
dent, but these bars arc often the style
Of those in prison window, and look
80 if intended to resist force stronger
Than a child's. Passersby in the aristo-
cratic locality occasionally see pale,
van face of man of middle ago peer
ing through these bars, but compare
lively seldom, and there is little oppor-
tunity to study tho features, as an at
tendant soon appears and gently
bears the other away from the sight
OF the window. One of the oldest and
best known commercial families in the
city occupy the stately mansion, which
was built by them over twenty-five
years ago. Servants change with the
seasons, and my inquiry in the neigh
borhood, unless from some old resident,
will fail to elicit any information con-
corning the barred windows, which can
not fail 10 attract attention and curiosi-
ty in those who have seen the appari-
lion Of the face The interest naUur-
ally excited under the circumstances
will be heightened by a knowledge that
lights kept burning il the room pro
tected by these iron bars all through
the night, and evidently from the shad-
ows on the curtains more than one per-
son is moving within. There is never
any other indication Of hahtation of
the apartment than those Of the light
within, the form at the window aud the
shadows on the curtains. The appari-
dion Of the face is so seldom seen that it
might as we'll not be included among
the evidences Of habitation; but the
light at night and the shadows
on the curtain are to be seen nightly, as
we'll when the lower portions of the
stately mansion are gay with the life
Of reception or dark from the deser-
zion of the summers exodus. The family
are one Of the largest and most fashion
able in the city, and nightly during the
season there are lights in all the lower.
windows and evidences Of society but
there is no more change in the upper
part of the house than there is in the
light in the solitary house on the pro-
montory on the seacoast; it is the same
the year round. A careful corollary of
all these facts prompted an inyestiga-
ton of'what, under the circumstances,
t,, ri, re
and from al old resident, whose name
is historic, the fncts were elected after
much questioning, tho old gentleman
not deciding to become communicative
until he perceived that curiosity had
been excited Tint would not be satisfied
with any evasion OF the story.
In the first place, the iron bars were
put across three windows Oh the top
door when the edifice was erected. #
The family moved into this house from
one they had occupied down town since
the days of the Revolution. The neigh
borhood was not RS populous and
fashionable then as now, and the COM
parative seclusion was one Of the rea-
sons for the removals, for the vacated
house was still in favorite locality.
In q b1lstling, growing city like New
York family histories soon pass away
like the families themselves, or at ali
events we make history so rapidly that
the present occupies the thoughts to
the exclusion Of the past, and so this bit
Of family history has entirely passed
from the minds except of few aged
contemporaries to whom it is an old
story, possessing little interest nova
days, though at the time of the removal
mentioned it was probably for the nonce
tea- table gossip. A member of the
family, gentleman of five and twenty,
returned from an educational tour of
Europe in time to see his betrothed we'd
ded to rival. The shock was too
great for him to withstand, and his rea-
son was shattered. Sinceithat day he
has been an imbecile, with little strength
of ambition to go about, and he has oc-
cupied the top floor room with the iron
barred windows, in charge of an attend
ant ever since, the removal being made
shortly after, and the apartment especi-
ally designed for him. He has never
since, according to information, spoken
a word, and is, of course, only seen by
the physician and members Of the FAM
lily. Children born in the house to
younger members of the family have
never seen the mysterious occupant
OF the top floor; indeed, know
nothing about him. It is doubtful if
anybody outside of the family
and his attendants has ever seen
him in all these years. At times he in
llulges in the exercise of walking about
his room, but generally is contented to
rest in an arm chair. It is said that he
never looks at woman without vio-
lent spasm. He has ample means in
bis own right and wants for nothing.
Any attempt to remove him from the
apartment excites him to an extent that
induces those having him in charge to
leave him where he is. He will proba~
ply never leave the apartment alive.
When he is removed it will be in his
coffin, and the children in the house
will then for the first time learn that he
ever existed. .,.....--
The lady and her husband both fell
victims to the cholera, which was an
epidemic the following year in this city,
and the deplorable mental condition of
her discarded lover, which friends at
the time did not hesitate to attribute to
her soulless conduct, toward him, was
the source of much tribulation to her IN
her last hours.
Judge John @. Pinkerman, Of Bridge