St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-05-17
A Touching story.
Cincinnati ENQUIRER,

1t may not be generally known. vet i
is probably true that the famous move
OF East Lynne, although written in En-.
= gland, had the ground work of it's story
IN singular marriage which took place
III cincinnati, the notice and attending
circumstances at the time being copieC
Dy almost every paper in the country
lhe matter was about as follows
a MT. y. M., clerk in a down town
house, tell in love with young lady
4 whose father was a well-tO-do Second
street merchant, and after proper sea-
son OF attention they were married.
i Ihey soon found out they were not
very happily mated, and after mar
rage OF seven years, during which time
they had three children-two boys and
one, girl they naturally agreed to the
/ husband. applying for divorce, mere
~ on the ground of incompatibility of
temper. The divorce was granted and
the wife went home to her father, who,
! through ludOrsing, lost his business and
all his property. The daughters and
| his own misfortune weighed so heavily
on the fathers mind that, during mo-
ment OF mental alienation, he toOK his
own life, leaving his daughter penniless,
and to rough it with tile cold charity of
the world as best she could. The wO-
man, a brave little creature, tried every
way she knew how to gain an honest
hVilh0Od; in fact, working so hard,
giving music lessons and doing embroi-
derry for her old schoolmates, that her
health gave way, and having no money
to pay her board, must beg, starve or
go to the poor house.
10 turn to the other side of the pic
ture, the husband, after months re-
lease from the marital bands, again
married, and at the time of which we
speak had not only the children of the
hrst wife, buta also an addition thereto,
Il little two year old girl by his second
wife. The latter lady being i'll, the
husband advertised for a nurse and
hoHSekeeper, which notice reached the
eye OF the first wife, and she, in her
trouble, went to the former partner of
her heart, told him Of her sad condition
and applied for the position in his
household. The husband giving her
ample funds for her immediate wants,
asked her to call again at his office the
following morning, promising to con-
suit his wife about the matter in the
meantime.
Promptly as per agreement, wife No.
was on time, as was the husband, and
from there they went to the residence,
where the two wives held their first
conversation, ending in theil agreement
for the first wife to come and accept the
vacant place, which she did, seemingly
dellghted at having peaceful l8Dme
over her head, notwithstanding the
very strange circumstances under
which such shelter was given. Neces-
sity demanded that the entire past
should be obliterated, aud the new
housekeeper treated as any other help /; |
that she must care for the children-her |
own ottspring ng-and the other child as
any other hired nurse would do; that |
she must eat at the second table: to /
take care of her charges. All these |
things she did humbly, and even more
humility did the poor woman show, in |
that, never by sigh, word or look, did /
she exhibit the least discomfort. What I
however, must have been the true feel /
ing OF her heart, when seeing another
filling the place that she had tried, as
she thought, SO hard to fill.
The above is from the files of an old /.
Cincinnati paper, but the sequel, as told
us by one cOnveTsant with the fact, is
stranger than what we have already
When the cholera was rag
ing in our city in 1856, the second wife
was taken very i'll with it, and being
informed by the physician that she
could live but few hours at most, as /,
she was then taken in a collapsed con-
1ition, she asked that all go out of the
'oOm except her husband and house
keeper, when she told how much she
dreaded leaving her little children B
lmong strangers and as a dying wife,
,ntreated them to marry again.
The proposition was a strange one,
,ut both promised, and in few months !,
.fterward when the second wife had !
'een dead sufficient leugth Of time not T.
married., brought together aftera cruel
eparation Of so many years and we be-
ieve, are now living happily together !
q cosy West end house. :