Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-11-05
A CALIFORNIA ROMANCE.
A Husband Ruined By Wife After Desert
ing Her for Years.

ing Her Tor years.
last week, says correspondent OF
the Sacramento Bee, the residence of
the late Judge Delos Lake was sold at
auction for $4,000. 1t cost to build it
over $4,000. 1t has rather an inter-
esting history. 1t is monument to a
w6man's folly and a mans weakness.
In the early days Of California Massa-
chusetts farmer started for the land of
gold, after selling his farm and dividing
the proceeds with his wife, who, with
her two little girls, he left in Boston.
His wife did not hear from him for a long
time, and her money being expended, she
had hard struggle for life, but she went
to work brayely, making fancy horse
blankets through the day and giving
music lessons in the evening. In this
way she managed to feed and clothe
herself and children and save a very
small sum every month. Communica-
ton between the eastern States and
California was not so direct nor sure
then as it is now, and she thought that
the letters she wrote might have gone
astray, and like misfortune had pre-
vented her from hearing from her hus-
band. Then came letter, short, and
containing no intimation of what he
was doing or how he was prospecting in
his new home.
After this she received one or two
letters at long intervals, and then they
ceased forever. She wrote continually,
but received no answer, and she feared
he was dead. She gave up all hope Of
ever seeing him again, and devoted her
self to the education Of her two little
daughters and the saving Of money for
a rainy day. Years went on, and
she did not hear from her natural
protector until lady returned to
Boston from California on visit to
some friends. The anxious wife called
upon the California lady and inquired
of her whether she had ever heard OF
her husband in that wild western land,
and was surprised to hear that the lady
knew him, and that he was considered
quite rich man out there. She OBJ
tanned his address and wrote him, but
received no answer. Then, like brave
Yankee woman, she sold her little be-
longings, took what money she had
saved. and, with her little children,
started on a steamer for San Francisco,
arriving here with $3.50 in her pocket.
She inquired for the silent husband
was directed to where he lived, and
presented herself to him with her two
little ones clinging to her skirts. You
would imagine that first-class circus
would have ensued, but it was not So
He received her calmly, as though II
were quite an ordinary thing to have
wife and two children drop down OF
him from the clouds, and expressed
himself as pleased to see them. She
was a spunky little woman, and nj
doubt gave him bit of her mind,
but it affected him no more than thu
cry Of poverty does millionaire. HI
gave no reason for his long silence, ant
She found, on looking over his trunks
all her letters unopened.
When she asked him why he acte'
in the way he did he only answered
{ II don't know" That was all-h'
did not know-and she does not know
to this day why he remained silent. ii
had formed no other ties of any kim
here, and there was not the slightes
evidence Of woman being at the bot
tom Of it all. He was good-natured
kindly, well-disposed man-honest an
: industrious, not given TO any vices, an
had accumulated quite large fortune
He was stopping at a hotel when sh
arrived. but he Immediately on her ar
rival took a house, furnished it, an
c they went to housekeeping.
: The wife, for the first time in man
n years, enjoyed the comforts Of a goo
home and rest from hard labor, but sh
was not content. She could not Il
l. we'll enough alone, and determined
make a show with the fortune whic
the old man had quietly accumulated
The first thing she must have was
fine house; then fine clothes, CA
, risge, and servants. The old man pre-
D badly thought he had no right to n
= fuse her anything under the circun
N stances, weakly conceded to her r,
:. quest, and began the erection Of fin
, house on a fifty-yard lot in the the
most fashionable portion Of the city
The house was finished and furnished
m and big hole was made in his pill
et Then came expensive living, and theI
8, in little while, visit to the East
st show her friends the fine lady she ha
lt blossomed into in California. She wei
ID East, summered at Saratoga, marie
e. one Of her daughters off, cut a das
m generally, returning home to find
mortgage on the new house.
The old man had not--as is usu
st with rich husbands when the wife
Iy swsy--gone in for dissipation, but
e. misfortune just as great overlook hiu
s. He got into the hands Of sharpers, Al