Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-08-28
Twice MARRIED.
A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY.

Chicago short time ago, connect
ed with which there is a story as
strange as any ever conceived IN
the brain of a professional story
teller. 1t is a story which requires
not the art of the stOry-teller to
make it interesting the bare facts
are enough. The parties to the
contract were married over seven
years ago, werenever divorced, aud
yet procured a license to get mar
ried again. TO begin at the begin
ming:
In the spring of 1878, Wilhelm
Hermann emigrated from his ma
tive home in Wurtemburg, Ger
many, intending to settle with some
relatives in a small town in tho
State of Louisiana. When he got
as far as New Orleans, he decided
to stop there some time, and about
two months after his arrival he was
married to Amelia Rettich, the
daughter of an old German resi-
dent of that city. Three days af-
ter his marriage he was enticed by
a chance acquaintance into one OF
the low beer saloons on the levee
at New Orleans, was drugged, rob-
bed and carried aboard a German
trading vessel bound for Newcastle,
England. 1t was eight months
later before the vessel reached that
part. Immediately on gaining his
liberty Hermann sought the Ger
man consul at Newcastle and mar
rated the story of his wrongs. lie
begged the consul to assist him to
return to his wife and home at New
Orleans without delay; but the
consul refused, saying that, as Her
mann had no naturalization papers
or anything in the way of legal
claim on the United States, he was
still German citizen. Then the
consul sent for the captain of the
vessel and compelled him to deliv-
er Hermann to the German author
tiles. On his arrival at Berlin he
was pressed into the army, and
bound over to a four-years' term OF
military service. He underwent
the drudgery and severe discipline
to which unwilling recruits are suO-
iected in the German army for a
space of nearly three years, when,
seeing a chance to escape from the
country, he deserted. All this time
he had been constantly looking for
ward with an abiding faith, and
love, and hope to a reunion with
his bride. He reached New Orleans
exactly four years after his first ar
rival in that city. He then learn
ed that his wife, thinking he was
dead, had married again and had
left the city, no one knew whittier.
He started out to search for her.
For nearly year he wandered over
the greater part Of the Southern
States, following manyclues which
, turned out to be false, until at last
he received letter from herself.
She told him that she had given
; him up for lost until she chanced
to see his advertisement for her on
a stray page of a New Orleans news
y paper that she had married Will
l.. liam Chapman that her second
husband had been rather unfortu-
nate in business, and had changed
his place Of residence several times,
hoping for better luck and that
they had now settled down in a
small frontier town in Western
Kansas. She proposed to leave
Chapman and go with him, hel
own true husband, if he came fol
her. He Immediately started fol
Tabuta, Kansas, where his wife re
sided, arriving there five days later
The day following his arrival Viii
liam Chapman, the second husband
was found lying dead on his own
doorstep with a bullet through hi
brain. Two days later Hermann
was lodged in the county jail Oh
charge of wilful murder.
,. The morning following the arres
: the prisoner was taken before the
ID local Justice for examination. a
crowd of rough, bearded frontiers
men thronged the little room wher
10 theproceedings we're held. Justic
was usually swift and stern in tba
n district; in serious crimes Judg
he Lynch reigned supreme. In thi
case, so far as the spectators knew
Of the prisoner had been arrested o.
mere suspicion as being a stranger
" If evidence turned up to prove hiI
-. guilty there was no Jail stroD
enough to hold him from the veT
geance of the people, nor any leg'
N, power sufficient to stay the execl
~ ton Of his death.warrant or punis
l." those who carried it out.
The first witness was Mrs. ChaI
man, fair, childish.lOoking lit
woman, whose wOe.begOne face an
widows weeds sent mnrmur (
sympathy through the spectator
She testified that the previous Su
day evening she had paid a Wis
to neighbor. Had been goI
about an hour, and on coming hou
found her husband lying dead {
the doorstep. Her husband d
not carry q pistol there had ne
eF been a pistol IN the house to b
knowledge. She believed her hu
band had no reason to commit 81