New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-07-15
THE WIFE'S SACRIFICE.
A Story of the Transvaal.

A Story of the Transvaal
After tiffin on the second day of the
summer asslzes for Griqualand West,
the languid interest which had hither-
to been taken in the proceedings sud
denly developed into something nearly
akin to excitement. Thejury had just
returned a verdict OF culpable homi-
eide against a dozen out Of some fifty
Shangaans who stood huddled togeth-
er, helpless and frightened, in the dock,
charged with participating in a fatal
tribal affraya at the Lone Star Diamond
Mining Company's compound; the
Judge had dulysentenced thegaping I'M
fortunates, and the jailerswere endeav-
oring to sort them out from amongst
their unconyicted but probably no less
guilty comrades, when the Crown Pros
ecutor, a fresh-colored young English
man, with no small idea Of his own
Importance, turned in. his seat at the
barrlster's table, and whispered to the
official who sat behind him to put for
ward Dirk Sylvester. The official rose
and repeated the name aloud; a hum
Of expectancy ran through the little
crowd Of spectators, and passed on to
the loungers outside, who eagerly
crowded into the corrugated iron tenn
pie Of justice; gentlemen OF the long
robe and members Of the press hurried
over from the Yellow Bar just oppo-
site and the stalwart Zulu, attired in
canvas, marked with a broad black
arrow, paused in his monotonous
jerking Of the punkah cord in order to
catch g ympse of 'tBaas" Sylvester,
as he stepped into the dock.
The prisoner was a tall, handsome
colonial, with, dark cleaning eyes,
black beard, and a skin thepaleness Of
which had been ripened into swarthi-
ness by the fierce African sun. Hewa
erect and fearless; he threw glance of
defiance at his enemies; he nodded with
a smile to his friends, and then, as the
door of a private entrance to the body
OF the court opened, and a figure
draped in purest white, with BRIGHT
golden hair ripping in rich profusii,on
over the shapely shoulders, glided in
softly and quietly like a sunbeam from
the free world outside, he leant over
the rail which interposed between him
and liberty, and hoarsely whispered
her name-the dearest name. on earth
to him. nc
1t was sylvester's wife. She re-
sponded quickly with look more elo
quent than words; and then the
prisoner drew himself up to his full
height, folded his arms and listened in
tently as the clerk of hecourt- old
friend with whom he had spent MANY
a registering evening in his bachelor
days-droned through the Indictment,
and IN a clear voice replied to the
charge of willful murder, "Not guilty"
The Crown Prosecutor, in slow and
tones, began to sketch the
history Of the crime; the Judge lounged
back IN his easy chair and aleisurely
sought for the cleanpages in hisrecord
book; the counsel for the defense push
ed back his wig from his perspirine
brow, and hunted out a reference in an
forgotten work on the Roman
Dutch law, the spectators hushed their
murmurlng; the punkah swayed reeu-
larly to and fro overhead, and Syl-
westerns wife, sitting there in the well
Of the Sitting court, with her sweet
blue eyes riveted on the prisoner, and
her luxuriant locks rising and falling
with the artificial breeze, looked to me
even more beautiful than two wears
ago, when she nightly rayished the
hearts Of susceptible diggers in the
make-shlft theatre in the Dufoitspan
road.
In those memorable bygone DAYS she
was Mademoiselle Marie La Cour, and
the star OF a travelling theatrical COM
pany, which, like most other 3.combi-
nations Of talent" visiting the Dia-
mond Fields, never, as a whole. got
any further. The proprietor made so
AAAOAAOJ III co oAAO1 SCGdSOu ClctU he |
eft to assume the lesseeship of q bio
Australian house, and Marie's father
ook over the management Of the sheep
thus bereft of their shepherd. How
1lvlnely she danced and sang; how she
the tears into the eyes of |
great rough fellows, or made them
shake the rafters with their sonorous
aughter; how she futtered the hearts |
y the bank magnates and the Jew
diamond merchants, and she caused |
me treasury" to overflow with fat
less--are not all these things written
n the tablets Of the memory Of every
iweller on the Fields? In thezenith Of
Ter fame she married Dirk Sylvester,
md il ever a man deserved hisbride he
...a torhls passion wore him almost to
shadow; and his dark eyes CLEANED
dangerously if a rival presumed as
ouch as to speak to her; and before
DIRK came upon the scene there were
walls IN plenty, but though Marie sip
led the champagne they offered, and
ven accepted their diamonds, she
openly at all of them. Dirk
vas proprietor of one Of the richest
laims at the New Rush. and thn mo-