The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-09-17

A marriage license was issued in
Chicago short time ago, connected
with which there is story as strange
as any ever conceived in the brain of
professional story-teller. 1t is 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, were never divorced, and yet pro-
cured license to get married again.
To begin at the beginning:
In the spring of 1878 Wilhelm Her
mann emigrated from his native home
in Wurtemburg, Germany, intending
to settle with some relatives ia a small
town in the State of Louisiana. When
he got as far as New Orleans he de-
cIded to stop there some time, and
about two months after his arrival he
was married to Amelia Rettich, the
daughter of an old German resident of
fhat city. Three days after his mar
riage he was enticed by chance ac-
quaintance into one of the low beer
saloons on the levee at New Orleans,
was drugged, robbed and carried
aboard a German trading vessel bound
for Newcastle. England. 1t was eight
months later before the vessel reached
that port. Immediately on gaining his
liberty Hermann sought the German
Consul at Newcastle, and narrated the
story of his wrongs. He 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 Hermann had no naturalization
papers or anything in the way of legal
claim on the United States, he was still
a German citizen. Then the Consul
sent for the Captain of the vessel and
compelled him to deliver Hermann to
the German authorities. 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 subjected in the
German army for a space of nearly
three years, when, seeing q chance to
escape from the country, he deserted.
All this time he had been constantly
looking forward with an all-abiding
faith and hope to reunion with his
bride He reached New Orleans ex-
.,ctly four years after his first arrival in
that city. He then learned that his
wife, thinking he was dead, had mar
again anu udO lcII Uuc City, nO Ouc
knew whittier. He started out to
wandered over the greater part of the
Southern States, following many clews
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 CHANGED to see his
advertisement for her on stray page
of a New Orleans newspaper; that she
had married William Chapman; that
her second husband had been rather
unfortunate 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 60
with him, her own true husband, if he
came for her He immediately started
for Tabuta, Kan. where his wife, re-
sided, arriving there five days later.
The day following his arrival William
Chapman, the second husband, was
found lying dead on his own doorstep,
with bullet through his brain. Two
days later Hermann was lodged in the
county jail on charge of willful MUIR
der.
The morning following the arrest the
prisoner was taken before the local
Justice for examination. A crowd of
rough, bearded frontiersmen thronged
the little room where the proceedings
were held. Justice was usually swift
and stern in that district; in serious
crimes Judge Lynch reigned supreme.
In this case, so far as the spectators
knew, the prisoner had been arrested
on mere suspicion as being stranger.
If evidence turned up to prove him
guilty there was no jail strong enough
to hold him from the vengeance of the
people, nor any legal power sufficient
TO stay the execution of his death war
rant or punish those who carried it out.
The first witness was Mrs. Chapman,
a fair, childish-looking little woman,
whose woe-begOne face and widows
weed sent a murmur of sympathy
through the spectators. She testified
that the previous Sunday evening she
had paid visit to a neighbor. Had
been gone about an hour, and on com
inc home found her husband living
dead on the doorstep. Her husband
did not carry pistol; there had never
been a pistol in the house to her knowl-
edge. She believed her husband had
no reason to commit suicide; was GER.
tain he would not do such thing. He
had sold cattle few days before, and
had the money in his pocket-book that
day-one hundred and twenty dollars
in currency. He had a small gold
watch in his vest pocket. with black
silk ribbon and charm attached. The
watch was hers-a present from her
mother several years ago. Both money
and watch had disappeared She did
not miss them until the day after,
owing to the excitement. She pre-
g1med robbery had been the motive
Tor the crime; she knew of no other.
0Do you know the prisonerP" asked