Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-11-13
4 CALIFORNIA ROMANCE.
A Husband Ruined by a Wife After
Deserving Her for Years.

cost to build it over $4,000. 1t
has rather an interesting history.
1t is a monument TO wOman's folly
and a mans weakness. In the
early days of California a 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, aud
her money being expended, she
had a hard struggle for life, but
she went to work bravely, making
fancy horseblankets through the
day and giving music lessons in
the evening. In this way she man
aged to feed and clothe herself and
children and save a very small
sum every month. Communication
between the eastern States and
California was not 50 direct nor
sure then as it is now, and she
thought that the letters she wrote
might have gone astray, and a like
misfortune had prevented her from
hearing from her husband. Then
came q letter, short, and contain
ing 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 wIOte
continually, but received no answer,
and she feared he was dead. She
gave up all hope ofeyer seeing him
again, and devoted herself to the
education of her two little daugh
ters 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 a 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 sur
prised to hear that the lady knew
him, and that he was considered
quite a rich man out there. She
obtained his address and wrote
him, but received no answer. Then,
like brave Yankee woman, she
sold her little belongings. took
what money she had saved, and,
with her little children, started on
a steamer for San Francisco, arriv-
/ ing here with $3.50 in her pocket.
She inquired for the silent hus-
band, was directed to where he
/ lived, and presented herself to him
with her two little ones clingiDg to
her skirts. You would imagine
that first. class circus would have
ensued, but it was not so. He re-
ceiyed her calmly, as though it
were quite an ordinary thing to
have a wife and two children drop
down on him from the clouds, and
expressed himself as pleased to see
them. She was spunky little wO-
man, and no doubt gave him bit
of her mind but it affected him no
more than the cry OF poverty does
a millionaire. lie gave no reason
for his long silence, and she found,
on looking over his trunks, all her
letters unopened.
When she asked him why he act
ed in the way he did he only an
swered, Il don't know That was
all-he did not knOw-aDd she does
not know to this day why he re-
manned silent. He had formed no
other ties of any kind here, and
there was not theslightest evidence
of woman being at the bottom of
it all. lie was a good-natured,
kindly, weld disposed man
honest and industrious, not
given to any vices, and had accu-
mulated quite large fortune. lie
was stopping at a hotel when she
arrived, but he Immediately on her
arrival took a house, furnished it,
and they went to housekeeping.
The wife, for the first time in
many years, enjoyed the comforts
of good home and rest from hard
labor, but she was not content
She could not let we'll enough alone,
and determined to make show
with the fortune which the old man
had quietly accumulated. The first
thing she must have was a fine
house; then fine clothes, a car
riage, and servants. The old man
probably thought he had no right
to refuse her anything under the
circumstances, weakly conceded to
her request, and began the cree
ton of fine house on a tifty-yard
lot in the then most fashionable
portion of the city. The house was
finished and furnished, and a big
hole was made in his pile. Then
came expensive living, and then,
in a little while, a visit to the East
to show her friends the fine lady
she had blOssomed into in Califor-
nia. She went East, summered at
Saratoga, married one Of her dangh-
tiers of, cut dash generally, re-
turning home to find a mortgage
on the new house.
The old man had nOt-as is usual
with rich husbands when the wife
is away-gone in for dissipation,
but a misfortune just as great over
took him. He got into the hands
Of sharpers, and they robbed him.
Loss followed loss until he was
hopeleSsly involved. Most Of his
money was gone, and his spirit was
broken. While he remained at his
old business of making bricks he
was all right, but when he gave up |
that pleban business and started |
out into what the wife considered |
a wider sphere, and one more in
keeping with their wealth, he was
all at sea, and was soon financial
wreck. He was still silent with
reference TO his affairs, and the ex-
travagant style of living was kept
up until the inevitable crash came
and the sherilI's red flag hoated
from the grand mansion. To-day
the old couple are poor and the
husband an invalid. They had
their time, at least she had. The
house came into the possession of
Judge Delos Lake, then judge of
the Criminal Court in this city,
where he lived until he WAS carried