Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1886-01-21
fer False . vifa's saks.

truth is sometimes stranar than fe.
ton. He is the man wlpm Senator
VOORHEES, successfully iefendsd al
Greenville, Tenn. few nonths ago,
on a charge Of murder, tSeideteils Of
the case, Mr.. Voorhees, ssks, being the
strangest he had ever kukTn.
johnson was a promilcut lawyer
and politician here, witha wife who
was member of one ofsfs best fam
lilies Of this city. HishsS.s falling;
ha procured al appointment as pen
sioa ssent in Tennessee, baking with
him his wife and ron-.zDuriag hi.
stay there lis wife fell a siatin to a
seducer, man named Henry, who
had lei Lis family in New York and
settled in Tennessee as agent for some
mine owner. Johnson believed 10 the
day of his death that it was through
some mesmeric power that this man
obtained the influence which he did
over his victim.
After the occurrence, and before
johnson became aware d the full
state of the facts, the wife returned
to this city, and during her stay here,
while the husband was still at his post
OF duty in the South, she confessed
her crime in a series of letters.
Stunned By the terrible revelation
and wavering as to his pro,er course,
johnson came here from Tennessee,
and after consulting with one friend
their pastor, held an interview with
her. In this interview he told her
that. while he could not so far forget
her wrong as to then take her
again to his arms as his wife, he was
yet so much devoted to her and hers
that no word or intimation of the ter
rlble truth should ever escape his
lips; that he would continue to sup
port and care for her in every partic-
ular, making her even larger allow
ance for maintenance than before, and
doing all he possibly could to render
her comfortable. Whether he could
ever do more than this, BY accepting
her again in the nearest and dearest
relations Of life, he could not then
tell.
He then left her promising to re-
turn on the following morning and
complete in legal form the agreement
which he had outlined. The next
morning came, but with it the an
nouncement that she was dead dead
by her own band. She had dressed
herself in purest white, placed his
picture on the mantle so that her last
look should fall upon it, laid herself
uron a bed, arranged her clothing
with the utmost care, and shot her
self through the heart. Johnson's
first thought, on hearing OF her suicide,
was as to the best manner in which
he could prevent the facts from being
known. He decided Immediately to
protect her memory at all cost, and
announced as the cause OF her suicide
insanity. The theory was generally
accepted, for no suspicion of the ter
rible truth had yet come to the minds
Of any citizens or friends Of the fami-
ly.
The indications were favorable to
the success Of his plans, but some Of
his political enemies induced his wife 8
father to believe that she had been
murdered BY her husband. This
startling suspicion spread through the
community, creating intense feeling
and excitement, yet in the midst of it
all the husband persistently remained
silent, refusing to give any explana-
ton ofthe few suspicious circumstances
which had come to the surface, pre-
ierring to live and die under the sus-
picion of wife.murder rather than tell
the facts OF her shame. The father,
however, persisted in his groundless
suspicion, and, bringing the case into
court, compelled him to produce the
correspondence which had passed be-
tween them, and thus the terrible
truth became known.
Johnson though promptly acquitted,
lef, this city a broksn-hearted man,
and, returning TO Tennessee, took uE
the burden of life in his duties as pen
sion agent. While there he found
himself harassed by the constant at
tacks Of the man who had ruined hii
home and happiness, who. not content
with this, was now deliberately ma
lisninz the character OF the dead wife
asserting as q climax TO al his cours.
that the original crime was committed
only at the instance and urgent solici
ia,ion OF the woman. now dead.
This last assertion was more tha,
johnson. ir his excited condition