The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-04-10

1t was tnaC f1aTIlSOn, DOWlC, anu OWSal
ingen met at a school in the southern
part of the State, and there began an
Intimacy which probably brought out
the latent devil in each and helped to
fashion the web of the fate whose bloody
and sombre hues overshadowed all three
alike. They were young men when they
met. Charlotte Hall was not kinder
garten-by great deal. Their char
acters had not crystallized but the for
native forces had been in operation long
enough to produce definite results.
THEIR INTIMACY.
Men older than myself have told me
of the remarkable intimacy that existed
between these young men. There was
another member of the association, but
he simply added another instance to the
already full list OF wasteu OppoIluLlti1'
and high promises wrecked upon the
reefs Of sin. have not mentioned him.
The three have named became insep-
arabic. After their college days were
over they kept up their friendship. What
this intimacy may have produced upon
the character of the three men | cannot
conjecture, but it is certain that after
this meeting the fates wrought swiftly
and surely the sable curtain that en-
shrouded them in gloomy fate. And
to fate l now approach having led up to
the circumstances that brought them to-
gether, which united their lives, and
which finally brought upon each dis
NAL and doleful end.
There was a family of Scotch-Irish
extraction, poor but honest, illiterate
but brilliant, that had settled in the
neighborhood of Mrs. Swearingen's
father in Washington county, near the
Potomac river. Their name was Gun
ningham. The Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal was then being built, and hum
dreds of Irish families were located, as
squatters, along its banks. This family
of Cunningham had daughter named
Rachael. do not think Circe had half
her charms when she fascinated Odys
seus; nor was La Cava half SO graceful
even in that midnight scene where Ro
derigo forfeited for her sake the Gothic
throne of Spain. In all my life l never
saw half so beautiful woman as she
was, although did not see her until
long after the first blush and bloom OF
youth had passed. She fascinated Swear
ingen, high sheriff of Washington coun-
ty, married man as he was, with wife
and child that he deeply loved 1t was
all passion, of course. But Rachael
Cunningham was no ordinary woman.
Either by instinct or by instruction she
had learned those arts which are popu-
larly supposed to be peculiar to the
Hindoo jugglers. While living in Wash
ington in 1845 I called on her at once
she was then posing as a conjuror OF
fortune-teller. My old readers will re-
member how fashionable then were red
silk nocket handkerchiefs for gentlemen
She asked me for mine. Throwing i
into the air it alighted upon the back
of chair not a handkerchief but red
feathered chicken cock which tapped
wings and crowed loudly. Then she
put it into her pocket and handed me
back my handkerchief. 1 had seen
more wonderful things, however, in
India, and was not moved by what tc
the vulgar must have seemed absolutely
incredible.
1 digress, however. Beautiful beyond
ordinary women, Rachael Cunningham
was as coldly chaste in conduct as an
icicle. Swearingen could not get hel
favors without marrying her. He could
not marry her until his wife was dead.
So one Sunday evening in October,
1920, he took wife and baby out riding
in light spring wagon. Just as the
October sun sank beneath the horizon
he passed upon the edge of the road be-
meath which the canal runs. want to
tell the story briefly. He halted. TAX
ing hatchet from beneath his seat he
kissed his wife, then grabbed her BY
the throat, chopped her literally into
pieces and threw the mangled remains
down the cliff. His baby was not a
year old, but with the same murderous
hatchet that killed the mother he
chopped up the child. Then he rode
home.
But boy happened to see the whole
proceedings.
Swearingen was hanged, after one ot
the most celebrated trials that the ju-
dicial history can show. 1t was not
until the last day of the trial that he re-
covered himself from the insane stupor
into which he had fallen. Great God !
he said to friend standing by him, q
have just come to my senses! Why do
not the jury bring me in guilty at once.
1 yearn for the gallows!
They hanged him, of course. And
on the night of the day he graced the
gallows Rachael Cunningham was in
the arms of her bridegroom, welded
that evening!
Neither Harrison nor Bowie were
there. For Bowie was in Arkansas a
fugitive from justice, and Harrison was
in the grave of mania-a.b0tu.
JEM BowIE's CRIME.
I have less to say of Bowie, because
his crime is not so we'll known and be-
cause honorable families would be pain
ed if the records were published. Bu
Bowie loved girl who loved him, and
her people, who had settled in Mary
land after the Revolution, while recog
nizing his personal worth and the cred
ibility of his family, looked mainly a
his wealth. They wanted her to marry
a man old enough to be her grandfather
because he was wealthy. l think | an
the only man living who can adequate
ly tell of their agony, for directly t.
my ears came the secret of their woes
But she is dead long since and | do no
care to inhame common curiosity with
out sufficient reason.
The lovers met one night-one star
lit night, to part forever. Bowie wor
this night, for the first time, the strang
knife he had failed to get patent OF
in Washington, on the ground that it
construction revealed no new principle
of art and failed to reasonably apply oil
| nrinciDles. The meeting of the lover