Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-21

ua0 seb price, managed 70 escape "
America. Pinkerton was one Of these
Though in hiding for some months. when h'
did escape he carried with him the bes
fortune Of his or any mans life, nobl'
wife.
The political cooper-criminal was married
March %, 1S4O, and some good friends
among them old Neil Murphy, got them
safely aboard the barK Kent, which sailed
from Glasgow April 9, following; Pinkerton
shipping as, the vessels cooper, and his wife
taking steerage passage; but their story be.
coming known to the cabin passengers they
were given snug apartments. The partici.
pants in the Chartist movement were all
granted pardon and amnesty by the British
Grown in 1856; but the world-iamous de-
tective only returned once to bis native
land. This was in 1870 in company with
''auld Bobbie Fergus" a noted, and the
first, public printer of Chicago. The two
were old cronies from boyhood. Among the
places they visited to recall old days in a
sort OF larking spirit was Glasgow police
headquarters.
PLENTY OF ROMANCE.
But sailing away on the Kent did not end
the young couples romantic experiences.
On May s, month lacking day from the
time of their sailing. the Kent was wrecked
on Sable Island, off Nova Scotia, the crew
and passengers with few of their effects be-
ing saved. By fishing smack they were
taken to Aspy Bay, where the Unicorn, of
Quebec, changed mails with the Britannia,
one of the first English steamers across the
Atlantic. They were helped from here to
Montreal, where the cooper got work head
ing beef barrels, and the couple soon got to
housekeeping. famously in one room. Soon
members of the coopers' union Uniformed
him this job would shut down at certain
date, and to take the narrative from his own
lips when he was once endeavoring to illus
trate to me what trifes shape human affairs
II all at once made up my mind to jump
for the thriving little city of Chicago.
After buying tickets we had no money left.
The steamer was goin' that very afternoon.
That wee wife o. mine came and confessed
she had committed the crime O. orderin' a
bonnet at milliner's; that it couldn't be got
for the charges: and pitifully pleaded that
we wait the next boat, a week later, that
money might be earned and that pesky bon
net got. roared like anything, but let her
have her way. We got the bonnet, and
news came in few days that the boat we
were firstgoing on blew up, and every soul
on board was lost. An tell We my little
song-singin' wife's had her way about bon
nets ever sinceP'
Arrived at Chicago their fate for time
was much the same as that of so many unso-
phisticated emigrauts in new country.
The unfortunate couple were lured across
the dreary prairies to Warsaw, ILL.,; robbed
of everything they possessed; but succeeded
in walking back to Chicago, where good
''auld Bobbie Fergus was found. He gave
them shelter and divided his own scrimped
food with them. A little work was got by
Pinkerton at his trade of Lill, the first Chi
cago maltster. But they were rueful days
these. This was in the summer of 1912.
HARD STRUGGLES.
The indomitable spirit Of the young
Scotchman revolted at idleness, or the
semblance of charity from friend. A half
dozen Scotch families had formed settle
ment on the banks of the beautiful Fox
river, some 30 miles northwest of Chicago,
to-day the richest and most prosperous Sec
ton of Illinois, known as "Chicago's dairy"
They called the hamlet Dundee, after their
own bonnie" Scotch city; and it is as fair
and lovely a spot, with its murmurous river,
splendid forests, noble hills, sunlit valleys
and opulent herds, as all Scotland can boast.
Pinkerton had heard of Dundee and
the Scotch settlers about it. "I'm
goin' there, Joan, he sudden
Iy announced one August morn
ing. I'll make their barrels, ,churns and tubs.
You bide here wi Fergus. I'll get root
,'er our heads first. Then I'll SEN for We,
wife," Joan walked with him to the village
bridge, for Chicago was then but village,
and an old boat, or pontoon, bridge at
Lake street, led out over a mud road to the
and then almost unknown West.
She stood at the bridge, and the dauntless
oade his little wife goodby and trudged
sway through the mud between the tall
'eeds and grasses and was soon lost from |
light.
"My heart was breakin' quite, " once heard |
Mrs. Pinkerton say. 81 could ma bear it when |
he great grass swallowed him up like, so
quick. But kenn'd from the brave whustle |
could hear, long after could ma see him |
onger, that there'd be a wee home soonP'
And so there was. Not stones throw from |
he pretty river bridge at Dundee there |
tands to this day little brown cabin that |
vas built then; and long after the cooper of |
Dundee had, unaided, driven the counter
eiters from Illinois, the fame of which lit
rally forced his subsequent career upon
lin, long after a palatial home and fame
lad come, have heard Allan Pinkerton's
weet Scotch wife say with mists of loving
memory in her kindly Yes: can in the
title shop at Dundee, wi the blue river
'urlin' doom the valley, the auld Scotch
armers trundlin' doom the road wi their
rists to the mill, or their loads to market,
n Allan wi his 'ra-ta-ta-tatp on the bar
els, a. whustlin', keepin' time wi both to
~ ain singin', were the bonniest days the
ude Fayther e'er gae in ~ my lifeP'
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.