Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-19
ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.
The Awful Results OF n Young WiGe's
innocent Mistake.

'That's a pretty, homelilse little
place, isn't it?" asked fellow passenger
of the writer for the ] ,ouisville Com
mercial on an incoming Lexington train
n few evenings ago. The little place"
referred to was cottage home not many
miles this side of Lexington, q half mile
back from the railroad, and seen from
the train window with all its pretty en-
vironments did look like refuge for
happiness in refined state of purity,
where some loving couple, free fro m the
| perplexities and sins of the world, might
| find a pure taste of heaven. "WeQ,"
continued the speaker, as the train flew
| by other scenes just as pretty, there is
n tragically sad story connected with
that place about which but little has
ever been published. and the true in
wardness of which but few know. Five
| years ago it was the home of as happy a
pair of moderately wealthy young people
as could be found in the state. They
had youth, wealth, a name as we'll
known and untarnished as that of any
| of the old families in this section,
and little daughter in whom
was conferred their combined love.
They ought to have been, and 1
believe We're as happy as any couple in
the state. One afternoon the wife re-
ceived a letter postmarlled at a little
| uOWu III luuldud oiiC uuu
| lived when she came to kentucky on a
visit and met the man she afterward
loved and wed. She laughinly told
| her husband, but with evident cmbar-
| rassment, that she had a secret and
| would have to 60 to Louisville. He at
that time knew but little about his
wife's Indiana kinspeople, whom he had
only seen at the, time Of their wedding
and on the two Or three visits he had
made at her home during the brief en-
| gagenent which followed their meeting
In kentucky. He never wondered at
his wife's conduct that day at the start,
and assisted her off to the train next
morning, halflfestingly demanding the
| author of the letter which called her
away. She never told him, however,
and his parting words were a caution
not to miss the evening train. as he and
baby would be Uneasy and lonely.
''The woman had made the first mis-
take of her life in not telling her hus
band the truth. She was on her way to
meet a scape-grifce of brother who
had written pleading for an interview
and for little money for which he
dared not go home. She ereached Louis
vile, went to the Gait house, near
the depot, registered and sent
for the brother, who came and
with whom she talked long
enough to miss her train. The tele-
gram size sent reached the station We
Just passed, for some reason, later than
the train she should have been on, and
the minute the latter passed the young
husbands anxiety was converted into
something like jealous fright. He took
the next train for Louisville, reached
there after dark, and at the clerks desk
in the Gault found that his wife was in
Room =. Have boy show me up
said he, registering the same name
further down the page; she is my WIFE,.
and then he looked strangely at the
clerk, who, with peculiar smile, had
said She has visitor nova gentle
man who called early in the day
We'll, to make "a short story of it. he
beat his card to the door, and, with feel
ings he himself did not understand,
burst into the room, his face livid with
rage, and a cry of What does this
meanp' The young wife, who was even
then deprecating TO her brother the
mistake which was keeping her away
from home, read In her husbands face
and demand all that he thought. and
was Mortified in return. Too indignant
10 Immediately explain, she stood star
ing at HIM with what he thought was a
guilty look, until crazed by he knew
not what he struck her down, turned to
the brother, who had escaped to the
hall and down stairs, leaving his OUT
ragged sister to explain to her misguided
husband. The latter followed too late
to find him, and telling the clerk in a
strange voice that his wife would re-
main all night, and that he Wouldn't,
left the hotel.
''He spent the night walking the
streets and watching the hotel entrance
for the man he fully intend ded to mur-
der. How the young wife spent that
night will never be known. She must
have been already mad, when next
morning she returned home, and, pack
ing a few of her belongings. seized her
child, and was leaving her home nevor
to return. 1t was at the head of the
stairs, in blind rago. with her child in
her arms. that her foot caught in the
carpet, and she and the little one were
dashed to the landing below. The
baby's head witlfi the weight OF the
mother added ,St.Hck on the first post of
the banister, aud two hours later she
was dead. Tie shalf-crazed husband
reached his home i've minutes after the
accident, andihMs5 over their dying
child that theyeame to understand the
terrible mistake that each, and he es-
pecially, had made. She was wholly in
sane before theehearse come back from
the little grave whore all their happi-
ness past and to igome was laid. She
has been, ever sipce, an inmate OF the
asylum at Lexington. The ruined man
lives wlth his aHed mother in the little
home we passed., apd is little more than
a hermit. You Eay occasionally see
him at one OF the race meetings in
Louisville, the8HlS kind Of amusement
he seems to evef' seek, but he looks older
than men Of twice his age, and shows
the burden he bears is a terrible one.
Not a half dozen people who knew them
know that hts mistake drove his wife TO
the act which killed her child and made
her maniac. 1t was presumed by every
one that the little one fell while at play
ard that her mothers devotion was toe
strong for her delicately strung system
TO bear the shock which dethroned her
mind.
A Three-Legged Trotter.