Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17


young mans father. He had fallen in love
with a London maiden, the daughter of a
small shopkeeper, but represented himself
as a bachelor and easily won her consent
and that of her father, in whose business he
had risen to be partner. He was comfort
ably situated, had a large family by his Sec
ond wife, and had never repented the mes
alliance. He inquired after the first wife
with friendly interest, approved Of all her
actions, but declared that he was dead to
her and she to him. When he really died
he promised that a message should be for
warded to his son at Garrett and the latter's
lips should then be unsealed. In due
course the message arrived.
A PIRATE ARCHBISHOP.
There is tradition at Oxford College
that a young student, looking forward to
eminenee in the church and theological dis
tinction, suddenly vanished from among ais
friends. Some years afterward he reap
peared as suddenly as he had left, applied
himself, as before, to study, and entering
the church, gradually rose to its highest
honors and died Archbishop of York. Con-
lectures were busy with reasons for his un-
explained disappearance, and it had one
ascertained fact to build upon. Almost
colncident with the young mans departure
daring corSair had appeared on the Med
iterranean, plundering ships of all nations
and piling up immense wealth on desert
island, which be made his abiding place.
Here he associated more or less freely with
his followers, leaving them at intervals for
the company of a woman whom he had made
the partner of his wild life. When the lady
died the rock was left untenanted, the pi-
rates dispersed, the corsair was no more
heard Of But shortly afterward the young
student was found in his accustomed place
at Oxford.
Two centuries ago, Everhard Feith, a
French scholar living In France, enjoyed
considerable reputation as a teacher and
classical authority. He is still remembered
by all lovers of Greek literature for his
learned and interesting antiquitatis homer
icus. Walking out one day, while the
streets of his adopted city were full of peo-
pie, man standing at door on the oppo-
site sidewalk beekoned to him. The profess
sor crossed over and passed into the house.
From that moment he was never again seen.
In Lincolnshire, a marriage was being
celebrated in the year 1850. While the
festivities were at their height the bride
groom was suddenly summoned away by
domestic, who said that a stranger had
asked to see him. He was never seen again.
A similar tradition fingers about an old
deserted Welsh hall near Festiniog; there,
too, the bridegroom was sent for to give
audience to a stranger on his wedding day,
and promptly disappeared from the face of
the earth. But there they tell in addition
that the bride lived long-that she passed
her three score years and ten, but that daily
during all those years she sat watching at
one particular window which commanded
the approach to the house. She grew weak
and childish before her death, but she had
only one wish, to sit in. that long, high win
dow, and watch the road along which he
might come.
SOME MODERN INSTANCES.
One afternoon in the summer of 1873
shoemaker named O'Neill, the founder of
the Sixth avenue firm which still bears his
name, told one of his clerks that he had
business downtown and boarded passing
car. From that day to this no one who
knew him has ever laid eyes upon him. He
was doing good business, he was sober and
industrious, his private life was happy, he
had never been afflicted with any mental
disorder. But the most liberal rewards, the
most persistent efforts of the detectives
failed to solve the mystery.
A few years later another prosperous bust
q
avenue, told his wife he was going to see q
friend and would be back in few minutes,
as he had an engagement at home. The
friend never laid eyes on him, the gentle
man who called according to appointment
never saw him-he disappeared as utterly
as if the earth had opened and swallowed
him up.
Ralph Keeler, we'll known journalist,
was an assistant editor on the Atlantic
Monthly in 1872. He had made all his
arrangements to go to Cuba to write up that
island for his superior, Mr.. w. D. HoWells,
sent his baggage to the steamer, bade good |
by to a large circle of friends, and started |
for the wharf. He never reached the |
wharf; he has never been seen or heard of |
since.
The husband of Mrs. Margaret E. Sang
ster, the present editor of Hdrper'S Bazar,
was thriving lawyer and lived in Brook |
lyn. On July 4, 1870, he complained that |
the din OF the irecrackers had given him a
headache and went out on the front stoop OF |
his house at in the evening to get little
fresh air. He was clad in dressing gown
and smoking cap. As he remained out for
some time, Mrs. Sangster went out to the
front door to call him. He was not on the
stnop. He was never seen again. One
might nave supposed that the sight OF man
on the street in a dressing gown and smok-
ing cap would have excited some.attention,
yet no one could furnish a clew as to his
This case is all the more striking because
Harper's establishment contains another
lady editor, Mrs. Helen S. Conant, who
knows not if she be wife or widow. Her
husband, S. B. Conant, editor of Hdrper'S
Weekly, left his Office for home one summer
evening in the early part of 1885 and was
never seen again. Three weeks later dead
body was found In the Jersey swamps,
which was at first thought to be that of the
missing editor, but the widow failed to
identity it, and the best efforts of the police
were exhausted in vain.
WILLIAM S. WALSH.