St. Paul daily globe., 1889-09-02
ONE WOMAN'S MARRIED LIFE.
The story of one woman,s life,

as we were talking one evening. '1f l
were woman in novel | couldn't, be-
cause I'd be dead. Novel writers are
kinder than it is in reality. They kill
women when they can suffer no longer.
In life they live and bear it all, and if
their vivid anguish ceases, they bear
the pain of their sorrows as scars to
burn in their hearts until death. Look
ing back upon it all now, it seems like
some horrible dream-my marriage and
| its frightful consequences.
Il was nothing but a child-a fifteen
y9ar-old girl-when | met the man who,
in two months afterward, took me to his
| home as his wife. | remember as if it
were yesterday the first time / looked
up and met his eyes. 1t was at coun-
try church. / was just beginning. as all
I girls will, to know that was pretty,
because people turned to look at me as
passed, and the young country fellows
flOeked about me and paid awkward
| batteries. This Sunday l wore white
muslin frock sprinkled over with blue
flowers. My hair was plated in two
long, yellow ropes, and was fair and
| prettily formed and blue-eyed.
II have thought since that perhaps,
my poor young hands had plated those
| yellow ropes to strangle my life, remem-
bering the gleam of his great black
| eyes as | caught their look of passionate
admiration as | came down the old
meeting house steps. He was at my
side the next moment and my father in
trOduced me to him, seeming to take
! pride in me all the more because of his
admiration. He was tall, 1.-the man,
| athletic, SineWy, eagle-nOSed and dark,
with great brilliant black ewes and hair
and long, curling mustache, which
was silky and jet black. | thought then,
and think now, he was the hands0mest
man my eyes ever rested upon. | felt
| fearful of him from the first, and |
! couldn't talk, though he tried to be very
| pleasant. l saw my father was very
proud in seeing this handsome man had
taken liking to me.
"Ihat night | heard him talking TO
my mother, my room being next and the
! walls very thin. He said: L swear,
Sarah, it would be great thing if the
! girl could marry him. He's the richest
! fellow in the country, handsome to
boot, and all the girls are after him.
81 buried my head in my pillow then,
| and dreamed bad dreams all that night.
A FATAL STEP.
| "Well, to make long story short,
| married him. If found such young
| girl walking into St. Philips church
tonight with such man I'd stop them
| in front of the altar and tell my story,
and if the girl did not depart unmarried
| I'd kill heri
"There wasn't anybody to keep from
her fate the poor child who stood thirty
| years ago and made her marriage vows
| with white, trembling lips.
| "He won me through my youth and
eredulIty, through my parents approval
| and influence and through his rich gifts
| and promises. He kept me through my
| utter weakness and childish fear. His
home was a great Southern Georgia
plantatien-a big white house among
the pines. / remember the pines so
well because they were my only COM
forterS, seeming to sob and sigh with
my anguish. The first week was one of
revelry and every day was one of feast
ing and drinking, the neighbors coming
from far and near to do us honor and to
| fill the house with merriment. They
| gradually left, and then there was my
| self and my husband and great plan
tation with large negro settlement
| mile Off.
"The first insight I had into his char
acter was when he refused to let me
have maid ia sleep in the house, this
| request being made because he left me
alone until midnight. No, he said,
was no baby. and nothing would hurt
| UtSluGS, IL l. WIS SCdItu, uc u UIllIS
his friends to his house instead of going
! to theirs-and so he did. Such friends
as they were, drunkards and prohigates,
who were ashamed to look decent wo-
man in the face and who drank all
| night, turning the house into hell and
| my brain almost into madness.
Sounds like sensational story, you
say? l would to God it were. Each
day the clouds grew darker about my
life, each day some new insult was
heaped upon me. If my beauty were
praised by visitor he would speak
proudly of me and seem to give earess
"a caresS that left deep blue mark on
arm or shoulder. After the guest de-
parted he'd curse me for my good looks,
and said that since L and others knew
OF it so well he'd destroy it some day
and stop my vanity and other peoples
| admiration.
A GUESTS MISTAKE.
"I was fifteen and he thirty-five. One
day gentleman stopped and asked for
a z ass of water. My husband called
me to bring it, and as 1 walked away
with the empty glass heard the stran-
| ger say: BY Jove, your daughter is a
| lovely gIrl.' As his horses hoofs re-
treated, | was standing on the back
steps tending my chickens, and felt my
long, yellow plaitS jerked as though l
were going to be swung up by them. I
turned and saw my husband, his face
| that of a demon, one hand grasping my
poor plaits, the other clenched on my
! shoulder as though eager to grasp and
| throttle my throat.
".Put that-mane of yours up he
| said hOarsely between his clinched
teeth, 'or I'll kill you. Do you think
| I'm going to be inSulted by being called
| your father, you - then such vol
| ley of low epithets and abuse that
| can't name. And so it was day by day,
month by month, curses and cruelty,
| never a caress or look of tenderness
| save when company was present, and
| then l saw the deviliSh CLEAN i'll his
| eyes beneath the assumed kindness and
felt the sharp pinches that his caresses
made.
He grew so jealous of my good looks
| that he finally refused to give me decent
| dresses, and | had nothing pretty left.
Wretched, absurd girl that l was. it was
| little that [ cared about clothes. |
| never went anywhere or saw anybody
but the servants and this man, month
| after month. He brought men to drink
with him, but | never saw them, and
| only knew of their presence by the pan
demonium below.
ny QlQn Tell my people OF my
husbands treatment? Looking back on
it now l know | was fool not to have
done so, but l was only fifteen, cow
ardIy child, afraid to appeal to any one,
knowing he would kill me if he found
it out. My most terrible experience
was two weeks after my child was horn,
when he. coming in drunk at midnight,
came in and ordered me 10 get up and
cook his supper. l was alone in the
house, he having told my old negro
nurse to stay away at the peril of her
life. He looked at me long and stead
fastly with his black devilish eyes, then
walked silently from the room. felt
my blood running cold. A candle shed
its dim light on the delicate face of my
sleeping child, who lay white and un-
conscious as lily on field of carnage.
HIS MURDERoUs INTENTION.
Il closed my eyes as one does who
goes to meet death, and as l felt the