Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-13
REPENTING AT LEISURE.
EXPERIENCES o. ! HEADSTR0EG
WILLFCL GIRL
A sad story ST suffering Experienced
by the Daughter OF a Wealthy
Farmer-Attempt at Suicide at Solo
mon City.

Farmer-Attempt at SUICIDE at SOTO
mon City.
One of those occasional incidents
which make one doubtful of the exist
ence of any humanity in some natures
has just transpired at Solomon City.
1t is that of a young wife who has
reaped the bitter fruit of an ill-adYised
elopement and is too late regretting
her action.
The story, as told in special to the
Kansas City Times, is that in the fall
of 1883 Laura. the 17-year-oId daughter
of a wealthy farmer named a. Mizen-
hammer, living on the Missouri River
north of Kansas City, ran away from
home with a man named Bert Short,
then aged about % years. The pair
went to Brown county, Kansas, where
they were married. The father found
them at hotel about two weeks after
wards. His forgiveness was obtained
and all returned to the parental roof.
BROKEN PROMISES.
Under promises of future business
activity Short got from the father S.
900. $500 piano for his wife, furniture
and an outfit. AS soon as the money
was obtained they started ont for Tenn
essee, the place where Bert Shorts
mother lived. In few months the
Young people returned TO the home OF
the brides parents, their cash having
been reduced to 1927 and with nothing
left to show for their large expenditure.
Bert, however, could not be induced
to settle down to work, and the young
couple finally decided to remove to Kan
sas. where the $500 piano was traded
for an old organ and $25 in cash. One
piece of furniture was dispensed with
after another for little cash until
nearly everything was gone. Last fall
they came to Solomon City. where a
lunch counter was started in a small
shanty near the Union Pacific depot.
Here lunches, cigars and cOntraband
goods were dispensed, but Bert's gamb-
ling propensities soon brought col
lapse of the business and the small
stock was sold to another party.
They next moved into a small house
about half a mile south of TIE city,
where rough men were taken at all
hours of the day and night to drink
ard gamble, and Bert made outrageous
TO his young wife. He also
forced her TO take a vile drug to pro-
duce miscarriage while he held her at
the point of razor.
SHE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE.
She obtained a revolver and attempt
ed to take her life, but only managed
to fire one shot. which grazed her neck
and lodged in the ceiling above her bed.
Fr0m Monday week, the time the
drug was taken, the woman has lin
gered between life and death. It was
only day or two ago that the ladies
CT the town learned of her sickness
and they have been interchangeable since
in their efforts 10 secure her recovery
to health. At lucid moments she tells
the story Of the continued depravity OF
her husband. From her lips yesterday
was learned the story of burglary
lately committed in a Main street store
and later in the day portion of the
goods consisting of tobacco, cigars,
candies, etc, was found hid in their
barn under corn and huSks.
Bert having discovered that his wife
had given him away jumped on NOV
ing freight train and went eastward.
He is a man of about p years of age,
weighs about 175 pounds, is 8 feet 9
inches in height, has brown hair and
moustache, has light but very restless
eyes and possesses a nervous manner
and downcast look. He is dressed in a
faded, dark colored suit. His wife
says he shot man a year or two ago
by firing at him through a window of
his residence in Holt county, Mo-, but
the man has since recovered.
The wife is recovering from the ter
rible strain to which she has been sub
jected and will be removed by her
is now with her-to his
home in a day or two.
North Dickinson Teachers