Connecticut western news., 1890-12-03


 mysterious manner All the day they searched for her and just at night my hero, passing through some woods in a secluded part of the grounds, found her lying face downward in a shallow little pool of water there. .....-..
 "'"Drowned herself during tempo rary alteration of the mind" was the verdict, and then it was the young man learned that insanity had been for gen. erations back hereditary trait in his mothers family. Then, also, was he told the real truth about his father, and he found that that father was not dead, but was incarcerated in a private hospi- tai in America-violently, hopelessly mad.
 "'Wel, you can understand how he felt, or, rather, you can't comprehend it. The girl that he loved was true to him, but how could he marry her knowing what he did? Even if th$lunacy slum- bered in his veins it would surely awaken to curse their children. So he left her, and almost crazed with sorrow himself he sailed for America where he still remains. A little while ago he heard that his betrothed was dead killed by the double shock of his disap- pearance and his mothers fearful and untimely end.
 "'Can you wonder, continued Ram say in a tone of subdued passion, that a species of bitterness often mingles, half unconsciously, with his sorrow for his parents? And is it strange that he feels almost as if they had committed crime in bringing him into existence, knowing as they did that he must perforce be lowered with the fatal, inevitable fam fly curse?
 s'This tale made strong impression in my &Assnd, !" the young doctor resumed. ''At first seriously questioned if Ram say wasn't himself the hero of it, and though his apparent gayety led me to dismiss that thought, still I couldn't help feeling that the events he'd mar rated had in some way produced last ing effect in his life.
 "Well, matters wore quite tranquilly on for year or so, and MT. Ramsay grew in the popular favor all the while. He was liberal fellow, and his sermons were frequently rather unorthodox, but his flock worshiped him to such an ex- tent that if he had dosed them with atheism they wouldn't have grumbled a bit. The girls were in love with him, every single one of them, but never did they find the way to bis heart. He reso- lutely declined to be drawn into flirta- tion, though he made himself agreeable to all the damsels, taught them German, played tennis and escorted them to pie nics with gay impartiality very pro vokng to the sensibilities of the poor anxious young creatures.
 "One morning as l sat in the drug store talking Ramsay happened in and purchased package of rat poison. He mentioned casually that the mice were bothering him, and stood moment gos- siping with careless good humor and then went out.
 ''That night the deacon with whom he was boarding came hurriedly to my office to summon me- Rev. MT. Ramsay was taken very suddenly ill. I put on my hat and coat and went to him at once, and somehow before I'd reached his bed side it flashed over me that he had swal- lowed the poison I saw him buy in the morning. The moment I entered the room knew that it was 20.
 "He fingered three days, suffering hor- nbly. but not a word would he say as to the motive of his deed. Before he died he showed me photograph he wore upon his bosom-the picture of a young woman and child, each very beautiful and very like the other. And he asked that it be buried with him, and so it was. The church gave him most i'm posing funeral and erected fine monu. ment over his grave, and they have never ceased, believe, to mourn their mys terious but dearly beloved minister. Fol long while they sought to find out the secret of his life, but the minutest in | qu1ries failed to reveal a single fact With charafteristic forethought he had destroyed his papers, leaving nothing that would throw light upon his former history.
 '1 often recall him even now," added the young doctor, land can't help won dering if he was not the hero of the strange tale he told me. And in that case was he insane when he killed him self, or did he do it because of grief fo1 bis betrothed? Who then was the chile whose portrait he wore upon his breast
 Sometimes fancy that he had com mitted an offense which made him { fugitive from justice and led him at las to take his own life in remorse. The re membrance of his open face and kindly sympathetic manner makes this seen impossible, and yet in this strange world where people are such curious, contra dictory mixtures of good and evil, wht can tellF"-Buffalo Express.