Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-29

through your agency, this boy in
years, in experience, in judgment,
in practical capacity, leaves my
home and care, burdened with the full
responsibilities of a man; with the
welfare of woman in his keeping.
am powerless. cannot question the
legality of the marriage. | shall at a
distance and disadvantage try to guide
my son. But as a father, living under
the Divine institution of the family; as
citizen living under the Divine order
of society, / protest against your act. I
call God to witness between you and
me, of whatever evils resulting from
this deplorable marriage my con may
be the author or victim. The guilt be
on your head.
(Signed) JAMES G.. BLAINE.
When l wrote the foregoing letter, I
believed Miss Nevins had no other re-
sponsibility in the marriage than in
consenting to my sons appeal. Since
then am prepared to say, the marriage
was arranged by her, far more than by
my son. She did everything to pro-
mote it, suggested every arrangement; !;
anticipated and provided for every
emergency; in fact, but for her personal,
active, untiring agency the marriage
would never have taken place. In this
she showed knowledge and forethought
not to be expected in woman of 81
years. Within ten days after her ar
rival in Augusta, within a week after
first meeting my son, she was thus ad-
juring him for several successive days {:
"Write nothing until see you. Let
me know at once about the law (of mar
riage). can't wait to hear. 1t makes
me ill.
"Can you come to me a moment? l
am alone. De not send up your card"
"Do not ask any questions that may
lead people to suspect anything. We
are in the mouths of every man, woman
and child in Augusta. Every look, every
flush OF your face is talked Of"
''Look into the laws; only tomorrow
and perhaps one question at the bank
(where he obtained the money for his
marriage on my account, by duping the
cashier to advance him funds on his
memorandum, thing he never learned
to do before he met Miss Nevins); all
else can wait. Do be careful. You do
know how vile the world is."
''Do look up the laws. Did you look
up the laws of Massachusetts, and New
York? / am sure not. Answer tonight.
/ have at last thought of the only man
on earth whom we can trust for wit.
ness"
Another time, writing of this mar
1sswho could be trusted 2 she wrote: 81
have known him since a child, and ht
would do anything for me, If you say
1 so will give him gentle hint. I will
need his services for an emergency, but
will not tell him for what"
| When they reached New York, aftel
fleeing from Augusta, she cautioned my
son not to forget 500 gold piece in q
little box for Ducey, and "to look in the
pocket OF his gray clothes for a ring"
She directed the proceedings to the last
minute.
1t was thus a 17-year-old boy was
tempted from school books and tutor
and blindly led to the altar by young
woman of 21-with entire secresy, con-
tinued by herself and with all the in
strumentalities of her device complete
and exact.
NV eldest son, Walker, went to New
| York to see if the marriage was not in
valid or could not be annulled. He was
met with the assertion that. it was too
late for any proceedings to set aside the
marriage. %
next purpose to show the falsity of
the assertion that my wife broke up the
marriage relations of my son and his
wife. Before we sailed for Europe, in
June, 1887, Mrs. Blaine met her daugh-
ter-in-law but three times. Fourteen
months later, when we returned, we
found that our son in our absence had
not only spent his entire allowance,
but was deeply in debt. AT
a family council, in Augusta, I
learned the details OF the dismal failure
of their New York life, and proposed
that they should take our Augusta home,
1 paying for light, fuel, servant and
furnishing the horse and carriage, in
addition to assuring them of $2500 a
year until my son was able to earn an
income of that amount. His wife re-
piled that she would not stay in Au-
gusta under any consideration. He was
very much disconnected by her decision,
and for the first time informed his
mother and myself of his discomfort
and unhappiness. We then learned that
he had been gradually estranged from
her, and this refusal was merely one of
long series of disagreements which
finally led to their separation.
The immediate cause of her departure
from Augusta was the fact that my son,
at my request, was with me several
days on a campaign trip. He did not
go home as soon as he expected to, and
when he returned found she had left for
New York eight hours before. Mrs.
Blaine strongly disapproved OF her de-
parture, earnestly urging her to remain.
She did not then dream our son would
not follow his wife or suspect that the
latter left with any less friendly feeling
toward herself than any other member
of the family. Foreseeing the difficult
ties in the path of the young couple,
she told her daughter-in-law before
she left, that she would, at any moment,
receive her grandchild for any length of