River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-06-30
A RAILWAY TRAGEDY.
The Strange Death of an UnfaithfuI Hus


band.
/ boarded the train at four o'clock in
the afternoon, and had scarcely got
seated when / noticed little woman on
the last seat of the right-hand side.
could not see her face on account of the
heavy veil she wore, and she leaned over
against the window SO heavily that /
thought her asleep. There were only a
few passengers of us in the car, and
everybody seemed TO shrink into himself
as if Disguised.
who's the woman back there?" |
asked of the conductor as he sat down
beside me for few minutes.
Don't know; going to st. Louis" he
said
"Sick?"
''Maybe, and maybe it's something on
her mind. I've got an idea that she's
watching for somebody"
1t was winter day, and raining at
that. 1t was dusk, but the lamps had
not been lighted, when six or eight peo-
pie got on at station. Among them
was couple whom ] believed To be
newly welded. although they were
middle aged. The man was fine look
ing and the woman really handsome,
and they took a seat about the middle
of the car, with their backs to the
yelled woman When | happened to
look back | found her sitting bolt mp
right and acting as if very much ex-
cited. Fifteen minutes after the train
had pulled out OF the station the little
woman passed me as she went down
the aisle. The lamps were alight
now, and / saw a pistol cmtched
in her right hand The couple
referred to were acting very low
ingly toward each other, but had not
connected the little woman with them
at all. She passed them by two or
three feet and then wheeled raised her
veil. and stood with the pistol pointed
full in the mans face.
No one can be prepared for action un-
der such circumstances. Everyone in
the car was looking at the woman, and
everybody realized that tragedy was
at,hand, but nobody moved For fully
thirty seconds the woman stood like
statue. the pistol within two feet of the
mans face. Those in front of him said
that he flushed up at first sight of her,
and then grew pale as death. He tried
to speak, but his lips uttered no sound.
The woman beside him looked raised
her hands, and sank back in dead faint.
George, have come to say goodbye
said the little woman at last, and her
words were followed by the dull click
of the hammer falling ON cartridge
There was no explosion. Her arm slow
ly fell until it rested beside her, and
with sobbing wall she sank down in
the aisle and was helpless.
All of us moved at once. She was
lifted toa seat and woman took charge
of her. We turned to the man for ex-
plantations, but he had fallen back and
his eyes were closed. Two minutes
later we knew that he was dead-as
surely dead as ifa bullet had pierced his
brain. A doctor who came in from the
ear ahead said it was a ease of heart
failure. He was the husband of the lit
tie woman who had been riding so long
on the back seat. They had quarreled,
and he had become infatuated with the
woman beside him. The wife had
planned to encounter them and kill
them lie had looked into the face of
death for thirty seconds, and the strain
on his nerves had stopped the flow of
life as suddenly as if struck by thun-
derbolt!
A corpse. an adventures, a widow!
1t ended there for us, but not for them.
Was it any wonder that as the train
rushed ON through the darkness each
one of us seemed to hear voice, saying:
''As We sow, SO shall We reap! The
deeds of the wicked shall recoil upon
their own headsi'-N. Y. Sun.