The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1892-02-04

Lake nupe Town on "Htels IL MAJ
climbed TO the top of the Sierras and
went laundering down into the peace
full valley of TIE Sacramento with ii:
wheat fields n yellOwish gold.
Suddenly an axle breaks; there is q
quick succession of sharp, cracking
sounds followed by terrible crash
Then comes the shrill scream of escap
ing Steam and the heart-rending shrek,
of the injured passengers. Many ar,
taken out alive from the ruin only to die
in the hands of their rescuers. Among
them are Jasper Faircamp and his little
son, an only child.
One Robert Faircamphad been among
the "Argonauts of 40" blessed with
a constitution of iron and will 70
match he was not slow TO make his way
in this land of magnificent p disabilities.
His upward course was as steady as ii
was rapid. Petty trader, stOrekeeper,
merchant, banker, at the end of five
years he had already amassed n consid-
cradle fortune. Convinced of the fpt
ure value of the outlying sand-hills Of
San Francisco he invested largely in
this property, then held for mere song.
This was the secret of the immense fort
une left by this pioneer to his two sons,
Jasper and Thaddeus.
With his inheritance Jasper took from
his father all the latter's strength of
character and application to business.
To Thaddeus, however, nothing seemed
20 come with the money save a desire
20 get rid of il. A wild life and an I'M
comfortable love of speculation united
20 strip the younger brother of his
handsome fortune before he had turned
his thirty-fifth year. Again and again
did il become necessary for Jasper to
interfere To save Thad, as he was COM
monty called, from absolute pepury,
and once even from the walls of the
penitentiary. But still the broth
er's affection for Thad held
good-so good that whan death
overlook him that fair autumn
day on the slopes of the Sierras, amid
the wheat fields of the Sacramento val
ley. and the seals of his last will and
testament We're broken, IL was found
TO contain the following clause:
Recognizing the fact that it is en-
tircly due to the extraordinary in
dustry and business sagacity OF my
father, Robert Faircamp, one Of the
pioneer settlers of this State, that am
this viii, and being extremely DESTROYS
that the name of Faircamp should be
an honnred and influential one, il is nv
will and so order and direct that, in
ease of my decease leaving no male issue,
one-half of my property shall go to and
vest in the oldest son of nv brother
Thaddeus, his heirs and assigns forever;
in default of such male issue then the
entirety to go TO and vest in my beloved
wife Helen"
This sudden and terrible taking off
of husband and child effected the COM
plete devastation of Helen Faircamp's
mind. Never of a rugged build, she
faded under the awful visitation like o
flower stricken by a pitiless blast. At
the outset her insanity was character
lied by violent outbursts, in which she
attempted in the widest CONSERVATION
TO flee from the danger of rapidly ap-
preaching railway train that seemed
about TO crush Der to r sces beneath its
wheels and tracks of steel; but gradu-
ally all these inclinations to violence
disappeared and her lunacy developed
into that unbroken silence. mournful
Indifference, and loss of memory which
characterize that form of mental aber-
ration designated as sub-acute mania.
Under the plea that the sea-air of
San Francisco was too severe for Jas
per's widow, Thaddeus and his wife
caused her removal 20 their home in
the outskirts of Oakland, a large,
rambling and dreary habitation, COM
pletely shut in from the world by lofty
hedges and impeuetrable clumps Of
trees and shrubbery. II was not
such a place as in the worlds opinion
should have been chosen for the retreat
of a young woman suffering from mel
ancholia, but the world is forced to ad-
init that Jasper's widow was in the
very best of hands, and that II any
treatment could possibly win her back
TO reason again, she would find il under
the roof of her husbands brother. But
one thing the world was interested in,