The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-30
A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.
In Which the Villain Played a Sue
cessful Role Until His Death.
From the New York Times.

Topeka, April PA touching incident
was witnessed at the Missouri Pacific
station in Atchison last night. When the
evening train arrived q middle-aged Ger
man woman was one of the first passen-
gers to alight. No sooner was she on the
platform than she was clasped in the arms
of a big, broad-shouldered countryman.
The woman cried and sobbed like a child
as she fell into his arms and chung to him,
while he laughed and cried regardless of
the surroundings. The parties were Mr..
and Mrs. Henry Weichman, who had been
separated for twenty years, each suppos-
ing the other dead. Mrs Weichman had
arrived direct from Germany for the pur-
pose of joining her husband, who lives in
Osborne county
They came to this country from Ger
many in 1869, locating in Penns ylvania
Four years later MIR Weichman was
called to her old home in Germany to set
tie up her fathers estate, she being one of
five heirs inherting about $130 900 in cash
and bonds, besides valuable landed inter
ests in Berlin and Hamburg. Soon after
her departure her husband went to Cali
foruia, where he remained a year, and
then went to the Black Hills, where he
engaged in mining. While at Deadwood
Weichman met young man named Carl
KOllatz, whom he had known in Ger
many, and who had been an unsuccessful
sutton for Mrs. Weichman's hand before
her marriage or even before her engage
ment,
Kollatz soon learned of the good fortune
of the woman he had once loved and de-
termined to make one more attempt to Sc
cure her hand, and at the same time her
fortune. He suddenly disappeared from
Deadwood and six weeks later landed at
his old home in Hamburg He at onco
o,.,l,,, i i
a sorrowful story about her husbands
death. He informed her that her husband
had been suddenly killed in disaster in
a mine, where they both had been work
ing many months. He produced papers
purporting to have been signed by several
miners who had been working with them
and who had witnessed the accident. He
even delivered to the stricken woman
some of the personal papers and letters
which he had stolen from his worlmate.
and paid over to her a sum of monev
which he represented as being the cash
assets remaining after deducting funeral
expenses.
Mrs. Weichman believed the story, as
did all her relatives, and she was easily
persuaded to remain in Hamburg. A year
later Kollatz began paying attention to
the woman, who supposed herself widow
and soon after married her He was
reckless, indolent fellow who had never
before had the handling of much money,
and in few years he had spent more than
half of the woman's fortune. She chung
to him, believing that he loved her, es-
pecially as she believed he had been such
a friend to her husband, whose untimely
death she even then mourned.
Six months ago KOllatz was fatally
injured in a railroad wreck and died
week later. The day before he died he
made confession in which he told the
wronged woman of the base deception he
mad practiced. He persisted that he had
all the time loved her, and that money
was not his only object. The confession
nearly drove the unfortunate woman crazy.
Placing the matter in the hands of her
relatives she continued her attendance
upon the man who had wronged her and
forty-eight hours after buried him
Her relatives at once opened correspond
ence with parties in DeadwOod and
finally succeeded in locating Weichman at
Downs this state. He was dumfounded
to learn that his wife was still alive, as
he had received a letter from Hamburg
soon after her arrival there stating that
she had died very suddenly. This letter
was signed by Mrs Weichman's brother,
or at least purported to be, and had been
kept by Weichman all these years 1t
contained a draft for a considerable sum,
represented as being all that part of the
wife's share that did not revert to her
family. Mr. Weichman mourned for
twenty years, never having thought of
second marriage When the truth came
TO his knowledge he arranged for his wife
to come to this country and join him in his
home here, which was on a well-tilled
farm. The reunited pair left at once for
the west and their new home.
Col. Tom Ochlltree has an elastic step rosy