New-York tribune., 1895-07-21
4 NEU-YORK STATE LEAR.
THE BITTER EXPERIENCES or RILEY READ AND
HIS DAvGHTERs PUNISHMENT.

THE HITTER EXPERIENCES or RILEY READ AND
HIS DArGHrER's, PUNISHMENT
Hancock n July % o-New-York people are ne
Rotating with Riley Read OF this place. for the Old
American Hotel. a famous old hosiery thirty years
az, situated I'm the middle OF the village. II is said
thcv will remodel 1t and III 1t up for summer
hoarders In time FOR next summer II 1t is true that
ol Riley" has decided TO sell. II will cause sem
sation throughout Delaware County. for 1t Is be-
ueved by all OF the old mans neighbors that he
will be compelled 70 die In the Old house. kept
there virtually a prisoner by his daughter Fannie.
whose strange history IS but htile KNOWN even u
the villagers.
The inmates OF the old hotel are Riley Read. near
ly ninety years old: hts daughter Fannie over nfty
years old; his son Nate" and a domestic. Miss
Boyd. Fannie Reads history is strange romance
Before the war the American Hotel was largely pa
,ronized by lunbermen and stage drivers. who made
Hancock trading centre. At that time Miss Fan
ME was the prettest girl In town and II general
favorite She had deep gray-blue eyes and brown
ringlets She accomplished pano-payer,
and owned OF a few in the county. In the fall
OF 1861 Fannie Read withdrew from intercourse with
the village people and from that day to ths no one
outside the old hotel has seen her face.
In the fall Of 1861 the l0lst Regiment encamped at
Hancock on its way TO the front. and when IL
marched away ali of Fannie Reads earthly harpl-
ness went with It, The regiments officers were
Colonel Enrtco Fardelo. OF New York city: Lieuten'
ant G. Colonel Johnson b. Brown. OF Syracuse; Major
Augustus sniper. Adjutant Eneas Lamont. and
| Ouartermaster Bellows. The last named paid Fan
| Mt. Read marked attention and she became infatu-
| atcd with the handsome young soldier. Her father.
| "Od Riley" took a dislike 20 Bellows. and forbade
! his coming 10 the hotel.
one nieht Riley Read returned unexpectedly from
an out-of-town trip and found Bellows and FANNIE
lovemaking In the parlor. He was a hot-headed.
powerful man at that time. and he and Bellows had
an encounter which resulted In Fellows being taken
to his quarters by the regimcntal surgeon lie TO *
Fannie by the and. with almos, much violence,
threw her into her bedroom. telling her 10 say
there I'LL he told her to come out. Sc kept a
prisoner I'm her room until after the regiment started
| for the front Bellows never sent her a message.
so far as she could learn She prostrated with
fever and when she got we'll again was like an old
woman. She stayed In her room. deaf 10 all en-
treaties TO come out and see her relatives ana
friends The war closed and no lover came home
to claim Fannie Read.
| With the hope dying In her heart there came an
| intense hatred OF her father for having sent Bel
| lows away. This was so pervasive that soon after
1866 Riley Read shut up his hotel and the old hos
telry began n history which for weirdness has sell
| dom been equalled. II is large structure for n
| country village. having fifty or more rooms, but
| none OF them has since been occupied. The
corridors became cobwebbed and ghostly, and the
house began to look thoroughly uncanny. Mort
enges and debts pressed heavily upon "Old Riley"
and a few years ago he put the title or the hotel
In Fapne's name Never has a revenge been COM
pleter than has hers. When once the power was
In her grasp. she became a tyrant and more than
once when handsome offers have been made for the
hote Fanny has stopped all negotiations.
And yet her. Her signature IL
occasionally found upon legal document concern
ing litigation which Riley is always mixed up IN.
but aside from this there Is no outward evidence
OF her being on earth. During the seventies Fan
MES brother died at Cochecton, twenty-five miles
from Hancock the Erie. Heavily veiled. she
went to the funeral About fifteen years ago there
| was a fire In the village which extended TO the old
| hotel a villager rushed In 10 warn the Reads OF
their danger and he claims to have seen faded lit
| lie old woman whom he believed to be Fannie
Four years ago Fannies mother died and the
funeral held at the hotel Fannie attended. but
| no one saw her yelled face When her father be-
seeches her reent and sign over to him the prop
| erty so that he may sell II or rent It, she says
"You showed me no mercy I'll show you none"
For this the news that the old hotel Is TO
| be sold to a New-York man comes a. SURPRISE
aud Is not generally believed. -