Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20
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thos every tHilS WOulQ tranSp1fe as ar
rarged until 1 reached the house of the
father of the lady, where the ceremony
was TO take place. When 1 arrived there
the larger part of the company invited was
already in the parlors. The expectant
price was upstairs in her room, and was
being attired for the occasion, assisted by
several of her lady friends. Soon after
got in the house one of the gentlemen in
the room told me quietly that he had good
reasons Tor believing that there would be a
disappointment in the wedding, for the
reason that he did not think the groom
would put in an appearance. He also told
me that he would forbid the bans should
the man arrive, for he personally knew
that the man was married, and that his
wife was living. He showed me a letter
from the mans wife. of a very recent date
Tie wife was in San Francisco. and had
written to him for a loan of money with
which she could come east. In the letter
she spoke of the terrible treatment she had
received from her husband and of his ras-
cality in general. Under the circumstances,
L asked to see the bride expectant, and
plainly told her what had been told. She
said in reply that she had every confidence
that the statements her expectant husband
had made to her were true, and that the
woman In question who had written the
letter was not his wife.
Il told her that l regarded the informa-
ton as reliable and If the bans of marriage
were forbidden, under the circumstances, 1
would decline to proceed. for l was assured
whom / knew to be responsible, that the
man had a wife living and that there had
been no divorce proceedings She begged
of me not to arrive at any conclusions un-
til had had a talk with the captain. for
that was his military title. Thinking that
possibly might have made a mistake In
my Judgment. 1 went down into the parlor,
and with the remainder of the company
waited for the appointed hour. 8 o'clock
rather nervously. The man did not appear
and after waiting half hour, the company
was dispersed Three days afterward the
nan called on me and admitted that his
wife was living. He said he could not un-
derstand why he had ever promised to
marry the young lady. but his looks and
conduct satisfied me that he was an adven-
turer Now. listen to the ending of the
case. The lady has never been married
since. and was glad she escaped so fortu-
nately. 1t was different with the captain,
however In less than six weeks he was
married to widow the owner of a large
boarding house in an eastern city. The
gentleman who told me about him heard of
1t and wrote to the woman asking if it
was true. informing her of all the facts in
the case and giving her the address of the
original wife. so that she could get any
further information she desired on the
subject. She did get further information
and conclusive information that she had
been imposed upon. BY this time how
ever. some of her property had been signed
over to him. but he had not disposed of It
and she determined he should not soon
afterward / was told the captain, instead of
waxing UP one morning. in the words of
DION Bouicicauh. found himself dead
There was a suspicion that the woman who
mad been imposed upon had given him
POISON in his coffee. There was kind of
an investigation into the case but a con-
cirs1on was reached that it was suicide
Anyhow. he had not DISPOSED of any of the
WIDOWS property, and she was as well Off
financially as if she had not met the can
tain- other than the expense of boarding
MIN four weeks before the marriage and
for six weeks afterward''
x x K !. *
While up in st. GATHERINGS. Canada. re-
Gently volunteered a merchant TO a Star
reporter. Il ran across quite a colony of
colored people. the parents of whom, some
OF them still living. were originally resi-
dents of this city. Inquirirg into the mat
ter from one of them, I learned that they
we're originally slaves here. and ran away
TO Canada to secure freedom. One of the
men. VIM Thompson. said he belonged to
n Col. Hill. whose farm was located where
Highland Terrace now is, corner of Massa-
sachusetts avenue and 18th street An
other belonged to the late Capt. John B.
Blake, who was supcrinte ndent of public
buildings and grounds for many years or
to some one connected with his family.
Three Of the men escaped together being
ftsutd ny d H. bItSu OI tNIS city ana the
late Mr.. Lewis Clephane. On arriving there
they were Joined by three other slaves from
Alexandria,, and one or two from Rich
nond. Financially. they seemed to have
rrospered remarkably we'll The man 1
talked to- Thompson, though now very old
Is quite active, and OWES and runs three or
four large wagons, which are used in cart
Ing coal from the railroad depot to the
town of st. GATHERINGS and TO the adjoin-
ing country. His children, one of his daugh-
ters being school teacher and the son q
prosperous barber, l met Another daugh-
ter has raised family near by He said
he attended the Methodist Church at LIST
and Il streets southwest, at the foot of the
Capitol, and had recoIlections of the Tin
Ieys, Ambushes. Cookies, and especially the
father of them, Rev. John Cooke who
founded the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian
Church; the JoneseS of Georgetown, Tolberts
and others. The old man said he had al
ways been anxious to get another look at
Washington. but had always been kept so
busy that he did not get a chance. He
said, however, he had promised he would
take one daughter and two or three of the
grandchildren down to Washington during
the coming Christmas times, if coal haul
ing didn't prevent. His son, he said and
the other daughter had constantly declined
to visit Washington. though he had often
asked them to do So