The age-herald., 1898-02-01
The Pathetic Story of
Mrs. Edward Parker Deacon

One of the saddest stories of modern times is that which wrecked the life and happiness of Florence Baldwin Deacon, the former wife of Edward Parker Deacon It is a story brimming over from first to last with enough tragic elements to have ruined a half dozen homes if distributed with any degree of impartiality by the hand of fate, but which were so coneen- trated so condensed into the life Of d bright young wife and mother that she stands desolate and heart-broken today amid the wreck and ruin that has come 10 her from this cyclone of human agony and humiliation.
 Since the awful tragedy. which occurred few years ago. at Cannes, France, when Edward P. Deacon shot, in his wfe's par Tor, Abeile, the French club man, Mrs Deacon has accepted the verdicts of the courts, the. slurs and jeers of the world, only proclaimng simply, "I am innocent. For years this did not alter the opinion Of society; on both sides of the Atlantic she was regarded as a woman who had for feited the esteem and regard of the world
 Recently 1t became necessary to commit Edward P. Deacon to an asylum for the insane, and then the whole pitiful history of devoted woman's self-abnegaton was laid bare, and the sentiment of all we'll informed persons is now with Mrs. Deacon, who sacrificed herself rather than have her husband suffer the fate of murderer.
 It transpires that pretty Florence Bald win, contrary to her fathers-Rear Ao- miral Baldwin, U. S. N.-advice, deter mined, at seventeen years of age, to mar ry Edward Deacon, man or large Weai'h and high social position.
 It was not very long subsequent to the marriage before she discovered that ne was victim to alcohol and drugs lie De- came cruel to a degree, and, Of course' lh- sanely jealous of his young wife This she bore without complaint until the murder or M Abeille-who was visiting Mrs. Deacon at the husbands invitation-and with pup lie opinion against her and false witnesses testifying to her do vnfall she accepted her fate unmurmuringlS, Fortunately. the brother of Mir Deacon and his wife be- came convinced of her innocence, as the idiosyncrasies and hallucnations of their insane brother became more apparent The tide of public opinion turned in Mrs. Dea- cons favor, and after the incarceration of her husband in the insane asylum the world recognized its mistake.
 MT. Deacon became anxious to see once more his ll-treated wife that he ard his physicians wrote imporing her to visit him. This she did recently at the sani- tarium, coming from Europe for the pur- pose. MT. Deacon improved after seeing his wife; insisted upon her marrying him again and constantly asserted her innocence, but she has positively refused to again unite her life to this lunatic, whom the medical men say can never be restored to mental or physical health.
 But the strangest phase of this strange, sad story occurred Saturday. Mrs. Dea- con was called to Europe by the illness of one of her little daughters, and sailed on the La Champagne Just as the gang plank was drawn in a well-dressed, deli cate-lookng man hurried into the steamer which bore back to France the man who loved his former wife too deeply to be separated from her. notwithstanding her positive refusal to remarry him.
 Who can tell what the next chap ter in the history of the lives of these two unhappy creatures will be? Mrs Deacon has returned to Europe eXonerated of tho charges against her She was the victim of the vagaries of brain nfianed and disordered with drink and drugs. and on the same steamer with her is the man who has wrecked her life.