The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-03

ceived from her or those on board.
Then came word from San Francisco
that the barkentine had gone down
| with all on board in heavy storm off
| the coast of Chile. The blow was a
| sad one to Miss Mcpherson, but de-
| spite the fact that pieces of the Pres
| colt had been picked up far out of the
| barkentine's course, and everything in
| Dictated that all aboard her had perish
| ed, she refused to believe that he was
| dead, However, her deep grief, though
| hope shone ever through it, was APP
| parent to all, and she seemed to grad
| ually yield to the apparently inevitable.
| Not so with Benina Fortier, however.
! If grief she felt, it was not but a pass
| ing sorrow, for her heart was soon
| mended sufficiently OF look with favor
| upon the suit of DR.. Francis Payne of
| Leffingwell avenue. They became en-
gagged in the spring of 1871, and were
married the following fall. The mar
| riage of Miss Fortier to the young
| doctor failed to bring the two young
women together again. Instead the
bitterness of Miss Mcpherson grew
more intense with the passing of the
| months and remained so until the end.
When the heart of Alma had even
tually begun to reluctantly yield to
that which it seemed it must ultimate
ly accept, there came one day in June,
1874, telegram from San Francisco,
forwarded by friend of Barrow, who
had preceded him to the California
coast, stating that Barrow was alive
and well and was soon to follow. 1t
seemed to Alma like the long silenced
voice of some lost hope aroused to life.
In the course of a few days there ar
rived several letters, written from time
to time in the mining camps of the
Andes, which Barrow was unable to
e.,
San Francisco. These long delayed
epistles, covering a period of nearly
four years. told of the fate of the
Prescott: how she foundered off the
coast of Chile; the struggle of the ship
wrecked crew and adventures in small
boats in an angry sea; the tedious
journey into Peru: months of battle
with fever; then the long, hard strug-
gle for wealth, with its diverse sue
cesses and failures, and the browning
effort by which he had become rich.
Evil Wrought by a Jest.
Alma and her brother had agreed
that upon Barrow's arrival Mcpherson
should present his sister as a married
woman, Mrs. Brown or Jones. But
the brother had, as is the habit of men
indulging in jest concocted by an
other, conceived the idea of infusing
into it somewhat of his own original
ity, and therein arose the complicated
tragedy and the comedy which marked
the matters close.
A man of youthful years, with the
frame of well matured strength, yet
whose lined and yellow features, though
still bearing the trace of once hand
some cut, evinced the hardships and
the fever of the tropics, alighted from
carriage at the Mcpherson residence
on the night of Nov. Is, 1874. 1t was
Barrow, returned from five years iso-
ll How, ftNs oil l..
He was greeted 1t the door by Thorn
as Mcpherson, according to the plan
Alma had prearranged, and the brother
led the way into the parlor where his
sister was awaiting them.
My sister," said Mcpherson, when
they had approached Alma, as that
young lady stepped forward to greet
Barrow. "Of course, you haven't for
gotten her, nor she you. My sister,
Mrs. DR.. Francis Payne"
The brothers chuckle, emitted at
what he considered his cleverness in
carrying out his sisters design and at
the same time getting in his own little
original part in the joke, was lost on
the old lovers as they stood facing
each other in silence. Barrow, pale,
his face set with a suffering he could
i'll conceal, searched the eyes Of Miss
Mcpherson as if to read there what
terrible crime he had committed or
so panied, while she, unable to utter
word at the sudden and unexpected
manner in which the tables had been
turned upon her, and her identity link
ed at such a time with that of the
woman whom she hated most in the
world gazed helplessly at the floor
moment she looked up and caught
the misery that must have been plainly
evident in Barrow's features. With a
sharp cry as if of overpowering pain,
plainly audible to the guests assem-
bled in the hall beyond, she sank to
the floor in g dead faint. Willing hands
were quickly to her aid. But when she
was finally nursed back to conscious
ness Barrow was nowhere to be found
nor was he ever seen again in ST.
Louis.
A Suicide in Wisconsin.
Aged beyond his years, his heart
torn by torture which time could not
assuage nor the balm of forgetfulness
alleviate, Barrow made his way to Wi
mona, Wis, where he bought a farm,
there to pass the remainder of his
days But grief over the supposed in
constancy of the woman he loved
was too great to bear and one after
noon in May. 1876, the laborers on the
farm, returning from the field. found
Barrow lying on his bed with a bullet
through his heart. He had taken his
own life. Yet the strangest develop
ment in this strange story was yet to
come. Upon his body was found a will,
executed in Winona the day previous
to his suicide. When the document
was read it was found that Barrow had
willed to Mrs. Dr. Francis Payne of
st. Louis, Mo-" all his property, ag-
gregating more than $780, 900 in personal
and real estate. 1t seemed to have
been his intention to give all he had
to the woman he had loved, and who
1,A h. t.o1 ,s.I ID
but the will gave everything to the
woman she had hated.
When the knowledge of Barrow's
death reached st. Louis Mcpherson,