The age-herald., 1901-11-07
One woman,s Sad Story.

Many unhappy memories are stirred by the story from Montgomery that the State advisory pardon board has recom- mended to Governor Jelks the pardon of the negro woman Fannie, Bryant, con- victed in Birmingham thirteen years ago of complicity with the notorious Dick Hawes in the murder of his wife and children-the blackest crime in Jeff ferson countys long and constantly lengthening record of murder said an old resident of this town.
 ''It will be recalled that Hawes, after murdering his wife and children, soon went to Columbus, Miss, and succeed ed in inducing an accomplished and highly respectable young woman to consent to marry him. She, all uneon- scious of her bridegrooms terrible and monstrous crime. stood up before min ister of the Gospel and in the presence of many friends who rejoieed in her happiness, was made his happy wife. The bridal couple came to Birmingham, and as they left the railroad passenger station Hawes was placed under arrest on the charge of murder.
 "The shock almost killed the young bride, who returned In bitterness to the home she had just left in her great hap piness. The horrible story may not now be repeated. but Hawes was convicted and hanged The scaffold made the lovely bride of Columbus a widow with nothing to look to at the moment but grief and shame.
 After time a mercantile establish ment in Columbus engaged the widow as saleswoman, paying her handsome ly. and the story of her life attracted great throngs of customers to the house she served, many of them traveling long distances to buy merchandise of her and thereby see her face to lace. This public curiosity grieved her more, but she was poor and had to earn her own living besides aiding to support her mother, and thus she had to bear a most onerous double burden-that of laboring all day and being stared at and ques- toned as the bride of wife-murderer.
 But the unhappy young woman bore up bravely and worked and managed to save something of her earnings. By and by another lover came to woo her. He was a man who like herself was of emi nent family responsibility, and he was one of the most accomplished account ants in Mississippi. Being a man of ad- miral personal habits and being long in receipt of a, good salary, he had saved several thousand dollars and was there fore independent
 Tn the end this man won the voune woman's affections and her consent to marriage So they were married. and all the neighbors were agreed that the husband and wife were singuiarly hap- py, in the charming little home which his means and her savings had enabled them to secure. Life was all sunshine to them both. until another sorrow fell to her. calamity to him.
 His health failed. Local physicians could give no relief and offer no comfort. The wife in her love and despair deter mined finally to take her husband to St Louis for treatment by experts. It was there made known to her, after a long time. that her husband was incurably i'll with locomotor ataxis
 His long illness, with its heavy ex- penses, finally resulted in the expendi ture of all the means the couple had: and the wife is again working for a ! living, now for herself and her helpless husband. It is a noble story. yet so bit teriy sadr'