Sunday Washington globe., 1902-04-20


possessed a large fortune. There was
nothing in the temperament or character Of
the man that would lead him to commit
suicide or induce him TO fall a victim to
the snares and traps Of a great city He
Just stepped out. He mysteriously disap-
peared But how2 when? where? are
questions that have never, will never be
answered. His place was declared vacant
in a fash, and despite detective talent and
rich friends, despite search and pains and
trouble, he was seen on earth no more
The fishes at the bottom of the Hudson
may have fattened on his flesh, or he may
have been buried in the valleys of the
Yosemite, or been eaten up by the can
nibals of Terra del Fuego for all that is
known.
Everhard T'eith was an eminent scholar
of Flanders. Greek students know him as
the author OF "-ARhQHifallS Honeyicae" "
When his country was disturbed by the
rancors Of Civil War he repaired to France,
where he soon attained eminence as pro-
fessor of Greek. One day while he was
walking in the streets of the town in which
he resided, in a street full of people, he was
beckoned by gentleman standing in the
door Of house opposite. Many saw him
enter the house, but no one saw him come
out Nor was he ever seen alive; nor was
his corpse found ever afterward. His
friends, the college, the magistrates, took
the matter up, but it was useless they
never got any further than the front door.
James Ferguson, the machinist and author
of works on steam engines, is well known.
One day he was walking down the Strand
in London with his daughter Agnes on his
arm. Suddenly she slipped her arm out of
his, and seemed wrapped in thought and
quickly disappeared. He never saw her
again. He went to his grave and never
knew OF even dreamed of what became of
his daughter Agnes. Perhaps il was we'll
that he did not. Her father was a man of
scientific eminence and delivered lectures.
She attended them, and there met young
nobleman. When walking that day she saw
him he beckoned to her, and possessed by
some uncomfortable influence she went to
him as the foolish bird goes to the Shiny
snake. He took her to Italy, the land of
sunshine and flowers, love and poetry.
She became his mistress, but never his
wife OF course he followed the general
rule, and not the marked exception that
shadows the fate Of the lovely woman that
stoops to folly, and deserted her. She then
took the only recourse that refined women
have in time of poverty and distress.
She few to the stage She saw
Garrick. He gave her a trial, but she
failed. Then she tried authorship, but dis
appointment and failure haunted her every
effort In despair she threw herself upon
the streets, and died miserably in Round
Court, of the Strand On her death bed
she told the surgeon who attended her the
wretched story Of her life, and, from the
localities in which she moved and lived,
she must often have seen her friends and
relatives, though they may have thought
her dead or in some far off land. Shame
prevented her from ever disclosing to her
parents where she was OF the foolish step
she had taken
In the quiet town of Slanelly, in South
Wales, a man Of moderate means suddenly
left his wife and two small children, and all
efforts to trace, much less to find him.
proved unavailing. The deserted wife was
a very matter of-fact woman, without bit
of romance in her nature, SO, after waiting
a certain number Of years for her husband
to return she quietly and sensibly gave him
up for lost, and listened TO the wooing of
another and younger man. Tennyson's
Mrs. Arden was driven to take this step by
the fear of poverty aud that her children
would come to want; but this wife was COM
fortably off, buxom and wanted a husband,
and so took one having waited long enough
for her former mate to return. The lost
husband had a sister who always looked
upon this second marriage ae an act of vice,
and with that straightforwardness peculiar
to the Welsh did not hesitate to say So
When he had been gone about eight years
an affair happened which staggered even
her confidence A man in sailors garb
called upon her and said that he had mes
sage from her dead brother--for that he was
dead there was no doubt. The ship in
which they had been together in the Pacific
had gone to pieces on a coral reef, and all
hands had pershed but himself His life
was saved by the accidental passage of a
whaler, the crew Of which seeing man
upon the reef lowered the boat and took
him aboard. Since that event he had been
a wanderer on the face of the earth Years
rolled on aud John Williams. the lost man.
was not only given mp as lost but he was
forgotten as well. One day toward the close
Of summer when Mrs. Williams now Mrs
Williams no longer, was out for walk with
her husband and children, who should enter
the house and go and hang his hat up on
the peg bat John Williams, the long.lost
husband. Finding no one at home, he sat
in the window so that he could see his wife
when she came home. After a short time
he saw her and her two children approach
ing with young man whom he had known
as boy He sprang from his seat and ran
out to meetthem. When Mrs. Williams saw
her 6rst husband she fell into his arms, and
the scene was soon explained to poor Grif.
hths, who stood stupidity by like poor boy.
The men agreed to abide by the decision Of
the wife; to whomsoever she turned and
gave her hand he should thenceforward be
! her husband. She hesitated but for a
momeHt, and her first love coming back to
her she gave her hand and heart a second
time to John Williams, her first love. This
is the story upon which Alfred Tennyson
founded the famous poem Of Enoch Arden