The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-05-13
Recollections of a Long Life
No. 7. Shadowed.
By Col. D. A. Dickert

l
building, in somber street IN Ne"
York, lives today a man, alone, broh-
en-, as if on a wheel, without friend
in the world. This street was once a
busy mart of trade, but now, like the
old battered soldier, deserted. Noth-
ing now is heard but the steady tread
of the roundsman and the occasional
rattle of the ash cart. The cricket
chirps monotonously on the hearth
stone. the owl boots in the housetop,
the leather wing fits in and out the
broken windows, while the old man
sits in his invalid chair Harking back
to the DAYS of his greatness, when he
led his Iegions in the thickest storms
of battle. he nurses the wounds IN
his heart. He remembers the days OF
his greatness, when he was the idol
Of the army, the pride of nation
towering above his fellowmen in the
strength of his mind, now an outcast
with none so poor as to do him hom-
age" Who is this recluse? He has
been much in the public eye in recent
weeks nothing, however, to his good
Let us 90 back to a few years before
+be great War Between the Sections.
At that time lived the subject OF this
sketch in Washington, the brightest,
most intellectual and most dominant
factor in the fashionable and arlsto-
cratic circles of the capitol. He was
courted and hattered by the best and
was a power in the councils of the
great. If my mind serves me correct
ly he was attorney general in Pres1-
dent Buehanan's cabinet.
He had married, a few years prior
to the opening of this story, beauti-
full and accomplished lady, in wealth
and social standing every way his
equal. Everything prospered, and llfe'
to the young couple, looked promising
and rosy as a dream. But day came
when the serpent entered the house
hold and fatally stung the young hus-
band with the poison of jealousy. Then
folly held its carousals. The tempter
first caressed him, then conquered
and at last Tilted him. The first sting
of jealousy whispers, then as it cours-
es through the blood to the BRAIN 1t
becomes a carousal, and reason is de-
throned. The whispers of his wife's
wrong-doing was at the first on the
soft pedal, but grew louder with time
until his heart was swept into a tenn
pest.
Sitting in his home one day, with
a coterie of friends, young Kentuck-
ian, with all the grace and brilliance
for which his countrymen are noted,
nassed the place and saluted the
young wife, sitting at an upper win
dow. This enraged the husband to a
frenzy. Grasping pistol from near
by drawer, the young husband rushed
from the house bareheaded, saying to
his friends, as he ran, "That man is
making signals to my wife" Before
the friends could recover from their
astonishment FIVE pistol shots rang out
and the young Kentuckian fell dead
upon the street. Washington and the
country at large were shaken from
center to circumference by the news
of this sensational and unexpected
tragedy. The wife was driven from
her house, and took refuge with what
few friends were now left her. The
husband, claiming his home had been
invaded and his honor outraged, re-
ceived most of the sympathy
His wife returned her wedding ring,
broken in twain, as emblematic OF her
broken heart.
A great trial took place. On either
side we're a galaxy of the brightest le-
gal talent on the continent. the most
noted and successful criminal law
yers that money or influence could
employ. After weeks of intense, excit-
ing and sensational legal battles, the
Jurors returned verdict of mot gull
ty., He had been given the benefit
of the unwritten law. To save the life
of her unfaithful husband, the wife
had to submit to her fair name being
dragged in the mire, herself ostracls-
ed and scorned by her own sex, only
receiving pity and commisseratlor
from the sterner being.
But shadow was upon him, blacB
menacing shadow, that was to follow