Year: 1868

I" can tell you an event which, although it
did not come within the sphere of my own busi-
ness relations, yet it was within my personal OBJ
serVations, and for the correctness of which l
can youch, said Mr.. - as the reporter seated
himself to hear some incident connected with
his experience as a detective.


"a young kentuckian had come to the city in
the Winter of lo5-, as many do, purely for plea
sure. Of great wealth, and by no means careful
of his personal associates he soon plunged into
career Of dissipation, which soon fitted him to
become the victim of one of the most remarkable
women of her age. This person was the wife of
a noted gambler. She had apartments at the
most fashionable hotel and decoy to her
profigate and unscrupulous copsort. She was
Spanish Creole, and possessed every fascin-
ating trait which have so distinguished the wo-
men of her race. But, added to the exquisite
beauty of her person. she possessed an educated
mind, and was in reality fitted to adorn any
sphere in society.


"Always dressed in robes that ever enhanced
her rich tropical beauty, easy OF access, and TO
the uninitiated and susceptible youth upon whom
she lavished every bewildering charm of man
ner and address, it is not surprising she soon
became a creature at whose shrine both heart
and sense were gladly surrendered. He accom-
panied her to the theatres, balls and parties, and
as the influence Of her artfuly-woven meshes
became each day stronger, and he less capable
of resisting them, she gradually drew him within
the pale of her husbands evil designs. Her ee-
gantly appointed parlor became the theater of
little card parties, at which costly wines and the
Establishments Of female beauty formed a COM
bination of attraction which his blinded percep-
tions could not resist. Step by step he was led
along toe road to ruin.


stHe never saw his peril, or, if be did, it was
discerned only to be forgotten in the smile of his
dark-eyed enchantress. Vast sums had now
swollen from the pittances hazarded at first.
His own means had been exhausted his friends
had been appealed to until they would loan no
longer; still unmindful of his perilous career, q
criminal step was taken, and forged draft sup
piled him with the means he could not otherwise
procure. Another and another follow ed until
the vast sums he squandered had absorbed every
dollar of his inheritance. And now he awoke
from his dream of passion to realize the utter
hopelessness of his condition. Bankrupt and
criminal, single hope still fingered around the
memory of wrecked life and fortune-one ray
only of possible happiness was left him as he
brooded his sin, and that the love Of the
beautiful woman who had ruined him. To him
she had become as an Elvira to Larmartine, the
Heloise of Abelard, and now in the cleft of his
torn heart he cherished her beautiful flower
in sweet memorial of a happier time. He knew
she had ruined him he knew that the beautiful
casket shrined no jewel of purity but he knew
that he loved her, despite her crimes and his
own.


Flight was still left him. the magnanimity
of his friends and creditors had left him this
From the consequences of his crimes and the
of his friends he perceived the necessity of
this last alternative of the criminal and wretched
outcast of society. But before he went he solic-
tied and obtained an interview with the woman
he had looked upon as an angel and worshpped
her as such What passed at that interview was
never known or ever will be. He had been in
her presence perhaps an hour, when the scream
of a woman in deadly fright echoed through the
house, followed by the report of pistol. The
startled servants rushed in the apartment, but
recoiled in horror. In the center of the room,
bullet through the brain, lay the dead body of
the young Kentuckan-a suicide beside him,
rigid and pale as death, stood the woman but
the light of reason had fed from her eyes a just
retribution had paralyzed her mind. The spell
of her dark enchantment was loosened, and none
afterward traced their ruin to the gamblers ma
MAC wife. ."-New Orleans Picayane