Year: 1872




and an impostor; that he was not minis
ter of the gospel, although he had assumed
in several places to be such, and that he
had abandoned his wife and children in
New Jersey two years before.


The scene that followed is indescribable.
Passing over the emotions natural to such
a distressing revelation, we turn to the
pseudo pastor. Being apprised in some un-
accountable manner, at the hotel in the
city where the first pause in their journey
was made, of the discovery of his villany
and the pursuit Of the father, he precipi-
lately abandoned the poor confding victim
of his deception and fed. He was discover
ed some hours after on railroad train,
partially diiguised and when asked by the
officer wither he was going, he coolly re-
piled that charges had been made against
him which required him to defend himself
and that lie was going East to investigate
them. He was arrested, detained for
time, and then reluctantly discharged for
lack of evidence.


| But justice was not to be thus baked.
The father, outraged by the villains crime
in his most precious relations, and now
set himself systematically to work to fasten
the clutches of the law firmly upon this
man. While one set of detectives "shad-
owed' him from place to place, others went
to New Jersey and procured the legal ev-
idence of his former marriage, and the at
tendance of the deserted wife. In few
weeks the culprit was re-arrested and
brought back to the scene of his illicit
triumphs, now the scene of his disgrace;
and under the unromatic name of James
Hardy, the only one to which he could lay
rghtful claim, he was indicted, tried and
convicted of bigamy, and sentenced to five
year. imprisonment. The trial incidentally
developed the fact that the accused was an
expert forger as we'll as vetela an bigamistI
1t appeared that he had at least two wives
living at the time of this last marriage,
both of whom he had heartlessly deserted;
and that upon abandoning the second, in
New Jersey, he had caused the notice of
his death TO be published in distant
paper, followed by the touching sentiment:


peaceful be his silent slumber


In the cold and lonely grave"


Copies of this paper had been sent to his
late residence. He had been traced through
several places, in all of which he perform
ed the role of a minister, as skillfuly and
as successfully, for the most part, as in the
last scene of his labors.


1t is somewhat of relief to know that
this adroit scoundrel died in the peniten-
tiary before the expiration of his term
and that the life of his last victim was not
blighted irreparably by his villany. She
has since happily married, and in the rela-
tions of a loved and honored wife and
mother, she may well remember her share
in this dark episode only as q troubled
dream.


have styled the career Of this man a
remarkable imposture. 1t may be said that
neither bgamy nor the stimulation of the
clerical Office is extremely rare among us,
and that both are occasionally detected in
the same individual. After this is granted,
must still claim that the real-life villain
here presented was the peer in subtlety,
audacity and unadulterated wickcduess of
anything in human shape that even the
genius of Wilkie Collins has put in print !;
and am quite certain that Miss Braddon
has introduced us to no more fascinating
gentleman among those of her characters
who deserve gibbeting. | do not remem-
ber to have read of any Of the black sheep
of fiction who were possessed of that strong
personal magnetism that made people of
average common sense the unyielding ad-
herents of this reprobate and caused them
to reject conclusive evidence of his inn
position. / hope and believe that such dan
gerous gifts are charity bestowed on man
kind.