Year: 1875

=
means of a friend in Australia Miller
kept up this deception without diff
Guilty.


One day he and wife No. , were re-
turning from Lake Tahoe. They had
a compartment in the palace ear from
Summit. The station there is in the
snow sheds, and therefore the interior
of the car was somewhat dark. The
train ran down the mountain for an
hour or so and presently left the snow
shed behind and emerged into LIGHT.
Miller left the compartment to get his
wife a glass of water. As he passed
through the car he saw in section
wife No. /, with her father and sister,
on their way to San Francisco on 4
pleasure trip. The recognition was
mutual. Wife No. nearly tainted with
delight. Quick as n flash, Miller form
ed his determination what to do. Two
circumstances favored him. Wife No.
, was in her stateroom reading a book
and out of sight. Nobody in the car
knew him, and this fortified him He
kissed wife No. l with great ardor and
shook hands with the old gentleman.
Then he asked to be excused for Just an
instant. There were some gentlemen in
another part of the car with whom he
had left some unfinished business.
Then he went to wife No. : and soon
made an excuse for another brief alb
sence. Then he went back and sal
down by wife No. /, and a happy reun-
ion was enacted. He said that he had
arrived from Australia only a few days
before. That he had some business
with some California wool men which
had detained him for few days; that
he was then going home to surprise his
wife and make her comfortable and
happy for the remainder of her days.
He had not written her because he
wanted to surprise her. He had got
rich in Australia, but still he had to re-
turn as soon as possible. Her coming
TO California was most fortunate cir
cumstance, for now lie could see her
without going East. They could be
happy for a week or ten days, and then
he could sail on the same steamer he
came on instead of waiting for the next,
which left Il month later. Wife No.
demurred at this, but Miller, knowing
that he could not keep up the deception
for a month, insisted that he should sail
in ten days.


EVADING WIFE NO. ,.


As the train sped along Miller, while
chatting with the GOODNESS of Mephisto-
pheles, was Matching plan to get wife
No. out of the car without wife No.
Is seeing her. Wife No. wanted to
stop at Sacramento and 90 to San Fran
cisco by later train. He mentally re-
solved that wife No. l and her party
should not 90 to San Francisco at all if
he could prevent it. So he at once told
her that he had some important bust
ness in Sacramento, and must stop over
there that night. OF course she and her
party must stop too. Wife No. l con-
sented. Wife No. was managed Just
rs skillfully. The train makes a stop
of twenty minutes at Sacramento. She
was asked to keep her seat in the COM
partment until he could get a carriage
to take her to a friends house. When
the train stopped Miller hastened wife
No. l and party out of the rear end of
the car, showed them hastily into a car
riage, and told the driver to take them
to the hotel. Then he got wife No. 2
out, put her in a carriage, and sent her
to her friends, saying he would call for
her at train time. This gave him Il
breathing spell, which he employed in
perfecting his plans to evade detection.
These were subsequently carried out
and so well was every thing managed
that wife No. 2 never suspected any
thing, and wife No. l never dreamed
that her husband was any body but \.
X. Woodruff, and that his Australian
story was not true. In order to tempo
rarily free himself from the restraint Of
wife No. 2, he arranged to 90 Off for a
week to the Yosemite. To wife No. l
he said that before going back to Aus
tralia he wanted to 90 to the Yosemite,
and as they would doubtless like the
trip, he would take them. They all
went, and on the trip, or soon after,
Miller made wife No. a present of
SGO,0 in United States bonds part
of the fortune he had made in Aus
tralia."


ANOTHER NARROW ESCAPE.


But the presence of wife No. was
still fraught with more danger. On
their return from OSemlLe, ana lnlnle-
diately before wife No. 1 returned to
the East, she insisted upon staying Il
few days in San Francisco. Miller was
very anxious to hasten her departure,
but still he had to give in and take her
to San Francisco. They put up at the
Lick House. Fortunately wife No. ]
did not like San Francisco, SO to Mil
ler's great relief she cut her stay short.
Before going he took her to a dry
goods store and bought her S1,jOO
worth of goods. Subsequently the bill
was sent to Miller's house, and fell into
the hands of wife No. to whom it was
a cause of alarm. But Miller quieted
her by saying that he had only ordered
the Foods for the wife of friend of his
in Portland, Oregon, and the bill was
made out in his name by mistake.


And so Miller struggled to maintain
his position. His fall was a terrible
blow to the pride of Stanford, Hunting
ton, Hopkins and the rest of the Cen
tral Pacific ring.