July 8th, 1897.

Col. -

Your letter of June 27th was duly received and I have
been trying to answer it. The extreme warm weather and the
attention to baby have prevented me from doing so until this
moment.

You ask me to point to a single thing that you have ever
said or done. A single thing! Would to God it was only a
single thing. A simple history of your conduct since our
marriage is all that is required to show to the world that
you have forfeited every claim upon my love and completely
destroyed my confidence in you.

Three years ago last March I left a happy and comfortable
home to marry you. I loved you devotedly and was willing to
share your lot. When we commenced housekeeping I endeavored
to do my whole duty as a wife. Often when without help I
cooked our meals and did our own house work, some thing I had
never been called upon to do before. It was very hard upon
me but I did it cheerfully to show you how deep was my devotion
to you, and if you had remained with me and done your part as
a husband there was no sacrifice I would not have made for you.

It is true that I believed before we were married that
you were able to furnish me a comfortable home and at least
a fairly good living and you alone were responsible for this
for you gave me assurances upon top of assurances upon this
point and emphasized it by giving me before our marriage the

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money to purchase a home for myself and furnish the same.

In about six months after we went to housekeeping, the
summer having passed, I asked you for money to carpet the
house and after repeated promises you failed to furnish it.
I then for the first time began to suspect that your financial
condition was not such as you had represented it to be. Your
failure to offer compensation to my father for the time we
boarded with him and numerous other evidences of financial
distress on your part which manifested themselves and which
I do not care to enumerate here convinced me that you had mis-
led me as to your financial condition. I confess this dis-
covery alarmed me but it did not weaken my affection. I re-
solved to accept the situation and make the best of it.

Your frequent and long absences even in this early stage
of our married life and your failure to provide sufficient
means for the support of our home compelled me to come to the
conclusion that we would not be able to live here. I therefore
endeavored to overcome my dislike of a home in the South and
wrote you that I had concluded to go with you to your southern
home. For reasons best known to yourself you never made any
reply to that proposition and it is disgusting in the face of
this fact to have you charge me with a want of heart.

We married March 29th, '94. In June you went away and
remained until the middle of August. In the latter part of
September you again went away and returned December 23rd,
three days before the birth of our son. Six weeks after the
birth of the child you left me again. On your return you found