Newspapers / The Weekly Raleigh Register … / Nov. 5, 1884, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
By P. M. HALE. ADVERTISING RATES. ii i ii iii ii'ii it - officb: Fayetteville St., Second Floor Fisher Building. RATES OK SUBSCRIPTION : One copy one year, mailed poet-paid .$3 00 One copy six months, mailed post-paid. ... 1 00 No name entered without payment and ii,) paper sent after expiration of time paid for. Advertisements will be inserted for One Dollar per square (one inch) for the first and Fifty Cents for each subsequent publication. Contracts for advertising for any space or time may be made at the office of the RALEIGH REGISTER, Second Floor of Fisher Building, Fayetteville' Street, next to Market House. VOL. I. RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1884. NO. 37. - NECESSITY. BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. Necessity, whom long I deemed my foe, Thou cold, unsmiling and hard-visaged dame, Now I no longer see thy face, I know Thou wert my friend, beyond reproach or blame. My best achievements, and the fairest flights Of my winged fancy, were inspired by thee. Tliv stern voice spurred me to the mountain . heights. Thy importunings bade me do and fee. But for thy breath, the spark of living fire Within me might have smouldered out at length; But for thy lash, which would not let me tire, I never would have measured my own strength. But fir thine ofttimes merciless control 1 ' l"lon my life that nerved me past despair, I uever should have dug deep in my soul And found the mine of treasures hidden there. Ami though we walk divided pathways now, And I no more may see thee, to the end, I weave this little chaplet for thy brow, Thus other hearts may know, and hail thee friend. HELEN FORSYTH. Warreu's Diary of a Detective.) I have mentioned io "The Orphans" that I was at the same time engaged in an affair which required my presence in Scot land: The ease was a remarkable one. James Ferguson, a romantic, dreamy vouth. horn and bred' at Clyde Cottage, about five miles distant from the city of (ikisirow. acd sole heir to about four mm dred pounds per annum, chiefly in house nroiK-rtv, chose, at the ripe age of twenty, or thereabout, to fall, or fancy himself, in love with one Helen Forsyth, a gay dam sel whom he met with at a funeral, of tll the occasions in the world for the brifig- inw about of such a catastrophe. The girl was pretty and considerably younger than he, her age in years being three less. In knowledge of the world she was at least ten years his senior. Her mother was an adept in the baser departynent of that science; the daughter her apt pupil. 1 his Mrs. t orsyth, who, though she could scarcely be less than five or six-and-thirty, had a very youthful ap pearance, was an equivocal widow, en gaged in a poorly paying mantua-making business in a by street in Glasgow. It was shrewdly doubted that she had a legal title to the name of Forsyth, of that her dainty daughter was born in wedlock. The purport of the counsel which, under.' such circumstances, such a mother gave Helen Forsyth upon the latter's return from the funeral, may, with the help of after discoveries, be easily imagined : "James Ferguson's shy advances were not only to be encouraged, they should be stimulated by all the arts familiar to pret ty, provocative damsel-kind. His bed ridden father could not last many weeks, people said, and then he would possess, in his own right full four hundred a year, and was, moreover, reputed;: to be a soft, simple youth, whom a clever wife might rule with absolute sway. Such a chance it would be just downright madness to miws. No silly scruples about being en gaged to Adam Ritchie should be allowed to mar, or for a moment endanger it. Ritchie, who, as second mate of a mer chant vessel, was, but one remove above a common sailor,, might never rise higher, nor, indeed, return to Glasgow again from the West Indies, where he was when last heard of; and if he did, and was prosper ing,, he would very likely sailors being proverbially fickle as the wind and waves themselves have no mind to carry out his light, merely Verbal promise to some day marry a penniless, however pretty, mah-tua-maker." Thus urged, Helen Forsyth agreed to act upon her mother's advice, though re luctantly, as she was strongly attached 'to Adam Ritchie, who was a smart, handsome "ailor, very much superior in personal ad vantages to her new admirer. There is no doubt, moreover, that the daughter's hesitation was the more readily overcome by -a vile suggestion of Mrs, Furvth"s. that should she be Mrs, Fergu n when Ritchie returned, she- would not be thereby absolutely precluded from oc i .-iiionally seeing her old sweetheart. He was personally unknown to Ferguson, who ould never have heard, never would hear that there had been a former intimacy be tween him and Helen Forsyth. Having once decided upon her course, the girl-woman pursued it with avidity, and such swift success, that she became uie wite of .James Ferguson within a month of the day upon which she first made his acquaintance. The marriage was kept secret, and the bride remained at her mother's till old Mr. Ferguson's death, not long afterwards, when she at once removed to Clyde Cottage. The mantua-making business was gladly .given up, and Mrs. For -yth took upher permanent abode with the young couple, upon the invitation of her on in-law to make his home hers as long as sue lived. A short time sufficed to enable the wil- "il wife to bring her youth-husband into subjection, not to herself only, but to Mrs. Forsyth. Yet not so completely but t times, and under extreme provocation, Hashes of a latent spirit werev evoked, which showed there was danger in him. Especially to excite his jealousy would, they were before long made to understand, be extremely dangerous. Ferguson loved his wife, wilful vixen though she was, with deep affection; and once, upon only fancying he detected a look of secret intel ligence pass between her and a youth ful neighbor, who sometimes looked in at Clyde Cottage, he flew into a transport of ager inflicted personal chastisemenS upon the confounded young man, and so terri fied his wife and mother-in-law that they 'an screaming away, and locked them--'lvts up in a bedroom till bis frantic rage had subsided. Legal process was issued against Ferguson for the assault: it was vhown that there was not the slightest ground for the suspicion that had prompted the outrage; and Ferguson was not only obliged to apologize for his conduct, but to disburse a considerable sum for law 'barges. This incident was afterwards remembered to his prejudice. Nothing further requiring notice trans pired, with reference to the inner life at Clyde Cottage, till about a year after the marriage. The domestic supremacy of the wife was, in the main, sustained, and in one essential particular she was absolute, fhe money department she kept-strictly 'fl her own hands and t.hnre hnnnened to I . i -w rr in the house cash to over fifteen hun dred pounds, savings from his income by the deceased Mr. Ferguson. It bad been withdrawn at a moment of panic from a 'lasgow bank, and was not afterwards re placed, Mr. Ferguson having determined o invest it in house property, but no eli-' g'ble opportunity happened to present it s"if during his life. Since then several good investments had offered themselves; but Mrs. Ferguson refused, under one pre tence and another to let the money go out of her own actual possession, and steadily added to it such sums as could be spared from her husband's income. It was a foolish, costly whim, her husband urged, to keep such a sum of money lying idle. It was not, however, a matter to rouse his ire, and his wife persisted in her "foolish, costly whim", till towards the end of her first year of married life, when she be came suddenly convinced of its folly. Mrs. Ferguson admitted she had been wrong, quite wrong; the money ought to be invested in houses Glasgow houses that could pay good interest; and she and her mother diligently searched the adver tising columns of the weekly paper in search of likely-looking announcements that such properties were for saler They were always successful in finding one or more that looked likely, and the same or next day they were off together to view the houses for themselves. Ferguson, who had immense confidence in the business shrewdness of his mother-in-law, and was, besides, absorbed by his garden, upon which he prided himself almost as much as he did upon his pretty wife, never cared to accompany them. It was sufficient that he would have a say in the matter af ter they had passed a favorable judgment. They never did pass a favorable judg ment, and after visiting Glasgow once or twice a week, for two or three months to gether, they were still far off of attaining the object sought after. . Meanwhile, absorbed as Ferguson was in his amateur-gardening pursuits, he could not but become with every passing day more and more impressed by the grow ing change, not only in his wife's demeanor 4-towards himself, but in her personal appear ance. ' iter speech lost much of its tart ness, and sometimes a kind of regretful regard, of bitter self-reproach, seemed, when addressing him, to be expressed in her tone and manner. It struck him, too, that she was handsomer than ever; that her eye and cheek sparkled with brighter fire, a fresher bloom. All this, added to the feverish excitement of her general manner, hysterical bursts of weeping with out conceivable cause, especially if he 8 poke to her with more than his usual ten derness, presented her with a rare flower fresh culled from his garden, or in any other way manifested the strong constancy of his affection, greatly disquieted him. Those manifestations, Ferguson also no ticed, greatly annoyed and irritated Mrs. Forsyth, whose scowling brow and snap pish sneer had a marvelous effect in res toring Mrs. Ferguson's self control. The young wife seemed to shrink into herself, as it were, before her mother's imperious rebuke, and, from abject fear of her, to forcibly suppress emotions to which she had rashly given vent. Ferguson did not for a moment suspect that those were symptoms of a mind exci ted oy guilty passion and poignant re morse signs of a fitful, vain, felt to be vain, repentance of an irredeemable wrong done to a loving,' true, and trustful husband. So far was Mr. Ferguson f rom w suspecting, that he waited upon a celebra ted Glasgow physician, and requested him to call without delay at Clyde Cottage, as he feared that fever or other analogous dis ease was lurking in the veins of his wife, which required to be promptly checked. The physician went to Clyde Cottage and saw Mrs. Ferguson, but did not prescribe for her. Her malady was moral, not physical, he told her husband, and in such cases a high authority had long since de clared that patients must minister to them selves. The mystery was soon made plain. Mrs. Forsyth frequently received letters from Glasgow, and one afternoon, when she and Mrs. Ferguson were up-stairs making ready to set out for that city, to view, as usual, some desirable house property ad vertased for sale, a note was brought by an elderly woman, . who would insist upon giving it with her own hands to Mrs. For syth or Mrs. Ferguson it did not matter which but to one of them, or nobody else. Ferguson happened to hear the dis pute, and actuated by a vague feeling of curiosity and suspicion, stepped to the doer, ordered the servant to return quietly to the kitchen, and then desired the letter- bearer to follow him to the presence of Mrs. Forsyth. The confounded woman mechanically obeyed, and presently found herself locked into a room and alone. with Mr. Ferguson. "You must give me the letter which you were charged to deliver to Mrs. Forsyth or my wife," said he sternly. The messenger, though much frighten ed, declared she would not. The offer of a sovereign failed to induce compliance, but a threat of taking her before a magis- trateohad a more potent influence, and she finally surrendered the letter under pro test. Ferguson tore it open, ran over the lines with a glance of fire, "staggered as" death-struck," recovered himself by strong effort, and left the room, locking the door after him upon tne dismayed let- ter-onnger, and was seen no more by her. The note was a brief one : "Dearest Helen. "I send to you in haste, but by a safe hand, to say that for sundry reasons we must be off this very night, instead of three days hence, as we had agreed. Bo sure, therefore, to bring all the money with you t hi afternoon. Never mind about clothes. I shall be waiting at the old place by four o'clock at latest. Be punc tual. and believe me to be "Your faithful lover till death, "Adam Ritchik.' The note was certainly addressed to Mrs. Forsyth, and her baptismal name was the same as her daughter's (Helen) ; but there could be no doubt that the address was a blind to cover a criminal correspond ence with Mrs. Ferguson. This was the husband's conviction, and he awaited in a state of mind bordering upon frenzy the going forth of his wife and mother-in-law upon their pretended errand. He had not long to wait ; they left the house together, intending to walk to Glas gow, and ride back in the e cning by a public conveyance, which passed within a quarter of a mile of Clyde Cottage. As soon as they had gone a sufficient distanee Ferguson stealthily followed, unperceived by them, though, if they had but once looked back, they could hardly have miss ed seeing him. His desperate purpose was to surprise his faithless wife and her par amour together, slay him on the spot, and possibly her also. Suddenly it occurred to him, after reaching Glasgow, that he had provided himself with no weapon for the execution of his murderous intent ; and to enter a shop for the purchase of one would be to lose sight, in the crowded streets of Mrsj Forsyth and his wife, who were walking (very fast. Had he nothing about him that would serve his purpose? Yes; bis pruning knife a deadly, sharp pointed weapon, which he clutched with exultant ' ferocity ! Passion -tossed as he was, Ferguson had sufficient command over himself to avoid exhibiting to passers-by any external indication of the mighty rage within. He met four persons who knew him well, but not one of whom re marked anything unusual in his aspect or manner. Of course he passed them very quickly. . . Mrs. Forsyth and her daughter turned into an obscure, narrow street, (and when about half through stopped at a mean looking house, opened the street door with a pass-key, and still without looking round, disappeared within. Ferguson was up in a few strides, burst in the frail door, which had no outside lifting latch, 1 with one stroke of his foot, and was in stantly in the presence of a tall youngish man dressed as a sailor, Mrs. Ferguson and her mother. They were standing just within a near side room, , the door of which was wide open. The sailor was warmly shaking both of Mrs. Ferguson's hands in his, she and her mother having their backs toward the passage. Almost before the clasping hands could be suatched asunder, Fergu son leaped at the sailor with a scream of rage, striking wildly at him with the knife. Adam Ritchie, though taken at such a disadvantage, made fierce fight of it, and after a desperate struggle, in which he received several wounds wrested the knife from his assailant, and in return stabbed him with it in the chest. By that time the screams of the women had brought in several passers-by, who forth with secured the two combatants, both of whom were exhausted and fainting from exertion and loss of blood. During the next fortnight Ferguson lay in a dangerous state, not only from the effect of the wounds he had received, but brain fever. His final recovery was slow and fluctuating, and many weeks passed before he was in a sufficiently sound state of mind and body to bear any direct allu sion to the circumstances which had des troyed his happiness and well nigh his life. Nevertheless, all that officious and unsilenceable memory did not recall might have been told in a few words. Adam Ritchie, though he had lost a good deal of blood, was confined to his bed for about twenty-four hours only, and when called upon to explain the cause or causes which had led to the sanguinary affray, so shaped his statement that it was impossible to make out who had been the immediate aggressorhe or the jealous husband, l he women, -too, no doubt by preconcerted agreement with Ritchie, gave equally confused versions of the hght, so that all which clearly appeared was that a sudden and ferocious encounter had taken place between the two men, caused by an utterly unfounded access of jealousy on the part of Ferguson. All three asserted that Ritchie had, in fact, been courting Mrs. Forsyth not Ferguson's wife. The note which had been found in Ferguson's pock et was ' produced and read. but. as the reader will have noticed, was perfectly reconcilable with this assertion of the witnesses. There was nothing grossly im probable in the averment that a man of Ritchie's age, about twentv-six years should have courted a comely woman, who, judged by her looks, was not a year older than he. To questions as to why he did not visit openly at Clyde Cottage, and marry Mrs. Forsyth in the face of day, in stead of proposing to run off with her at night, he replied that they had no in tention of marrying, for the simple reason that Mr. Forsyth, who had been very many years separated from his wife, was believed to be still alive. They proposed living to gether as man and wife, but not to con tract a legal union till there was no chance of a prosecution for bigamy being institu ted against Mrs. Forsyth. Mrs. Ferguson bad been naturally anxious that the pro posed arrangement should be carried out in a manner that would least compromise herself and husband, as consenting parties to a connection repugnant to the moral sense of society and the law of God. The money she was requested to bring with her was Mrs. Forsyth's own, not Mr. Fer guson's, and so on. The former violent assault by Mr. r erguson upon a neighbor. at the suggestion of an utterly groundless jealousy, was, moreover, referred to as a sort of. moral confirmation of Ritchie's guiltlessness of offence towards the jeal ous, excitable husband. Such an explanation, specious as at the first blush it might appear, would upon the slightest realjnvestigation have broken down; yet, as Ritchie disappeared from Glasgow as soon as he possibly could, . ac companied, too, by Mrs. Forsyth, no doubt with the hope of confirming the concocted story in her daughter's behalf ("the money" not having been obtained), and as no one had been killed, permanently hurt, or rob bed, the affair, notwithstanding Glasgow boasted a public prosecutor, was allowed to drop. Mrs. Ferguson had returned to Clyde Cottage, and was extremely desirous of attending upon her husband during his illness. The bare sight, however, of his wife so excited the sufferer, that thelhed ical gentlemen in attendance peremptorily forbade her to even enter the sick cham ber. She remained in the house notwith standing, and when Ferguson recovered was still there, but no longer ventured to leave her bedroom. Thoroughly, shame stricken since discovering that she was several months gone with child, and un sustained by the hardened, defiant spirit of her mother, she could not muster cour age to face her betrayed husband. Nor did she make any effort, in writing or otherwise, to cajole him into a belief that Ritchie had beep courting Mrs. Forsyth, proposed flying secretly, with her, and car rying off money she never possessed. She must have felt it Would be useless to attempt doing so. Ferguson, with all the circumstances and allegations before him, was not for an instant the dupe of the audacious fiction. As soon as possible he consulted a man of 'law as to the prac tibility of obtaining a divorce. That course, it was ultimately decided, was not open to him, the evidence, legally viewed, of his wife s adultery being altogether in sufficient to support a divorce suit in the Scottish courts. That being so, Mr." Ferguson having detennined on selling his property and quitting Scotland, entered, through a law agent, into a negotiation with his wife, to whom he offered to pay, once for all, a large sum of money one thousand pounds upon condition that she subscribed a bond of perpetual separation, and solemnly admitted that the expected child was Ritchie's. Mrs. Ferguson had meanwhile left Clyde Cottage, taken lodgings in Glasgow,-and was supposed to be in corres pondence with her mother and Ritchie. Encouraged and stimulated by advice from that quarter, the shameless woman stood out for better terms, and finally obtained fifteen hundred pounds as the price i of freeing her husband, as far as she had the power of freeing him, from the fetters of matrimony. Before Mr. Ferguson could realize his property and bid a final adieu to Scotland, his wife had been delivered of a male child, and was living in open shame with Ritchie, in the immediate neighborhood of Glasgow. They cohabited only till the money was dissipated about three years when Ritchie betook himself to sea again, and was afterwards only heard of at long intervals apart and doubtfully. He was said to be engaged in the West India trade. Abandoned by Ritchie, Mrs. Ferguson and her mother reestablished themselves in a poor way as mantua-ma-kers, struggled on for a year or t wo, and then vanished, no one knew or cared to inquire -whither. The little boy, when they disappeared from Glasgow, was about five years old, and a fine robust child for that age. I have now given as succinctly as I could the substance of the facts and fancies with which Mr. Gumming, a writer to the Sig pet, upon whom I had wnited, by superior order, at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, had favored me from his very prolix notes, when a lady and young boy entered the room. Mr. Gumming rose and said: "Good morning, madam. This gentle man is a detective officer, whose services we have been advised to engage." Mr. Cumming, I should state, was the gentle man who drew up the deed of separation, twenty years before, between Mr. Fergu son and his wife. The lady, having bowed slightly, sat down with an air as if she intended to be present during the remainder of our con ference. She was a warm-corn plexioned, interest ing woman, in apparently delicate health ; and her son, a slightly-framed, intelligent boy, twelve or thirteen years of age, looked as if he had but recently recovered from severe sickness. His mother was, I after terwards knew, a French Creole ; her place of birth the Island of St. Croix, in the West Indies. She, however, spoke Eng lish with fluency. "One moment," exclaimed Mr. Cum ming, in reply to my request that he would proceed; "one moment!" He rang the bell, and directed the servant who an swered it to show Captain Hard man into that room directly he called. "He will ask for Mrs. Ferguson," added the law yer. "Mrs. Ferguson!" I exclaimed, with a sharp glance at the lady sitting a few yards off ; "Mrs. Ferguson ! J "Yes, Mrs. Ferguson," replied Mr. Cumming, with some embarrassment, whilst the rich color suffused the lady's face and neck, but. not, of course, the limb of Satan who " "I think," interrupted the lady, rising abruptly and with some haughtiness of tone, "I. think, Mr. Cumming, you can very well dispense with my presence here. You can acquaint me with the result of your consultation with the officer after he has left. Do not forget," she added, "to tell Captain Hardman I am anxious to see him before he leaves the hotel." Mr. Cumming replied that he would lie sure to deliver the message ; and the lady, with a scarcely perceptible bow to me, left the room with her son. "By the way, you must have heard of Captain Hardman?" said Mr. Cumming. "I cannot say that I have." "John Hardman, captain of the Euro pa, which was wrecked not long since on the Gal way coast." "I remember now, and that he displayed great coolness and gallantry on that occa sion." "Very much so, indeed. He will be an important member of our council, and I hope he will soon be here. I was telling you, Waters," resumed the man of law, "I was telling you, Waters, when Mrs. Fer he-em when the lady who has just left the room interrupted us. that James Ferguson, having washed his hands forever, as he believed, of the limb of Sa tan he had the misfortune to make bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, sailed first to London, thence to the West Indies, and finally settled in the Island of Jamaica. He had been there," continued Mr. Cum ming, "about six years, rather longer, perf naps, aim was prospering oeyona . ms hopes, when he received, through me, news of his wife's death. That news came to me in a whining letter from Mrs. For syth, stating that her daughter had died the day before, humbly repentant, and in a state of almost penury. The mother begged piteously for the sum of five pounds to put her daughter decently under ground, and I was ass enough to send her ten upon my own responsibility, though irhy I should have done so I cannot, for the life of me, explain to myself. By the same post as the woman's letter a Liver pool newspaper reached me, in the obitu ary of which were these lines, strongly un derlined: "Died yesterday, after a short illness, at her lodgings on Copperas Hill, Helen, wife of James Ferguson, formerly of Clyde Cottage, near Glasgow." "The ten-pound note was gratefully ac knowledged," Mr. Cumming went on to say, "ana i was informed that 31rs. For syth was about to immediately leave Liv erpool for London, taking the boy with her. I had already forwarded the woman's first letter and the newspaper to James Ferguson, and I despatched the second also. Three months afterwards I received his reply, inclosing a draft for the ten pounds, and announcing his marriage with Julie Le Maistre, of the Island of St. Croix, with whose family he had been long acquainted. We may pass over the next dozen years, during which I heard but lit tle of James Ferguson, and that casually. He continued, I was told, to prosper greatly in business, everything he touched turning to gold as it were; but unfortu nately as he grew in riches he declined in health. As nearly as may be a twelve month ago," continued the lawyer, "Fer guson returned to Scotland for the pur pose of obtaining the highest medical opinion upon his case, and with a hope that a visit to the old country might of it self prove a potent restorative. Whilst in Scotland he called frequently upon me, and as there seemed to be no hope enter tained of his permanent recovery, I, in as urgent terms as I could permit myself to use, advised him to settle his worldly af fairs without delay, as, in the event of his dying intestate, the boy by his first wife, if he were still alive and those slips of Satan never die would take all of the real property he might die possessed of, and divide the personals with the son by the second wife ; the woman's written dec laration that the child was Ritchie's avail ing nothing in law, as I had told him at the time. He promised compliance at the time, but nevertheless left for London without having made, or given instruc tions for, a will. Many persons have a strong repugnance to the making of wills. It smells too much of mortality. Ah, here's our friend Hardman! This gentleman," added Mr. Cumming, as soon as he and the bluff seaman had shaken hands, "this gen tleman is Mr. Waters, the detective offi cer, of whom you have no doubt heard. He will help us to "get at the bottom of this damnable business." Captain Hardman was polite enough to say that he had heard ine spoken favorably of, and wished me . success with all his heart, though he feared that the bottom of this particular damnable business, as his friend Mr Cumming truly called it, if it had a bottom at all, was far too deep to be reached by the most skillful soundings. "Time will show," said Mr. Cumming, "and our present object, of course, is to place our vulpine friend here in full pos session of all particulars." "I was; saying," continued the lawyer, that the late Mr. Ferguson " "Late Mr. Ferguson! He is dead, then !" interrupted I, half involuntarily. " Yesv poor fellow 1 He was a passen ger in the Europa, and was, unhappily, drowned. I. was saying," again resumed Mr. Cumming, "that the late Mr. Fergu son left Glasgow without making a will. Nor did he take any steps in the matter for some time after he reached London. The pressing necessity for doing so had, he probably believed, passed away, inas much as he wrote to Mrs. Ferguson to say that he benefitted so much by the London medical treatment that he had little doubt he should return to Jamaica a new man at the expiration of about three months, for which time he had determined to remain in England. That letter arrived in Jamaica by one mail, and with the next, taken out by the Europa, went Mr. Fer guson himself, in a state not only of ex treme physical debility, but mental dis straction; so changed, in fact, that his wife scarcely recognized him. It was in explicable at the time, but perfectly clear now. Captain Hardman observed that he, too, was much struck by the change he saw in Mr. Ferguson when he came on board the Europa to engage a passage. He had seen him three or four days previously, when he seemed to be in much improved health and excellent spirits; and there he was, a broken-spirited and an apparently dying man. "He was singularly, one might almost say childishly, sensitive where his affec tions were concerned. Besides, upon one in his feeble state an afflictive stroke takes infinitely more effect than upon a person in strong health. Upon arriving in Jamai ca," continued the lawyer, "Ferguson, in stead of going to his own place in the hills, took up his abode at the Royal Ho tel, Kingston, with his new friend Saun ders; refused the society of his wife; and, except for a few minutes at a time, and eagerly, passionately, as it were, applied himself to the task of realizing his prop erty. There was not much difficulty in that, consisting, as it almost entirely did, of sugar, tobacco and rum, of which he had been for many years a large buyer and exporter, Upon this occasion he, how ever, decided to resell in the island, his im pression being that he should not live un til the goods could be disposed of in Eng land. The important business of realization accomplished, Mr. Ferguson remitted the bulk of the proceeds to London for invest ment in consols, in which securities he was previously interested to a large amount. Next he forwarded to his wife, by Saun ders, a sealed packet, one thousand pounds in cash, and a letter, a copy of which I hold in my hand. I had better read it. " 'Beloved Julie: I send you, by my good friend Saunders, one thousand pounds, and it is my earnest request that you at once embark for France with our son. Your relatives there have long desired to see you amongst them. Place yourself, dearest, without delay under their protec tion. My days are numbered, be assured, and but few, very few, remain to me. The sealed packet contains my will. It secures everything to you and Jamie, and will ex plain all ; but do not, I beseech you, open the packet till I am no more. I am not equal, beloved Julie, to a parting inter view ; bnt that God may bless you and our child with His choicest blessings is the constant prayer, and will be the latest as piration, of your devotedly affectionate James Ferguson.' "I must pass over many things," con tinued the man of law. "Enough to say that Mrs. Ferguson did sail for Havre with her son without seeing her husband. A month afterwards Mr.' Ferguson him self embarked in the Europa, the same ship in which he had last sailed from Eng land. Mr. Saunders accompanied him." "Who is this Mr. Saunders?" I asked. "Well, Mr. Waters, that's a bit of a riddle." replied Captain Hardman. "He's a Scot and a seaman; there's no doubt whatever upon those two points. He came on board the Europa and paid for a pas sage to Jamaica on the same day. and I think an hour or two after poor Fergus son had engaged hi berth. He's an un common fair-spoken chap, and got wond derfully thick with Ferguson during the voyage out. I fancy he had known peo ple in Scotland that Ferguson did, and waj acquainted with transactions in which Ferguson, when a young man, had been mixed up. "During the voyage home," continued the captain at a gesture from Mr. Cum ming, "during the voyage home Fergu son and Saunders were scarcely ever apart, except when in their sleeping berths. Fer guson, who was very ill and weak, could not shake off a nervous apprehension that he should not live to land in England, and one day informed me that, in the event of hi 8 death taking place on board, his friend, Mr. Saunders, was authorized to take pos session of all of his (Ferguson's) effects, papers, etc. Of course, I had no right to interfere; yet, knowing as I did that Fer guson had a large sum of money with him, in bills at sight on London, I made bold to ask if Mr. Saunders was an old friend of his. "'No,' he replied, 'he is a new friend; but, I am sure, a true one. I never saw him to my knowledge till on our voyage out to Jamaica. I say to my knowledge,' added Mr. Ferguson, ' for I often fancy that I have seen or met with him some where many years ago. As he, however, has not the slightest recollection of me per sonally, it is, I dare say, merely fancy on my part.'" "Go on, Captain," said Mr. Cumming. " Well, I thought Mr. Ferguson's health his bodily health, that is seemed to be in some degree benefited by the voyage, though his mind seemed to be totally un hinged. At last, after a fine run, which brought us within three or four days of the Downs, a sudden and violent change of weather took place, we were driven out of our course, and finally wrecked upon the west coast of Ireland. The night when the catastrophe occurred was a black and bitter one; there was little, in fact, no chance of a boat reaching the shore in safety through the raging sea and surf; and I exhorted the passengers to stick by the ship, at all events, till daylight. But terror never reasons, or listens to reason. The lights on shore looked to be no further off than one might chuck a biscuit ; and a number of the passengers, amongst them Mr. Ferguson, fiercely insisted that a boat should be lowered, in which they might, at least, make an attempt to reach the shore, rather than remain to await certain death in the stranded Europa. I was busy in another part of the ship, but the first mate unfortunately yielded to their impor tunities. A boat was with great difficulty lowered, and into it God knows how ! dropped or tumbled seven panic-stricken passengers; the boat was cast off, capsized before you could count twenty, and all the seven perished miserably. "Saunders had resolutely declined ac companying his friend, Ferguson in the boat. He was, as I have said before, though dressed landsman fashion and call ing himself one, an unmistakable seaman, and consequently knew better. Well, to make this part of the story as short as possible, most of those who stuck by the wreck were got off in safety the next morning, the hurricane having by that time sensibly abated. Among those saved was Saunders, and he took off with him, secured in an oil-skin water-proof bag, which he had belted on at the first appear ance of real danger at the request, mind you, of Ferguson, made in my hearing the papers and other property, securities for money, he himself told me, that had belonged to Ferguson. During the day," added Captain Hardman; "the body, amongst others, of poor Ferguson was washed ashore, identified by me and others, and, as soon as possible, interred. Saun ders started on the morrow for London. And this, Mr. Cumming and Mr. Detect ive Waters, is all I know of the matter." "Have the money securities intrusted to Saunders been handed over by that person to the deceased gentleman's agents?" "Yes, oh yes!" said Mr. Cumming, "and that with the greatest promptitude and completeness. There is no suspicion of fraud in that direction. Mr. Saunders must have also posted without delay a brief letter, written by Ferguson to his wife, wherthe writer was in apprehension of almost immediate death. That letter, brief as it was, revealed to the distressed and astonished lady the cause of the strange conduct on" her husband's part which had so puzzled and grieved her. Whilst in London he met, by the merest accident, with his first wife alive ! The account of her death, easily inserted in the Liverpool paper upon the payment of the usual charge, had been a mere device to obtain money. Possibly an ulterior pur pose might even then have suggested it self to the eonspirators. "However that may be, the discovery was a. dagger-stroke to Ferguson in his then enfeebled state of health. " 'I have unwittingly done thee, dear est Julie,' he wrote, 'a cruel wrong, but in so far as it is possible to do so I have made amends. I, without an hour's delay, directed a will to be prepared under the advice of eminent eounscl, to whom all the circumstances were fully stated. The will, so prepared, was executed in dupli cate, one copy of which thou hast (the letter was written in French) 'in the sealed parcel; the other is in my posses sion. Thou wilt find that it leaves to Julie Le Maistre, reputed and supposed by me to be my lawful wife till the infamous deception practised upon me was discovered.- all properties and moneys of which I should die possessed for her life, and at her death to her son James, my lawfully begotten son, as I had for many happy years believed.' The letter," added Mr. Cumming, "advised the lady to apply to me in any difficulty that might arise; hence I am now here.'" "What, then, is the difficulty which I am to assist in overcoming? The will puts everything to rights, and claps, more over, an extinguisher upon a surmise that was taking fast hold of my mind." "You have not yet heard all," said Mr. Cumming. "No will has been found ; no will was delivered up with the papers which Mr. Saunders brought on shore from the Europa. More far more puzzling still Mrs. Julia Ferguson, as we may for the nonce call her, found, upon opening the sealed parcel, that it contained noth ing but blank paper." "The devil!" "The devil yes, and his angels to boot. It is certain, besides, that the said parcel has never been out of Mrs. Julia Fergu son's possession that the seals were in tact when she broke them. Can you read us this riddle, Mr. Detective Waters?" "Perhaps not; but we shall see. Of course the son by the first marriage has already claimed the property, as being the heir-at-law?" "Yes; through Messrs. Smart and Figes, a highly respectable firm. His mother read the account of the death, by drowning, of James Ferguson, formerly of Clyde Cottage, near Glasgow, and since of Jamaica, in the newspapers." "Oi course oi course, couiu you, Captain Hardman. favor us with a descrip tion of Mr. Saunders? What kind of man is he personally?" "Well, he is a tall man five feet ten or eleven ; has dark hair, tinged with grey; tanned, but once fair complexion ; sharp gray eyes; and his age is, I should say, forty-five, or thereabout." "And he who you are sure is a Scot and a seaman, you have reason to believe had known people in Scotland whom Fergu son once knew there, and is familiar with events with which Ferguson in his youth had been mixed up. Mr. Ferguson had also a dim notion that he had met Saun ders somewhere some years before. Once only I am pretty sure, and that once was when he surprised him in Glasgow with his wife, Mrs. Ferguson." "What the devil, Waters, do you mean?" shouted the Scottish lawyer, half spring ing from his chair, and glaring at mc with distended eyes. "My meaning is plain enough. This that the description given of Saunders by Captain Hardman, looked at in connec tion with the other points indicated, spell Adam Ritchie," if there is any reliance to be placed upon circumstantial orthogra phy." "By heaven, it may be, it may be so!" ejaculated Mr. Cumming. "There is a kind of likelihood about it. A Scot, a seaman, tall, the age too. Stop, we are too fast. What conceivable advantage could Adam Ritchie propose to himself in going out to Jamaica and returning with Mr. Ferguson? He could not surely fore see that the Europa would be wrecked. and Mr. Ferguson drowned?" "No; but he would see, as plainly as Captain Hardman did, that Mr. Ferguson was dying. He knew that all he had to fear was a will; and had not fortune favored him as it has done, who shall say what desperate means he might not have resorted to for the compassing of his ends? Familiar confidential intimacy with Mr. Ferguson was everything with him." "Well, but Mr. Waters, supposing that Saunders, being Adam Ritchie, has pur loined the copy of the will kept by Mr. Ferguson in his own possession, how, in the name of Beelzebub, could he abstract the copy said to be cqntained in the scaled parcel, which parcel had never left Mrs. Julia Ferguson's hands, and the seals of which were intact when she opened it?" ' "I have it here in my notes that the parcel was sent to Mrs. Julia Ferguson, as you call her, by Mr. Saunders. That worthy, of course, knew that the accom panying letter forbade her to open the par cel till after her husband's death. Mr. Ferguson's seal would be easily procura ble by Saunders, and what then so easy as to open the parcel, substitute a blank pa per for the will, remake and reseal the parcel? Tut, the whole thing is clear as daylight, always supposing Saunders to be Ritchie. The worst of it is that, if such be probably the fact, we shall be none the forwarder in no better position than before." "Why not? how not?" ' What will that fact, if it be one really, do for us? We shall be no nearer recover ing the purloined will by proving that Adam Ritchie passed himself off to Mr. Ferguson as one Saunders." " True, true. What is your game, then, or have you none?" "I don't say that yet. I hardly need ask if Saunders has disappeared, or if Adam Ritchie shows himself." "Saunders is said to be gene abroad. Ritchie we had not thought of." "You have, I presume, obtained the heir-at-law's private address" r - "He has taken up hit qurrters at the George and Blue Boar. Holborn. His mother and grandmother are both with him. Shall you call on them?" "Not at present. It occurs tov me that one or more of the trio must, ere this, have made the acquaintance of the police. I must inquire." I rose to go, Mr. Cumming not looking over pleased. The truth was, I had been bored quite as much as interested by his long, prolix narrative; and had the while, mechanically as it were, helped myself more freely than was my wont to the wine on the table. Hence my manner was not so subdued, so respectful as it might have been, and there was a crowing bounceable ness in my enumeration of, and comments upon, the very obvious points of the case which he had strangely missed, that was in bad taste, taking into account our relative social positions, and certainly not habitual with mc It was impossible to apologize in words ; but as he was evidently very desirous of success in the business before us, one reas on being, perhaps, that he had himself been duped by the newspaper artifice, I stayed my steps and said, "I believe, sir, we shall be able t trip these people's heels up yet. Ritchie, if he be Saunders and I may, after all, be mis taken on that point but if Ritchie be Saunders, and has purloined the will, he will hardly be such a fool as to place it out of his own power to compel the heir-at-law, over whom whether his natural son or not he has no legal control, to share Mr. Ferguson's wealth with him. To hold that power he must keep the will safe, and in his own immediate custody, till the plunder is divided. There lies our best chance of success; and nothing be assured, sir, shall be wanting on my part to insure it." The cloud of offended self-love vanished as I spoke from the lawyer's brow, und we parted excellent friends. I was soon in possession of all comeata ble facts in the family history of Mrs. Forsyth; but these were not of much im portance. The first thing was to find i Ritchie, and a pretty chase I was led in the endeavor to do so. An emissary, as I afterwards knew, of Mrs. Forsyth, who j early discovered who I was in search of, sent me off to Glasgow, furnished for a j consideration, with the name of the street and the number of the house in which he j was concealed. I returned from that ! fool's errand in no very amiable humor, j the reader may be sure, but all the more i thoroughly resolved to find my man if he i was above ground. I had several chances ! in my favor. The heir-at-law, who had been drunk nearly ever since Messrs. j Smart nd Figes advanced the familv ! money upon the succession which it seemed impossible to dispute, though kept strict guard over by his grandmother, more than once gave her the slip, and was cautiously tracked to various places. Nothing, how ever, came of it. I persevered, neverthe less, and the more hopefully after ascer taining, as I did beyond a doubt, that Ritchie had called upon Mrs. Forsyth and his reputed son on the very day that "Saunders" reached London from the Galway coast. At last I discovered that Mrs. Forsyth had once or twice risen up at dawn of day, and quietly left the hotel, closely wrapped up, when no one but the night-porter was about, a dull fellow who had not noticed the circumstance, or at all events had not spoken of it. A few days only elapsed before I knew that Mrs. Forsyth s early visits were made at a shoemaker's in Castle Street, Leicester Square, one Parsons, a simple fellow, whom I happened to know very well. I sent for Parsons to a tavern in the neigh borhood, and was readily supplied with all the information he could give me. He said there was a lodger in his house, who had been there for about four weeks, and called himself Bradley. He paid his way honestly, and never went out except in the evening, to smoke his pipe at the Shoulder of Mutton, an out-of-the-way public-house, not far from Newport Market. Latterly he had only been visited once or so in the week, and desperate early in the morning, by an elderly female; but when ( he first came to lodge there a stout, boisterous young fellow used to come with the said elderly female, and precious rows there used to be with them all about money, as well as he could make out. "Once," added Parsons, "once they both came in the evening when Bradley was out, marched into his room and turned everything in it topsy-turvy, ransacked the bedding, searched under the bedstead, and on the top of the tester, looked up and poked up the chimney, and turned all the drawers out. I was watching them, you must know, from a convenient peep-ing-hole, as I didn't know but what they meant to walk off with something. They didn't, however, and at last went away, growling like hungry bears. When Brad ley came home, of course I told him of the game his friends or relations, or whatever they were, had been playing upstairs; and, if you'll believe me, he fell a laughing fit to bust himself for ever so long, to think, he said, how nicely they had been disap pointed. I don't exactly like such goings on," concluded Parsons, "and only that Bradley pays regular, and is freeish with his money. I should soon give him notice to quit." If Bradley was Ritchie and Saunders, the case was now clear enough. That I point was settled by procuring Mr. Cum- minn unit Psntuin lTammin nrltrato iwpn at the gentleman as he, in serene mood sat smoking in the parlor of the Shoulder of Mutton public-house. Bradley was Saun ders, and Saunders was Ritchie: there was no further question of that. ' What should be the next step? or rather, how should it be taken? Where did Ritchie keep the will, which I had not the faintest. doubt he had purloined, and was nolding in terrorem over the heir-at-law and his avaricious grandame ! Not at his lodgings, as his mocking hilarity when he heard of the unsuccessful search testified. Yet he went nowhere, except to the Shoul der of Mutton public-house, and it was altogether unlikely that he would part for a moment with the actual possession of such an important instrument. The only conclusion I could therefore come to was, that he must have it concealed about his person sewed up, probably, beneath the lining of the rough coat he wore.' Ay, but how to ascertain if my surmise was correct or not? No magistrate would , listen for a moment to an application for a warrant to arrest and search a man upon such altogether conjectural evidence as I could offer. Time pressed, too, as Messrs. Smart and Figes were rapidly pushing on proceedings, and it was impossible to dis pute that the claimant was the true heir-at-law. But one alternative presented it self ; and after consulting with Mr. Cum ming, and obtaining his written under taking to hold me and others harmless in respect of damages in action for assault and battery, false imprisonment, &c.,that might be brought against us, it was put in practice. The thing was easily done. Two or three minutes after he emerged from the Shoulder of Mutton, Ritchie, alia Saun ders, was run violently against by a re spectably dressed man, who instantly col lared him, and shouted, " Police ! po lice!" with all his power of lungs. I and another officer were up directly, and the respectably dressed stranger roundly charged Ritchie with an attempt to rob him of his watch, which, in fact, was dangling outside the fob, as if the effort to snatch it away had failed. Of course there was nothing for it but to walk ac cused and accuser off to the nearest station-house. Arrived there, Ritchie, whom the pre posterous charge had so utterly confound ed, stunned, that he had not uttered a syllable since it was made, suddenly found his tongue, and, not satisfied with hurling volley after'volley of abuse at the accuser, fiercely attempted to fight his way out. This, of course, did not help him in the opinion of the inspector. The charge was regularly entered, signed by Charles Jones, 18 York street, Pimlico, and Adam Ritchie was a legally constituted prisoner. The decisive business of searching was next to be gone through; and Ritchie, who, finding violence of no avail, had sullenly calmed down, himself turned out his pockets. When, however, I, sudden ly pressing my hands upon his back, and feeling the crumple of parchment, ex claimed, "All right here is Mr. -Ferguson's missing will !" he dropped without a word upon the floor, as if smitten down by a thunderbolt ! The will recovered, and probate ob tained thereon, Julie le Maistre and her friends were quite satisfied, and refused to prosecute Ritchie. They were, of course, naturally averse to its being blown abroad that she had not been, however blamelessly on her part, the legal wife of Mr. Ferguson, whose name she therefore continued to bear. Upon stricter inquiry, it was found that Mrs. Forsyth's daughter was free from complicity in Ritchie's last crime, ajid that she had steadily refused, since she left Scotland, to have ' any acquaintance with him. At Mr. Cumming's suggestion, a moderate annuity was settled upon her by the lucky legatee, and it was deter mined to provide in some way for the boy. I have never heard what ultimately became of him or of Mrs. Forsyth. Ritchie, emigrated, I was told, to Aus tralia. Possibly they went with him. Foretgu Food Crop. fNew York Sun.l The agricultural outlook abroad has be come of such vital importance to this coun try that every item of news on that subject ought to be of substantial interest to the farmer, the shipping merchant, and still more so to the speculator in grain and stocks. A piece of favorable news in that line is that northern Russia lost almost all her grain crops that were not gathered by the 20th of September last. Since that date snow storms have prevafted, through out the northern half of the immense em pire, and it is only the southern half of it that will be able to bring its full quota of wheat to the foreign markets. On the other hand, the best authorities on agri cultural topics in Great Britain agree that the change in the weather about the mid dle of this month has been highly favor able to agricultural pursuits. The soil all over the United Kingdom has immensely benefited by the copious rains of recent date. As this was the time for wheat sow ing, large breadths havebeen planted with that cereal. The agricultural prospects in the other parts of Europe arc as fair as they are in Great Britain, and the bread stuffs in store exceed almost everywhere the probable demand for them for months to come. Liability of Bank Stockholder. New York Herald. An important question, touching the lia bility of the holders of national bank stock has just been decided for the first time by the United States Circuit Court in Illinois. In the case before the court a shareholder of a bank that had failed was sued by a creditor of the bank. While the suit was pending the shareholder died and the pro ceedings were continued against his ad ministrator. The latter set up the defence that the liability of a national bank share holder does not survive against his estate. The court overruled the demurrer. "My view," says Judge Blodgett, "is that Con gress intended to give all persons dealing with the bank the guarantee or assurance of this shareholder's liability for the pur pose o"f giving credit to the banks organ ized under the law. ' The capital paid in on shares might be lost or wasted by fraud or bad management, but this additional shareholder's liability could not be wasted, but remains as a fund to be resorted to for the payment of debts when the other means of payment are exhausted, and it would certainly very much abridge this security if the liability of a shareholder is to cease with his death. It seems to mc to be a liability which survives against the estate of a deceased shareholder." A New Wenleyan Saint. Pall Mall Budget.l It has often been pointed out how the modern novel has succeeded to the moral influence which was enjoyed by.the drama in the days of ancient Greece,- and has even usurped no small share of the func tion of the preachers in later times. A remarkable instance of the fact is afforded by the case of the new saint who, it ap pears, is about to be added to the Wesley an calendar. The Wesleyans at Works worth are going to remove from their old chapel where Elizabeth Evans, the proto type of Dinah Morris in "Adam Bede," preached many years.' The new chapel, which is to be called Bcde Memorial Chapel, is "to be erected to the glory of God and in memory of Elizabeth Evans, immortalized as Dinah Morris by George? Eliot in her novel of 'Adam Bede.'" The privilege of canonization has pnssed from the Church to the novelists. V
The Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 5, 1884, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75