iff ir&Aif vr j ssjj mum Vj sum, hik w rpuT&m 7? "Ml'?, V: "!!' fir " (. VOL. XI. THE TIMES. 4b Independent Family Newspaper, is ruBLtsnao bteiit Tuesday rt T. MOliTlMEtt & CO. ' Subscription Price. Within the County, $1 2r " ' ' Hit months 7fi Out of the County, Ini'tinllnn postage, 1 6(1 - ." " six mouths T' IS ' Invariably In Advance I ta- Advertising rates furnished upon apuli eatlon. YAWOOJJ STItATJHS. , . I1T CHARLES r. ADAMS, I baf von faany leodle poy, Not gomes schust to mlno knee ; Der queerest s chap, der Greatest rogue As efer you dtt see ; Be runs, und sehnmps, und scbmashea dings In all barts of der house But tot off dot t be vas mine son, ' Mine leedle Tawcob Strauss. He get der measles und der mumbs, Und eferyding dot's oudt He spills mine glass of larger bier, Foot scbnnff indo mine kraut He fills mine pipe mit Limburg cheese Dot vas der roughest chouse; I'd dake dot rrom no Oder poy But leedle Tawcob Strauss. He dakes der milk ban for a durum, Und cuts mine cane in dwo, To make der scbtlcks to beat It mlt Mine eraclous, dot vas drue t I dinks mine bed vas scbpllt abart, He kicks oup soocb a touse But nefer mind, der poys vas few Like dot young Yawcob Strauss. lie asks me questions sooch ss dose t Who baints mine nose so red t Who vas it cuts dot schmoodth blace oudt Vrom der balr upon mine bed I Und There der plate goes rrom der lamp Veae'er der glim 1 douse How (an I all dose dings eggsblaln To dot scbmall Tawcob Strauss, N3SW BLOOMFIISLID, IJA.., TUESDAY, MTYItCII 27, 1877. I somedlmns dink I schall go vlld Mlt sooch a grazy poy, Und visa Tonce more I gould haf rest Und beaceful dimes enshoy , But Ten he vas ashleep In ped, So guiet as a mouse, I prays der Lord, "dake anydlngs' But leaf dot Tawcob Btrauss." A WOMAN'S VOW. A LAWYER'S STORY. ONE OF THE MOST CUIUOL'S case that ever came under my no tice Id a long course of criminal practice was tiot brought Into any court, and, as I believe, baa never been published until now. The details of the aflUlr came under my personal cognizance In the following manner: In 1868 I went down into the Shenan doah volley to Bpend my summer vaca tion among the innumerable Pages, Marshalls, and Cookes, who all hailed me as cousin, by right of tradlonal in termarriages generations back. My first visit was to the house of McCormack Beardsley, n kinsman and school-fellow whom I had not seen since we parted at the university twenty years ago. , We were both gray-haired old fellows now, but I had grown thin and sharp in the courts of Baltimore and Washing ton, while he had lived quietly on his plantation, growing more fat and jovial and genial with ever.y year. Beardsley posseted large means then, and maintained the unlimited hospitali ty usual among large Virginia planters before the war. The house was crowded during my stay with old friends from the valley and southern counties. His daughter, too, was not only a beauty, but a favorite among the young people, and brought many attractive, well bred girls about her, and young men who M ere not so attractive and well bred. Lack of occupation and a definite career had reduced the sons of too many Virginia families at that time to cards and horses as their sole pursuits ; the war, while it left them penniless, was in one sense their salvation. One evening, sitting on the veranduh with Beardsley, smoking, and looking in the open windows of the parlor, I noticed a woman who sat apart, and who, as I fancied, was avoided by the younger girls. In a Virginia country party there are always two or three unmarried women, past their first youth, with merry blue eyes, brown holr.and delicate features women "with a history," but who are none' the less good dancers, riders, and able to put all their cleverness into the making of a pie or a match for their cousins. This woman was blue-eyed and brown haired but she had none of the neat, wide awake self possession of her class. She had a more childish expression, and spoke with a more timid uncertainty, than even Lottie' Beardsley,' who was still In the school room: I called my host's attention to her, rind asked who she was. ; ' ' ' " It is the daughter of my cousIn.Oert eral George Waring. - You remember him, surely of the Henrico branch of Warlngs?"' ! . . ' " Certainly. But he had only one child Louisa ; and I remember receiv ing an invitation to her wedding yeurs ago." ' ' "Yes. This Is Louisa; The wedding never took place. It's an old story," he said, after a pause, " and the truth is, Floyd, I brought the girl here while you were with us in the hope that you, with your legal acumen, could solve the mys tery that surrounds her. I'll give you the facts to-morrow it's impossible to do it now. But tell me, in the mean time, how she impresses you, looking at her as a lawyer would at a client, or a a prisoner on trial. Do you observe any thing peculiar in her face or man ner?" " I observed a very peculiar manner lu all those alM)ut her an ellbrt at cor diality in which they did not succeed ; a certain constraint in look and tone M-hlle speaking to her. I even saw it in yourself Just now as you mentioned her name." "You did? I'm sorry for that ex ceedingly sorry I" anxiously. "I be lieve in Louisa Warlug's innocence us I do in that of my own child; and if I thought she was hurt or neglected in this bouse But there's u cloud on the girl, Floyd that's a fact. It don't amount even to suspicion. If It dld.one could argue it down. But- Well, What do you make of her her face now?" " It is not an especially clever face,nor one that Indicates power of any kind ; not the face of a woman who of her own will would be the heroine of any remark able story. I should Judge her to have been a few years ago one of the sensible, light hearted, sweet tempered girls of whom there are so many in Virginia ; a nice housekeeper, and one who would have made a tender wife and mother." " Well, well ? Nothing more ?" . "Yes. She has not matured into womanhood as such girls do. She looks as if her growth In everyday experience had stopped years ago ; that while her body grew older her mind had halted, Immature, incomplete. A grief .might have had that effect, or the absorption of all her faculties by one sudden . mas tering idea." " You are a little too metaphysical for me," said Beardsley. "Poor Lou isn't shrewd by any means, and always gives me the feeling that she needs care and protection more than most women, If that Is what you mean." " There is a singular expression in her face at times," I resumed. "Ahl Now you have it," he mut tered. " Sitting there in your parlor, where there is certainly nothing to dread, she jhas glanced behind and about her again una again and again, as though she heard a sound that frightened her. I observe, too, that when any man speaks to her,she fixes on him a keen, suspicious look. She does not have it with women. It passes quickly, but it is there. It is precisely the expression of an Insane person, or a guilty one dreading arrest." " You are a close observer, Floyd. I told my wife that we could not do better than submit the whole case to your Judgment. We are all Lou's friends In the neighborhood ; but we cannot look at the matter with your legal experience and unprejudiced eyes. Come, let us go In to supper now." The next morning I was summoned to Beardsley's "study," (so called proba bly from the total absence of either book or newspaper,) and found himself and his wife awaiting me, and also a Doctor Scheffer, whom I had previously noticed among the guests a gaunt, hectic young man, apparently on the high road to death, the victim of an ; incurable con sumption. : " I asked William Scheffer to meet us here," said Mr. Beardsley, " as Louisa Waring was an inmate of his father's house at the time of the occurrence. She and William were playmates together. I believe I am right, William. , You knew all' the circumstances ' of that terrible night?" . ; The young man's heavy face changed painfully, "Yes'; as much as was known to any one but Louisa, and the guilty man, whoever he Mas. But why are you dragging ' out ' that wretched affair?" turning angrily ' on 'Mrs. Beardsley.' " Surely, any friend of Miss Waring's Mould try to bury the past for her.", . . . "No," said the lady calmly. "It has been buried quite too long, in myopinlon; for she has carried her burden for six years. It is time now that we should try to lift It for her. You are sitting In a draught, William. Sit on this sofa." Scheffer, coughing frightfully and complaining with all the testiness of a long humored invalid, m ob disposed of at last. Beardsley began : ; "The story is briefly this. Louisa, before her father's death', 'was engaged to be married to Colonel Paul Merrlok' (Merrlcks of Clarke couuty, you know.) The wedding was postponed for a year when General Waring died, and Louisa went to her uncle's your father, Wil liam to live during that time. When the year M'ns over, every preparation was made for the marriage; Invitations were sent to all the kinsfolk on both sides (and that Included three or four counties on a rough guess,) and we the immediate family were assembled at Major Schefler's preparing for the grand event, when " Beardsley became now excessively hot and flurried, and getting up, thumped heavily up and down the room. "After all, there Is nothing to tell. Why should we bring In a famous law yer to sit in Judgment on her as if the girl were a criminal ? She only did, Floyd, what women have done since the beginning changed her mind without reason. Paul Merrick was as clever and lovable a young fellow as you M'ould find In the State, and Louisa was faith ful to him she's faithful to him yet ; but on the night before the wedding she refused to marry him, and has persisted in the refusal ever since, without assign ing a cause." " Is that all of the story ?" I asked. Beardsley was silent. "No," said his wife gently; "that is not all. I thought McCormack 's courage would fall before he gave you the facts. I shall try to tell you " " Only the facts, If you please,witbout any inference or opinions of others." The old lady paused for a moment,and then began : " A couple of days before the wedding we went over to Major Bcheffer's to help prepare for it. You know we have no restauranteurs nor confectioners, to de pend upon, and such occasions are busy seasons. The gentlemen played whist, rode about the plantation, or tried the Major's wines, while indoors we, all of us married ladles and girls, and a dozen old aunties were at work with cakes, creams and pastry. I recollect I took over our cook, Prue, because Lou fancied nobody could make such wine jelly as hers. Then Lou's trousseau was a very rich one, and she M an ted to try on all of her pretty dresses that we might see how " " My dear,"" Interrupted Mr. Beards ley, this really appears irrelevant to the matter " " Not at all. I wish Mr. Floyd to gain an idea of Louisa's temper and mood at that time. The truth is she was passion ately fond of her lover, and very happy that her marriage was so near ; and being a modest little thing, she hid her feeling under an Incessant, merry chatter about dresses and jellies. Don't you agree with me, William?" The sick man turned on the sofa Mith a laugh, which looked ghastly enough on his haggard face. . " I submit, Aunt Sophh that it is hardly fair to call me in as witness In this case. I waited on Lou for two or three years, Mr. Floyd and she threw me over for Merrick. It is not likely that I was an unprejudiced observer of her moods just' then." " Nonsense, William. I knew that was but the idlest flirtation between you, or I should not have brought you here now," said his aunt. " Well, Mr. Floyd, the preparations were all completed on the afternoon before the wedding. Some of the young people had gathered in the library Paul Merrick and bis sisters and you was there, William ?" "Yes, I was there." " And they persuaded Lou to put on her dress and veil to give us a glimpse of the bride. I think it was Paul who wished it. He was a hot, eager young fellow; and he was anxious to taste his happiness by anticipation. It was a dull, gusty afternoon in October. I re member the contrast she made to the gray, cold day, as she came in shy and blushing, and her eyes sparkling, in her haze of white, and stood in front of the window. She was so lovely and pure that we were all silent. It seemed as if she belonged then to her lover alone,and none of us had a right to utter a word. He went up to her, but no one heard what he said, and then took her by the hand and led her reverentlv to the door. Presently I met her coming out of her chamber In a cloak. Her maid Abby was inside, folding the M-hite dress and veil. 'I am going down to Aunt Hul dalB,' Lou said to me. ' I promised her to come again before I was married and NO. 13. tell her the arrangements all over one more." Huldah was an old colored wo man, Lou's nurse, who lived down on the creek bank and had long been bed ridden. I remember that I said to Louisa that her M'alk would bo long and lonely, and told her to call Paul to accompany her. She hesitated a moment, and then turned to the door, saying Huldah would probably be In one of her fune real moods, and that she would not have Paul troubled on the eve of his wedding day. She started, running and looking back with a laugh, down the hill." Mrs. Beardsley faltered and stopped. "Go on," said Dr. Heheffer. "The Incidents which follow are all that really affect Louisa's guilt or innocence." ' "Go on, mother," said Beardsley has tily. " Louisa's innocence is not called In question. Ilemember that. Tell everything you know without scruple." The old lady began again In a lower voice: " We expected an arrival that afternoon Houston Simms, a distant kinsman of Major Bcheffef'B. He was from Kentucky a large owner of blood ed stock and was on his way home from New York, where his horses had just won the prizes at the fall races. He had promised to stop for the wedding, and the carriage had been sent to the station to meet him. The station as you know, is five miles up the road. By some mistake the carriage was late, and Hous-' ton started, with his valise In his hand, to walk to the house, making a short cut through the woods. When the car riage came back empty, and the driver told this to usvsome of the young men started down to meet the old gentleman. It was then about four o'clock, and growing dark rapidly. The wind, I recollect, blew sharply, and a cold rain ' set in. I went out on the long porch, and walked up and down,feeling uneasy and annoyed at Louisa's prolonged ab sense. Colonel Merrick, who had been looking' for her all through the house, had just leai ned from me where she had gone, and was starting with umbrellas to meet her, when she came suddenly up to us, crossing the , ploughed field, not from the direction of Huldah 's cabin but from the road. We both hurried toward her; but when she caught sight of Colonel Merrick she stopped short, putting out her hands with a look of terror and misery quite indescribable. 'Take me away from him! Oh, for God's sake I" she cried. I saw she had suffered some great shock, and taking her in my arms, led her in, motioning him to keep back. She was so weak as to fall, but did not faint, nor lose con sciousness for a single moment. All night she lay, her eyes wandering from side to side, as in momentary expectancy of the appearance of some one. No ano dyne had any effect on her every nerve seemed strained to its utmost tension. But she did not speak a word except at the sound of Colonel Merrick's voice or step, when she would beg piteously that he should be kept away from her. To ward morning she fell into a kind of stupor, and M-hen she awoke appeared to be calmer. She beckoned to me, and asked that her uncle Scheffer and Judge Grove, her other guardian, should be sent for. She received them standing, apparently quite grave and composed. She asked that several other persons should be called in, desiring, as she said, to have as many witnesses as possible t what she was about to make known. ' You all know,' said she, ' that this was to have been my wedding day. I wish you now to bear witness that I refuse to day or at any future time to marry Paul Merrick, and that no argument or per suasion will induce me to do so. And I wish,' raising her hand to keep silence ' I wish to say publicly that it is no fault or ill doing of Colonel Merrick's that has driven me to this ' resolve. I say this as in the sight of Almighty God.' Nobody argued, or scarcely, iudeed, spoke to her. Every one saw that she was physically u very ill woman ; and it was commonly believed that she bad received some Hidden shock which had unhiuged her mind. An hour afterward the searching party came in (for the young men, not finding Houston Kimma had goue out again to search for him.) They had found his dead body concealed In the woods by Mill's spring. You kuow the place. There was a pistol shot through the head, and a leathern pocket book, which had apparently contained money, was found empty a few feet
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