New York Dispatch

A SAD STORY.

A FOOLISH LOVE ENDING IN SIN

[From the Evansville (Ind.) Journal]

Near Indianapolis, in Marion county, lives a family by the name of Hugkes. In the Fall of 1873, a young girl of the family, who was then only about 19 years old, was sent to a school near Philadelphia. During the Christmas holidays that Winter the young girl visited some friends residing in Philadelphia, and there met a young man, and the two conceived a violent attachment for each other, which in two weeks ended in an avowal on his part, and being accepted, he wrote to the young lady's parents for their consent to the union. To this he received a negative answer, giving as a reason the youth of the girl and the suddenness of the attachment. The lovers were sadly disappointed, at least he pretended to be; but of this the reader can judge further on. The young man persevered in his protestations, and before the Winter was over they had determined to elope and be married, in spite of the parental opposition. Accordingly, in May last, the young man went to the school, and one night they eloped and were married the next day. They went to live in Reading, where the husband failed to get steady employment, and at last left her to try his fortunes again in Philadelphia, promising to bring her on as soon as he was able. He went, and for two weeks the young wife looked in vain for a letter, or any reminder that she was remembered. She had no money, and at length, in despair, she started to Philadelphia, through the assistance of friends, to search for the truant husband. Arriving there, she found that her friends had removed, and she sought in vain for her husband. She looked for employment, but having been educated for other ends, she was unable to do any manual work, and found every avenue to the lighter occupations closed against her. Week after week passed, and she found starvation approaching nearer, and temptation looked luridly over her shoulder, until at last, in an hour of despair and grief, she gave up hope and entered upon a life of shame. What misery and anguish enveloped her soul we can only imagine, but when the poor girl had earned in her accursed life the money necessary to return to the home she had dishonored, she could not find it in her heart to face the parents she had betrayed and the friends she had forsaken. Driven thus to the very verge of despair she gave up all hope of ever again going home, and determined to lead the terrible life forced upon her. Through the guidance of circumstances she finally drifted to Evansville, and became an inmate of one of the houses of ill-repute in the lower part of the city. Here she has lived for some months under an assumed name. During Christmas week her brother, unaware of the terrible vicinity of his fallen sister, came down here to visit friends. On Monday night, in company with a companion, he visited the house in question. While in the parlor, surrounded by a bevy of lewd women, a door opened and another girl entered. The sensual laugh faded from his lips, his face grew deadly pale, for the young man beheld his own sister, the shameless inmate of this low haunt. The sister did not perceive her brother at first, but as a dead hush fell on all she looked at him, and her heart gave vent to its anguish in a thrilling scream, and she fainted away. The inmates of the place strove to restore her, and the brother having told one of them the frightful truth, they thoughtfully left the room, and the poor victim was left to the ministrations of her brother. What passed we cannot say, but the poor girl, overcome with shame and mortification, refused to leave her unholy life and return to her father's and the brother was forced to leave her for the night still in the haunt of vice and shame. The next morning he sought the police, and one of the force went to the house with the brother, and by dint of persuasion and threats induced her to return with him; and then, the happiness of the relief coming to her in full, she burst into tears, threw her arms around her brother, and, sobbing on his shoulder, swore that she would hereafter be better and purer.