TRAGIC DEATH-BED PLEDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1922, Page 19

TRAGIC DEATH-BED PLEDGE.

To what extent is a son or daughter morally bound by a promise exacted by a dying parent when that promise conflicts with the natural laws of life and love?

This is the question raised by an extraordinary murder case in the State of Wisconsin, where Hartwell Farwell. an elderly farmer and chnrch leader, is awaiting tnai on his own confession that he killed the fiance of his sister Alice, who is 53 yeara old.

It appears that on his death-bed their father, holding the hands of Hartwell and Alice, made them promise that they wouiu never marry, for reasons he did not divulge.

At length she had a suitor, Philip Hioston, whose affection she reciprocated. But for ten long years she resisted his entreaties to marry him.

Then, in the "yonth of old age." reviewing her wasted life, she promised to marry him. nartwell was sternly obdurate. He reasoned with her that their promise to their dead father was a sacred thin?. Hut his sister had made up her mind, and told him. between her sobs, that she would hecome Mrs. Houston before the week was

I That night away in the fields two burn— lg hayricks Teddened the sky. The next morning the charred body of Philip Houston was found in the ashes. But it was not en charred as to hide the fact tout '-- '-■•d been murdered.