FREAKS OF REJECTED LOVERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10785, 24 October 1895, Page 2

FREAKS OF REJECTED LOVERS.

(Tit Eds.) To become the rejected of variable woman is an experience calculated to drive the iron doap into the soul of susceptible man 5 and, it may be added, the knowledge that for his grievance there is no redress does not tend to make him any the more reconciled to his fate. A repulse of this kind sometimes not only embitters the remainder of _tho victim’s days, but leads him into actons which suggest that hia head is affected as well as his heart, as was the case with a Lancashire gentleman who died a short time ago. Tears before he had been jilted by a young woman to whom he was engaged, with the result that he became a womanhater, and made, a vow never to speak to one again. Being a man of some means, he bought a house in a secluded part of the county,; where he lived quite alone until his death, totally avoiding females, and as far as possible his own sex as well. One cannot help deploring a life wasted in the peculiar manner just described, but at any rate there was nothing unmanly or meanly vindictive about it, as there was in the course pursued by another discarded lover of a very different type. He was much enraged on receiving hie dismissal, and finding threats of no avail, commenced a spiteful course of annoyance, which took the form of sending libellous post-cards to the young lady’s friends and acquaintances. This went on for some time, and finally came to tho knowledge of her father, who promptly interviewed the cowardly detainer, and loft him a sadder and a sorer man. It was only by sending an abject apology to each' of the recipients of ’ his 'slanderous post-cards that the rash lover escaped still more serious consequences. Clergymen of all grades seem to possess an extraordinary attraction for the fair sox, and seldom, indeed, is one known to be jilted. A certain curate in the north of England, however, once had that very disagreeable experience, hia fickle fiancee being the daughter of a widow, who could boast of no mean charms herself.

The young couple had kept the fact of their engagement to themselves, and, as the young lady would give no reason for her determination to break it off, her lover decided to test her feelings by paying assiduous court to her mother. But the daughter showed not the smallest sign of relenting, even when the curate became mote attentive than ever to her parent; and the local gossips soon started a rumour of an approaching marriage between the widow and her clerical admirer. It only remains to be said that the latter, realising that he had gone too far to draw back, accepted the situation, and wedded the mother, instead of the daughter, who could scarcely have anticipated such a curious sequel to her own engagement. A abort time since a young lady applied to a London magistrate for protection from annoyance at the hands of an unappreciated lover, who persisted in thrusting his unwelcome attentions upon her. Wherever she went he followed, and remained outside the house, day and night, calling out her name, and thus causing her much worry and unpleasantness, besides depriving her of hours of necessary sleep. She explained that she was pestered in this manner when she went on the Continent, as well as when at home, her persecutor dogging her footsteps at all times and making her life a burden to her. The magistrate. promised to have her complaint investigated, and it is to be hoped the annoyance was put an end to. A young woman who resided in one of the suburbs of Paris , was recently made to feel how very disagreeable a rejected admirer can become. She was engaged to be married to the man of her choice, but was much perturbed on receiving letters, threatening her with all sorts of terrible consequences if the contemplated union took place. The missives were embellished with clumsy drawings of coffins, daggers, skulls, and cross-bones, but the writer was careful to give no clue to his identity, witb which, however, h|s victim must have been pretty well acquainted. At any rate, the threats did not have the desired effect, 1 and arrangements for the wedding wer« in progress when the front of the establishment in which the prospective bride was employed was wracked by the erploaion of a dynamite cartridge which had been placed in the basement. Notwithstanding the circumstances, the outrage could not be brought home to the perpetrator, who therefore escaped the punishment he so richly deserved.

Vary peculiar was the manner in which a young Yorkshireman, who had been discarded for a more wealthy rival, evinced his sense of the treatment mated out to him. In view of what had taken place, he was surprised and annoyed to receive an invitation to the wedding, and decided to attend in the character more in keeping with hia own feelings than with the gay and festive nature of the occasion.

When the eventful day arrived, he carefully arrayed himself in a brand now suit of deep black, with gloves and tie of corresponding hue, and drove to the church in a mourning coach drawn by two black horses. His arrival, at the same time as some of the gaily attired wedding party put in an. appearance, caused no small sensation amongst the onlookers, whose astonishment was still greater when they saw the gloomy vehicle, with its sombrelyclad occupant, take up a position in the procession homewards after the ceremony had been performed.

Women do not; as a rule, show much outward and visible resentment when jilted; but when they show it at all, it is usually in a fierce and violent form. A short time ago a woman was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for throwing vitriol at a lover who had forsaken her for another.

Her object was to “ spoil his looks,” ia winch she partially succeeded, but tho fair sex in general, when they do resort to the law courts, bejjr thoir sorrow silently—and console themselves with a fresh object for their affections;