THE OLD, OLD STORY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 193, 9 September 1889, Page 4

THE OLD, OLD STORY.

An old woman whose recorded name need not be given, beoause it is only assumed, and that whioh the law entitles her to bear ia well forgotten, appeared at the Police Oourt dtiring last weßk on a oharge of vagrancy, and waa sent to gaol for six monthi— her fiftyoeoond oonviotion! What a reoord of sin and shame 1 What a pioture of degradation the unfortunate wretoh presented. She was pointed out to me the day before har arrest, and her story told me. Troth is as strange as fiction in her oase, and the faota as told me— and as they are— do not materially differ from "those related by Ouida in " Held in Bonrfittge." Let me give yoa a sketch of the sad records. It is over thirty years ago that a young squatter in Victoria married. one of the fairest daughters of New South Wales, and took her to a beautiful home on the Werribee Biver. The lady's health became delioate, and she frequently 1 visited friends in Melbourne, her husband hoping that the ohanges would do her good, Alter a time it beoame evident that she was very unhappy, and ultimately she declined to live at Werribee longer, and to please her,' her husband consented to live in Melbourne. ißttt this necessitated frequent visits by him _to thp station. On his return on one occasion he reoeived some news whioh had a very ' disquieting effeot upon him. It waß an accusation against his wife's fidelity. He felt that there was an enstrangement of . her. affections, but in the absence of any .proof of. impropriety, said nothing. On one .ogpasion, when at Werribee, he was suddenly called to Melbourne. He found his home 'deserted— his wife had fled, whither he knew not. For ten years he did not ascertain where she had gone — he knew-with , "Whom,, and made no enquiry. She was . gone— was dead to him. Ten years after he: saw a drunken woman picked up in. ; Sussex Btreet, Sydney, and as the police dragged her past he saw her face. It was his wife, still beautiful, but drunken, d.bauched, dissolute. She had been da-' sorted a few months after her flight, and her paramour, an opera singer, 'had gone to England. The husband, through those long bitter years 'had borne the iron in his soul without one word, followed the police to the Btation, bailed the woman out, sent her to lodgings, and, though never speaking one wofd to her, allowed her £3 per week during such time as she abstained from flagrant im* morality. The payments were not for long, . as within, three months the woman had returned to a life of infamy in the lowest I. streets in Sydney. Ten years ago she came to Queensland. Like Fantine, -God's part in her has long since been battered out, and now, over fifty years of age, she is one of the most depraved and wretched looking of the loathsome beings who lie drunk of nights | in the cold and dews on North Quay. All refinement has gone from her,* Bhe is just a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, bedraggled demirep. And her husbaad? The . Irijidly finger of death was laid upon hina fifteen years ago. He never recovered the •hock, the terrible disgrace, his irreparable : ctwhenor.— _?_/m_tn_* Times.