A DREADFUL SCENE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5364, 25 January 1879, Page 7

A DREADFUL SCENE.

A late Now York letter says : —In a sijn ilul, wretched apartment, occupied by a negro woman, in one of the poorest quarters°of Newark, N".J., there was ductal at three o'clock this morning ns intensely dramatic a scene as any ever witnessed 011 the sfc«ge. Three persons were in the room at the time —Auntie Malain, the nogress ; Dickson Gardner, a coal-black negro, who has a wife and children, and Mizabeth Mnran, a white Irish girl. The latter was on her deathbed —in fact, almost drawn;' her last breath. ■She was a strangely, beautiful girl—small, lithe and willowy"framed, with thatstrikin" face which is only to be met with in the purest typos of Irish beauty. She had been employed as a domestic in a boardiug-house in Newark, whore Gardner acted as butler By some means ho had effected her ruin, ami last Monday she gavo birth to a child. 'During Tuesday night it rained frighttully yet Gardner removed her from tho Lou,e in which the acconchmrnt oceurre 1 to -Uiutie Malain s room, a few blocks distant. The exposure to the inclemency of the weather and subsequent neglect—for there was uo one at her side to give her even a drink of water —t dd upon the ponr qirl, and she gradually sank, till her death became but a question of time. At ten o'clock last night Gardner entered her room and sat by her side on the bed. Auntie Alalaiu was there too, and together they watched tho sands of the wronged girl's life slowly but surely slipping away. She never spoke, and secemd utterly üblivous of their presence, uutil three o'clock this morning, when she lixtd her glassy eyes upon the negro. In a moment she seemed imbued with the strength of a giantess. The wasted cheeks Hustled, tho wan form quivered with emotion, t!ic glassy eyes soiutilluted with auger, and springing up on her miserable pallet, she seized the startled uegro by the throat in a vice-like grip. " You black devil !" she hissed ; "you fiend iucaruate : ISow t hat I've got you I'll hold 011 to you, and drag you down, down, down, to the hell to which you have scut me. Curses on you ! you devihsh houud ! May your every breath prove a torture to you I May you bestrickeu down with every ill! May your life be embittered, aud may you one day roast in tlio Haines to which 1 am goiug ! Vou monster ! Do you ever hope fur pardon '! Do you think God can forgive my ruin at your hands? ISo ! Curses blaek aud deep, on you ! No, uo, uo !" and she shrieked the last words in a pei feet frenzy. The exertion was too much for her, aud, relaxing her grip upon the throat of the halfaulTouated negro, she fell back, dead, upon tiie pillow, wnile the black betrayer ruslied from the room with bis eyes fairly starting from their sockets.