Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1877 — A Melancholy Blight. [ARTICLE]

A Melancholy Blight.

The ease of Miss Ida V. Branch, of Smithfield, Isle of Wight county, Virginia, was a very touching and melancholy one. She was twenty-three years of age and a girl of extraordinary beauty and good culture. She was engaged to marry a young neighboring farmer, with the consent of both sets of parents, and a bright future seemed in store for her. But there came u blight over her life and hopes before the day set for her nuptials. In January last the appearance of Miss Branch changed very perceptibly. Her watchful father become suspicious that she had become improperly intimate with her betrothed. He charged her bluntly with this impropriety. She indignantly denied it, but felt greatly distressed at having aroused such suspicions. The blight was coming upon her. The suspicions among the loved.ones at home grew stronger, and Miss Branch was finally sent away from home to her sisters. Her condition was such that her father deemed a medical examination necessary. The examining physician confirmed the dark suspicions which hung like a cloud over the family. The girl protested her innocence despite the verdict of the doctor.— There might be a mistake. Doctors sometimes disagree. Another physician of skill was, called. The examination revealed the presence of an ovarian tumor. It was ahnostcertain death, but the poor girl rejoiced at. it. She began to live again in the esteem of her friends, The tumor grew so rapidly, that an operation was found necessary and she was removed to a Baltimore hospital. She consented to it as a last hope, and requested that if she died a post mortem examination might be made in order to establish her purity and innocence. The tumor weighing forty-four pounds was removed, and the poor girl died in less than twenty-four hours.