Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1879 — A Modern Romance. [ARTICLE]

A Modern Romance.

Who says that the days of romance are ended needs to read the strange history of a Scottish plowman who has returned to his native heath after a long exile. Twenty years ago a farmer in Orkney hired a young man to do farm work. The plowman touched the fancy of his master’s daughter, and the result was that, in a runaway fashion, and in opposition to the will of the patriarchal farmer, the two became man and wife. The old gentleman was furious, and turned his back determinedly oil his son-in-law. The young plowman kissed his wife, left her in her father’s arms and sailed for Australia, whence he soon ceased to write. His wife became a mother, and remaine in a state of such wretched suspense that her father began to repent of the treatment to which he had subjected her husband. Efforts were then made to trace the whereabouts of the latter by means of advertining in colonial papers and otherwise, put all to no purpose. He had gone to America. Years passed. The grandson grew up to manhood, and, not liking farm work, bade adieu to Orkney, took ship last year to the United States, and, after some knocking about, found employment in a mercantile house in Illinois. In the course of business he discovered that the gentleman at the head of the firm was a native of Scotland, hailing, indeed, from the same district as himself. Occasional meetings led to more minute inquiries as to dates, names of places, persons and the like, in the old country, and, after being six months in the establishment, the youth found—however wonderful it may appear—that he was actually serving as a clerk with no other than his own father. The effect of this discovery on both may be left to the imagination of the reader. Father and son are now in Scotland. The in an who went away a penniless plowboy, but returns rich, has been welcomed

with much emotion by his venerable fatker-in-law, who is still hale and hearty, as well as by the wife whom he left many years ago in her youth and beauty, but who is now a middle-aged matron.— New York Tribune.