Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1910 — HAPPENINGS IN THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS IN THE CITIES

Mourns for His Mythical Sweetheart

SOUTHINGTON, Conn. When George P. Osborne, the village watchmaker, came into the court of Judge Thomas P. Walsh the other day to face William A. Barnes, he wore a bit of black bound about his hat, emblem of mourning for the death of a sweetheart who had never lived. He had loved her and worshiped her, as is only possible to a shy and wistful bachelor to whom dreams are more than realities. He was there to testify against his neighbor, Barnes, for swindling him out of his savings for fourteen years by playing on his imagination with a mythical “Marjorie Daw,” but it was not that he cared for the money that was gone. He would gladly have forgiven Barnes the financial fraud if he could have given him back the dead sweetheart who had never lived. Barnes and Osborne had been cronies all their lives. Osborne wanted a sweetheart but he was far too timid to win one unless some one helped him. Barnes told him about Gladys Willson. He had known her in Philadelphia. She was beautiful. Barnes said he had told her of Osborne and she was interested. He thought she would not be offended If Osborne wrote to her. And Osborne wrote a halting little letter and Barnes prom-

ised to place it in Gladys’ hand. An answer came and that day was the happiest that Osborne liad ever known. There were other letters and Gladys began to tell him about her affairs. An estate had been left her and there were certain details of.jicLding it of legal incumbrances and tangles and need for money, and Osborne sent her all his savings, through Barnes, and counted every sacrifice for her a delight. The village watch tinker prepared for her coming as his bride. Through the years she had set dates and even named trains. But always there was something to prevent her coming. He had become so insistent for a sight of the one he adored that even the resourceful Barnes had run out of excuses. There was only one way-out of it. We would have to kill Gladys. He hated to do It because she had been very profitable to him, but there did not seem to be any other way out of it. So he went down to Philadelphia and wrote a letter to Osborne, telling him that Gladys was dead. He was staggered by the blow. She had never been born in flesh and blood, but she had lived 1 in his mind and heart. Somebody asked him about the bit of black bound around his hat and he told a little about Gladys Willson, loved and lost, and showed the letter that Barnes had sent telling him that she was dead. Somebody was suspicious and told the sheriff about It and it did not take him long to learn that Gladys was not dead because she had never lived. Barnes was arrested and is now under bail awaiting trial.