Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1868 — Miss Aurelia Maria’s Unfortunate Young Man. [ARTICLE]

Miss Aurelia Maria’s Unfortunate Young Man.

BY MARK TWAIN.

The fact* in the following case come to me by letter from a young lady who lives in the beautiful city of San Jose ; she is perfectly unknown to me, and simply signs herself “Aurelia Jlaria,” which may possibly be a fictitious name. But no matter, tiio poor girl is almost heart-broken by the misfortunes she has undergone, and so coniused by the conflicting counsels of misguided friends and. insidious enemies, that she does not know what course to pursue in order to extricate herself from the web of difficulties in which she seems almost hopelessly involved. In this dilemma she turns to me for help, and supplicates for my guidance and instruction with a moving eloquence that would touch the heart of a statue. Hear her sad storv : bhc says that when she tv as sixteen years old she met and loved, with all the devotion of a passionatenature* a young man from New JesBcy, natfied William Breckinridge Carulhcrs, who was some six years fref, senior. They were engaged, with the free consent of their friends and relatives, and for a time it seemed as if their career was destined to be characterized ,by an immunity from sorrow beyond tiic usual lot of humanity. But at last the tide of fortune turned; young Curuthers became infected with smail-pox of the most vintlent type, and when borecovered from his illness, his face was pitted like a wafllu mould and his comeliness gone forever. Aurelia thought to break off the engagement at first, but pity for her unfortunate lover caused her to postpone the marriage day for a season, aud givo him another trial. The very day before the wc-duing was to have taken place. Breckinridge, while absorbed in watching the flight of a balloon, walked into a well and fractured one of his legs, and it had to be taken oft' abovo the knee. Again Aurelia was moved to break off the engagement, but again love triumphed, and she set the day forward aud gave him another chance to reform. And again misfortune overtook the unhappy youth. Ho lost one arm by the premature discharge of a Fourth of July cannon, and within three months got the other pulled out by a carding machine, Aurelia’s heart was almost crashed by these latter calamities. She could not but bedeeply grieved to see her lover passing frorh’-Vplvby,piecemeal, feeling, as she did, £bat ho could not last fordisastrous process of •fcduction,-^et’in©wing of no way to stop its dreadful career, and in her despair, she almost regretted, like brokers who hold on apd lose, that she had not taken him at first, before he had suffered suck an alarming do* predation. Still her bf-ave soul bore up, and she resolved to bear with her lover’s unnatural disposition yet a little longer. . ' Again the wedding day approached, and again disappointment Ofersltadowed 4t. Cafuthers fell illVith’ the erysipelas and lost the use of one of bis eyes entirely.' The friends

[ and relatives of the bride, considering that she had already put up with more than could reasonably be expected of her, now come forward and insisted that the match should be broken oft’; but wavering awhile, Aurelia, with a generons spirit which did her credit, said she had reflected calmly on the matter, and could not discover that Breckinridge was to blame. So sbe extended the tiuib onco more, and lie broke his other leg. It was a sad day for the poor girl when she saw the surgeons reverently bearing .away the 6aek, whose use 6he had learned by previous experience, and her heart told her the bitter truth that some more of her lover had gone. &lie felt that the field of her affections was growing more and more circumscribed every day, but once more she frowned down her relatives and renewed her betrothal. Shortly before the time set for the nuptials another disaster occurred. There was but one man scalped by the Owen Kiver Indians last year. That man was William Breckinridge Cafnthtws, nf New Jersey. lie waA. hurrying home with happiness in his heart, when he lost his hair forever, and in that hour of bitterness he almost cursed the mistaken mercy, that had spared his head. At last Aurelia is in serious perplexity as to what she ought to do. She still loved her Breckinridge, she writes, with true womanly feeling—she still loves tthat is left of him, but her parents arc both bitterly opposed to the match, because he lias no property, and is disabled from working, and she has not sufficient means to support both comfortably. “Now what should she do V” she asks with painful and anxious solicitude. It is a delicate question ; it is one which involves the life-long happiness of a woman, and that of nearly two-thirds of a man, and I feel that it would be assuming too. great a responsibility to do more than to make a mere suggestion in the case, How would it do to build to him? If Aurelia can afford the expense, let her furnish her mutilated lover with wooden arms and wooden legs, and a glass eye and a wig, and give him another show ; give him ninety days, without grace, and if lie does not break his neck in the meantime, marry lum and take the chances. It doesn't seem to me that there is much risk, any way, Aurelia, because if lie will stick to hfs propensity Tor damaging himself every time lie see* a good opportunity, Lis next experiment is bound to finish him, and then- you are all right, you know, married or single. If married, the wooden legs and other valuables as he may possess, revert to the widow, and you see you sustain no .actual loss save .Ulc. cherished frag-, mont of a nojjle but most unfortuhate husband, who honestly strove to do right, but whose extraordinary instincts were against him. Try it, Maria! I have thought the matter over carefully and well, and it is the only chance I see for you. It would have been a happy conceit on the part of Caruthcrs if he had Btarted with his neck and broke that iiret; but since he lias seen fit to choose a different policy and string himself out as long as possible, I do not think we ought to upbraid him for it if he enjoys it. We must do tho best we can under the circumstances, and not feci exasperated at him.