Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1870 — A Bad Story. [ARTICLE]

A Bad Story.

Yesterday morning our special telegrams announced the end of a weary life, in stating that Theodore, eldest son of Henry Clayhad died in the Lexington Lunatic A>-ylum, after a long confinement The record of his blasted life is briefly thus: At 30 yean of age, Theodore Clay was a promising lawyer. He was the image and the hope of the statesman whose fame was on every tongue. It is true that there were whispers of wild living, and of in different morals, that somewhat tinged the fair repute and even darkened the future prospects of this scion of a nob e house. Still it was hoped that these were but the result of youth, and would be cast aside when circumstances called upon the matured m»n to assert himself and make his talent felt in the community. It was at this turning poiqt in his life that Theodore Clay began to pursue; with an unwearied perseverance that caused his friends great uneasiness, a young lady of Lexington, whom he had long loved hopelessly. The object of his attachment, who is at present one of the brightest ornaments of Kentucky society,repulse d firmly but kindly, every attention ofiend by the infatuated young man, after his meaning had become manifest. It was of no use, he would not be refused, and followed his fair fate in the streets by day and wandered in the neighborhood of her hon e by night, in an annoying manner, until at last it became evident that he “ was not all there,” to use the soft phrase by which a kindly peasantry express insanity. Subsequent violent demonstrations tended to confirm the impression, it being even related that he went to the house of Mr. and demanded his daughter at the pistol’s point; until at last the wretched truth could no longer be ignored, and confinement in the asylum became a stern neces sity. This was accordingly done (in 1832, we believe), his father providing for his support at that time, and leaving * 10,000 in his will, the income from which was secured to Theodore for life. That life, after thirty-eight years of imprisonment in what, in the earlier days of his confinement, he was wont to call “a good b ard-ing-house, but having some of the biggest fouls he ever saw as boarders,” has just closed. For nearly thirty years .he was one of the most noted of the inmates, not only his proud descent, but -his graceful manners and flow of conversation rendering him an object of interest to all visitors. He labored under the hallucination that he was George Washington, and was fond of assuming the traditional attitudes of the Father of his Country. At the occasional balls given to the inmates (averaging some five hundred in num,ber) he was always exquisitely dressed, in the style of his day, and was the beau par excellence. During all these long years, despite his general gentleness and cheerfulness of manner, he was restless and discontented,and required close watching, it never, in fact, having been considered prudent to allow him to go out into the grounds without attendants. About the year 1860 his condition began to grow worse, and he soon after became demented, continuing in hopeless idiocy until a tew days since, when Death, greater healer than Time, placed him again upon an equality with the peers of his early manhood, who had gone before him to that God that created him and did with him according to His inscrutable will. And so ends as sad a story as the truth of history ever commanded to be written. Two sons of Henry Clay yet survive him, T, H. Clay, ex-Ministerto Honduras, now residing on his place, “Mansfield,” near Lexington, and John M. Clay, the raiser of “ Kentucky,” and one of the greatest turf men living.— Cincinnati inquirer, May 17.