Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1877 — A Strange Story. [ARTICLE]

A Strange Story.

Thirty-three years ago a family named Benton, consisting of father, mother, son and daughter, resided in one of the Western States near a small town called Blank. The father was wealthy and lived in style, and his daughter Mabel, a child between two and three years of age, was always elegantly dressed, and George, the son, a boy of seven, was preparing to enter an Eastern school. One day little Mabel disappeared, and her parents never heard of her again, although they spent thousands of dollars in searching for her. The heart-broken mother died soon after the loss of her darling, and the father wandered over this country apd Europe, and finally settled in New York, where he died. George grew to manhood, and the memory of his lost sister was almost effaced from his mind. In his twenty-seventh year, while visiting a married friend, he fell in love with the governess of his friend’s children, a beautiful girl of about twentythree, and after some months they were married and lived happily for five or six years, a boy and girl being born to them during that time. By the' death of an uncle in San Francisco George was left a considerable

fortune, and the lawyer who conveyed the intelligence to him also stated that his sisters career had been traced. ' A tramp on his 4cath-bed in a St. Louis Police-Station confessed that he and two companions had stolen little Mabel Benton for her clothes and a locket which she wore, and that she had con tinued with them for several years, when her bright, pretty face attracted the attention of a kind-hearted lady in Ohio, who adopted her and sent her to school, where she remained until her patroness died. Mabel then became a teacher in a large school in Cincinnati, but as her health began to fail she applied for a position as governess, and was now in the family of Mr. M., or at least that was the last place he had heard of her being in. “ What was the name of the family she was with?” asked George. “M was the answer. “ What name did my sister have?” Mabel Ferris. 1 “ My God!” cried George, in agony. “ She has been my wife for five years.” Upon further investigation thisproved to be the truth, and the girl nearly went < crazy, as she was a devout Episcopalian. A separation ensued, all property being equally divided. The children were placed with friends, as neither parent could bear the sight of what was to them the fruit of a crime against God and man. The poor girl is still living in a quiet city in New England, while the husband and brother, after spending all his property save a few hundred dollars in dissipatfon. shut himself oft from all communication with his friends, and is to-day a poor farmer in thi 9 County of Garrett, among strangers, and where few know his sadly remarkable story.— Oakland. (Mo.) Cor. Wheeling Register.