A BLIGHTED LIFE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1287, 29 October 1886, Page 4

A BLIGHTED LIFE.

The followin'* story taken from the Canterbury * Telegraph,’ is at once painful and pitiful. Three years ago or thereabouts a prepossessing young girl of eighteen was living with her parents in one of the provincial towns of Canterbury. She became acquainted -with a young man living in Christs ■church, to whom she became greatly •attached. He asked her to marry him, after some month’s acquaintance, and, unfortunately for herself, she v permitted him greater license than she blight otherwise have done. When she began to feel alarmed at the consequence of her indiscretion, she urged him to carry out his promise, but he evaded the subject, having always some plausii le excuse to offer. Finally she became suspicious, and made en» qvaries about him, with the result that she found out that ho was already married, and that he had given her a fictitious name. Certain circumstances attracted the notice of her friends and relatives, and enquiries were set on foot by her parent*, culminating in their turning her away from home. ,Bhe underwent ft great deal of tumble

and privation In this city till after her confinement, fortunately for her, perhaps for the infant, too, it died immediately after its birth, for a time the girl served in a oonfecturner's shop, ain't conducted herself in an irreproachable manner, j But somehow or other her employers came to hear of her misfortune, with the result that she was unceremoniously dismissed Unable to procure employment of another kind, on account of the story becoming pretty well known, she took a situation in a bar. Hero her prepossessing appearance and inexperience, notwithstanding the lesson she had, got her another entanglement. Sift became . the victim of a second who was also a married man. Her father had repented his rashness too late, and tried to persuade her to return home, promising that the matter should not be referred to. But his entreaties were of no avail—she could never go back home, she said, after being treated by him so inhumanely. In order to divorce herself from all asso* dates, and to start life anew somewhere where she was not known, she left New Zealand for Melbourne, where she succeeded in obtaining employment as a confectioner's assistant. For some time things went smoothly enough, and the girl, by her naturally engaging disposition, combined with irreproachable conduct in her new sphere, soon established herself in the good graces of some highly respectable people. But she seems to have been born under an unlucky star. For, one day while she was QMt shopping, she came face to face the man who had been the cause of her second faux pa, f. She/tried to avoid him, but it was of no use. He persisted in molesting her and in trying to lead her astray, and even threatened to disclose her identity to her enw ployer. Lacking the courage to face this, she was unhappily induced to make another slip. No sooner had this dastardly scoundrel’s object been attained than he carried his former threats into execution, with the result that the unfortunate girl lost both her situation and her friends. She then went from bad to worse, and became also addicted to drink. Her course of life henceforth was ruinous, and after a twelvemonths' run of dissipation nature gave way, and this once handsome girl lay on her deathbed She died in one of the filthiest slums in Melbourne, without a single friend near to close her eyes or listen to her unavailing regrets.