A ROMANCE OF THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2506, 1 April 1881, Page 4

A ROMANCE OF THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER.

A correspondent of the “Dundee Evening Telegraph” tells the following extraordinary story :—“ A gentleman, whose name for obvious reasons must remain a secret, resident with his wife in a large town in the north of England, and employed: by a firm having business connections with Scotland, had been sent on a tour through Scotland in December, 1879. Like a faithful husband, he made his wife aware of his movements, and while in the Scotch metropolis about Christmas he wrote telling her when she might expect him home. In his letter he mentioned that to get finished with his business and return to England as speedily as possible he intended to make the "most of the remaining days of the year, and had arranged to go to Dundee via the Tay Bridge on the evening of Sunday, December 28. When the announcement was made in the newspapers on the morning of the 29th that the bridge had fallen, carrying with it an express train and many passengers, it did not escape the eye of this gentleman’s wife, who naturally feared that her husband was one of the victims. In this impression she was confirmed by the fact that she received no letters from him, and could find no trace of him in places where his whereabouts were likely to be known. Hastening to Dundee, she was an anxious spectator for several days of the operations for the recovery of the bodies of the missing passengers. Ultimately she returned home, and the firm for whom her husband had been collecting accounts gave up the money as lost. As nothing further could be done, matters were allowed to rest till the body of the supposed victim was found; but as time wore on the prospect of its recovery became less and less, and all interested, persons reluctantly became resigned to their fate. Some time afterwards a gentleman who knew the ' missing passenger’ well, happened to be in London on business, and while entering a tramway car one day he was surprised to see his * deceased ’ friend snugly esconced in a corner of the vehicle. Explanations were asked, but' were not forthcoming, and all who had previously manifested an interest in this person’s fate were made aware of the discovery, with the result that his new home was quickly found out. From inquiries made it appeared that he had not gone as he intended with the train that went down with the Tay Bridge, but that after the fall of the structure, knowing his friends would believe he was drowned, he went to London, where he squandered his employers’ money, married a young woman, and was enjoying his temporary seclusion when by accident he was found out. He afterwards appeared before a Criminal Court, and for embezzlement was sentenced to undergo twelve months’ imprisonment with hard labor. This sentence has almost expired, and the prisoner’s fear now is that he will be liberated only to be brought again before the Court for becoming the husband of two wives.