A ROMANTIC STORY FROM AMERICA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 63, 24 April 1869, Page 6

A ROMANTIC STORY FROM AMERICA.

The "Nashville Press," of December 10, says : — " The strangest case of thieving which we ever heard .of took place in the adjoining county of Cheatham a few clays ago. The narrative, as we have heard it, is simply this : — A few miles from Ashland, and not far from the Cumberland River, live a family named "White, who are in what are there considered comfortable circumstances. On Christmas Eve, a young girl, some fifteen years old, dipd in the house, after a brief illness. She was not long home from an educational institute in Indiana, which she was forced to leave, by reason of an unaccountable indisposition. The house of the "Whites is situated in a rather remote section, so that the night following the decease of the young lady there were no visitors to watch up with the mourning family save one — a young gentleman named Higgins, who had come on horseback in the early part of the day to visit the side girl. He had visited her before. He found her pinking, and appeared to be more overcome by grief than the parents of the young lady. "When her eyes closed in death, he was uncontrollable in his sorrow, and it was found necessary to bring him to a different part of the house, and try to cheer him up by a dose of strong drink. It was found exceedingly difficult to induce him to take any iiquor, and in order to encourage him, the only brother of the deceased girl imbibed freely himself of the stimulants — so freely, in fact, that he was overcome and fell into J a sound sleep about nightfall, from which it was thought best not to wake him. The young girl's mother had been in very delicate health for some time past, and the children of the house were of too delicate an age to sit up all night in a chamber of death. Hence, when the hours waxed late, there were no watchers in the house but young Higgins .and the girl's father. Up to about twelve o'clock the young man seemed in a semi-lethargic state, and was not at all communicative, but sat brooding over his sorrow in the gloomiest possible manner, Shortly after midnight to,ore was a change perceptible, He became talkative,, suggested to the old man the propriety of taking a little stimulants, and of shakoff some of his grief. By a judicious application of the bottle, and an exceedingly ingenious way of recommending its beneficial qualities, he succeeded in setting- the old man asleep — sent him into so s.ound a sleep that he did not wake up until between five and six in the morning. "When he awoke he found young Higgins occupying exactly the same position as, he thought, that he did in the early part of the previous night, sitting in a corner with his how2d head resting, upon his hands ; but he observed that the young fellow's boots were muddy, and when spoken to, he himself appeared weary and even exhausted. He easily accounted for these changes to people who had ,no object in making inquiries

into them. The coffin, whose lid had been screAved down the night before, Avas all right. Everything appeared to be gloomy and sorrowfully right. Not much notice Avas taken of anything until the hour approached for the interment of the corps, when Higgins shoAved signs of great agitation, Avhich

were considered the natural result of his great grief. The little funeral arrangements being easily and quickly made, the coffin waa carried to its destined resting-place by three men, followed by the mother and the little children; but as the melancholy cortege approached the grave, Higgms, whether from exhaustion or terpidation shook so violently that he let go his hold and the coffin fell to the ground. A rattling, a very strange, sharp noise inside of it so astonishing the few mourners that their first impulse was to flee ; but the stern and authoritative look of the. father riveted every one to the spot. He felt convinced on the moment that something was . surely wrong. He immediately despatched his s:n into the house for a turnscrew, and then undoing the lid, ho found in tho coffin — not the dead form of his beloved child, but a heap of stones and dirt. Higgins, though an athletic young fellow, eighteen years old, sank to the ground in a fainting fife. The consternation and confusion were great. It was oAving to the efforts of the old lady that Higgins did not breathe his last, for old "White -felt that he had made away Avith the dead body of his ch.ld. After some time, Avhen young Higgins Avas restored, he confessed to have set the old man purposely drunk, and then opened the coffin and took Judith out, and, mounting his horse, rode four miles into the wood, where he stowed away the body in a little cave and covered it up Avith leaves and branches, and then, coming back, filled her place in the coffin Avith stones and eaxfch, and scrcAved on the lid doAvn again. His great love for the girl, he alleged, could not let her go away from his sight foreA'cr ; ho thought! he would keep her to look at a feAV clays longer. When the lapse of some time allowed tho angry feelings of the old man to cool, he looked upon the lover of his dear departed daughter more in pity than in wrath. The body was recovered and interred with becoming dignity, aud it Avas agreed to , say nothing about the affair, but let it die out. The female heart, hoAvcver, could not keep such a secret, and in a feAV hours it spread, and finally became the~G©narnon talk of most; of the county." *