Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations: The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures.Howe, William F.
History
Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations: The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures.
Howe, William F.
Crime -- New York (State) -- New York; Criminals -- New York (State) -- New York; New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions
A few years since a young stock broker of this city, spent his summer
vacation in the sylvan glades of the country surrounding Lake Champlain.
He possessed an appreciative eye for feminine beauty, and a soul burning
for adventure. Like most men of this type, he was not apt to be
disturbed by qualms of conscience where the gratification of his
passions was concerned. In an evil hour, he made the acquaintance of a
handsome Vermont girl, just merging upon the full meridian of
exceptionally voluptuous charms. Without any special claim to mental
endowments, Sadie F----- was a superb animal. Her, our frisky broker
saw, and wooed. The girl fell madly in love with him, and, before long,
ceased to be a virgin of the vale. Lothario was much attached to her,
and by his persuasions and ornate representations of city life, backed
by aureate promises, she was induced to fly from her once happy rural
home and to live with her seducer in this city. He began by treating her
well, placing her in handsome apartments in a boarding house on the west
side, and for nearly a year the ardor of his attachment knew no
abatement. Gradually, however, the affection on his side began to wane.
She awoke from her delusive dream to the consciousness that she was
alone in a great city without friends, money, or virtue. Whither could
she flee? She could not return to her country home to look into the
sorrowful depths of her mother's tender eye, or face the stings and
sneers of the people of her native village. "A life of pleasure"--as it
is sarcastically termed--seemed her only resource. In her terrible
extremity, she made a last appeal to her deceiver, and succeeded in
touching a tender spot in his heart. Perplexed as to what disposition he
could possibly make of the girl who had loved him "not wisely but too
well," he consulted an acquaintance notorious for the number and variety
of his amours. "Oh, my dear boy, that's easily settled,"' said the
friend, "get a Western divorce through one of those advertising
fellows." The broker didn't "catch on"--he couldn't see why he should
obtain a divorce, and said as much. "But she wants the divorce!" replied
the adviser. "Let her be divorced from Frederick Brown, or Augustus
Smith, or Maximilian Johnson, and then, you see, her character will be
restored, her virtue whitewashed, and she will be corroborated and
sustained as a respectable member of society; an object of envy and
emulation on the part of her sex, and of interest, admiration and honest
courtship by ours." So a decree was duly applied for through one of
those "divorce lawyers" wherein the petitioner, Mrs. Sadie Johnson,
sought to be severed from the hated yoke of her husband, George
Frederick Johnson, who, as the petition set forth, not only treated her
with habitual brutality but continually violated the purity of the
hymeneal couch, to wit, etc., etc. The papers were duly served upon the
defendant, who assumed the name of George Frederick Johnson for the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account