FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  
ruction of my happiness and peace of mind. The worthy couple, with a prophetic eye, saw that I was destined to become, in future years, somewhat of a _gourmand_, unless care should be taken to prevent such a melancholy fate; therefore, actuated by the best motives, and in order to teach me the luxury of abstinence, they began by slow but sure degrees to starve me. Good people, how I reverence their memory! One night I committed burglary upon a closet, and feloniously carried off a chunk of bread and meat, which I devoured in the cellar. "Oh, my prophetic soul--_my uncle_!" That excellent man caught me in the act of eating the provender, and--my bones ache at this very moment as I think of the licking I got! I forgot to mention that I had a rather insignificant brother, four years older than myself, who became my uncle's apprentice, and who joined that gentleman in his persecutions against me. My kind relatives were rather blissful people in the way of ignorance, and they hated me because they imagined that I regarded myself as their superior--a belief that was founded on the fact that I shunned their society and passed the greater portion of my time in reading and writing. I lived at that time in Thomas street, very near the famous brothel of Rosina Townsend, in whose house that dreadful murder was committed which the New York public will still remember with a thrill of horror. I allude to the murder of the celebrated courtezan Ellen Jewett. Her lover, Richard P. Robinson, was tried and acquitted of the murder, through the eloquence of his talented counsel, Ogden Hoffman, Esq. The facts of the case are briefly these:--Robinson was a clerk in a wholesale store, and was the paramour of Ellen, who was strongly attached to him. Often have I seen them walking together, both dressed in the height of fashion, the beautiful Ellen leaning upon the arm of the dashing Dick, while their elegant appearance attracted universal attention and admiration. But all this soon came to a bloody termination. Dick was engaged to be married to a young lady of the highest respectability, the heiress of wealth and the possessor of surpassing loveliness. He informed Ellen that his connection with her must cease in consequence of his matrimonial arrangements, whereupon Ellen threatened to expose him to his "intended" if he abandoned her. Embarrassed by the critical nature of his situation, Dick, then, in an evil hour, resolved to kill the cou
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
murder
 

people

 

committed

 

Robinson

 

prophetic

 

paramour

 
public
 
strongly
 
wholesale
 

attached


Townsend

 

walking

 

dreadful

 
briefly
 

acquitted

 

celebrated

 

eloquence

 

courtezan

 

Richard

 

Jewett


allude

 

talented

 

thrill

 

remember

 
counsel
 

Hoffman

 

horror

 

appearance

 
matrimonial
 

consequence


arrangements

 

expose

 
threatened
 

loveliness

 
surpassing
 

informed

 

connection

 

intended

 
resolved
 

situation


abandoned
 
Embarrassed
 

critical

 

nature

 

possessor

 

wealth

 
elegant
 

Rosina

 

attracted

 

attention