A woman and man meet on a steamship and claim they are long-lost spouses. And then, to everyone’s surprise, the man leaves her again. But the question remains: Were they truly married to begin with?
A Strange Meeting and a Strange Parting
Not long ago a steamboat coming up the river ran aground at Buffington. Among the passengers were a lady from Covington and a stranger who took passage at Cincinnati – a man about 30 years of age, with no baggage but a good suit of clothes, which he carried on his well-shaped person.
The two individuals indicated became very intimate during the trip, and the first night after the boat ran aground they were talking in the cabin, when, to the amazement of all the passengers, they rushed into each other’s arms, and the lady called the man her long-lost husband, and the man called the lady his lost wife; and they made a right pathetic thing of it.
The lady told the captain that her husband had left her seven years before, and the husband accounted for his absence by saying that he had been unjustly imprisoned “down in Arkansas” for a crime he had never committed.
The story was believed, and the parties had the warm sympathies of the passengers.
When the boat arrived at Marietta, the man went ashore, under the pretense of getting something for his wife, but did not return, although he was sent for repeatedly, and could not be found.
The wife wept many tears of sorrow, and carried on so violently that the captain had to put her off about three miles above Marietta, when she started back to hunt for the defaulter.
Source: The Alleghanian. (Ebensburg, Pa.), 05 Jan. 1860.
