THE WASHINGTON TIMES SUNDAY DECEMBER 18 1901 3u

e GroveA story

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The Grave Of Tfee Stranger

Identity of a Woman Who Rests Beneath-a Handsome Monument in the Old

Graveyard Is a Secret ThatIs Well Kept i

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UBXAJflXftLA Yfc sax part ofHM District fit Columbia thenreverting back to Old Do-

minion whose dateslark back two centuries Alexandriachild of history and mother of legendAlexandria whose venerable ofbrick and atone are covered equallywith mosa and tradition Alexandria thetown which Prince Puahlmi the person-al representative of the Mikado inslated upon visiting when in Wasitingtun recently beeauae In far Japan hlad learned its prominence in earlyAmerica history Alexandria posiesssfune relic one curiosity one romantic

which has escaped the prytna eyeof the hlatotical writer und whose mys-ttry has never been penetrated

The Grave of the Strangerit not sound as though culled

from some page of Scotf romances ordropped from Ups of a traveler inold WorM byways

In one of the oldest graveyards ofAlexandria is what was once one of thehandsomest monuments of the youngMutes After the fashion of those daysit consists of a great marble dab restingJiorisontally upon low round columnson the surface of this slab still legibleutter the rains and snows and sleetsand of nearly a century is theuiBcriptlon fitted aeriwlta

A theAle

Joel

the

balls

elks

spot

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Thousands have visited tWa graY9jdrawn thither by reports brought totheir homes by former tourists and eachof the thousands oaks the same quee-tions Who was How came JIMto be buried Why did the

her withhold her Was herstory never learned

To all these queries clUsens siAlexandria have been able to glee Hwtunsatisfactory answers Briefly all thatla known is here toM

The Veiled WomanOn July 25 ISM the brig

Four Son from Halifax N 8 for theWest Indks put into Alexandria harborthen the chief oort on the Chesapeakeliar or tributaries Her skjpper Cap-

tain Kelly was in great haste to reachhis southern destination had no cargoor paHsengers for Alexandria and onlyput Into that pel because he had onboard a sick whose strength didnot warrant a longer sea voyage andwhose husband had influence sufficient-to Induce the skipper to land his sickwife at the flrst available por The brigdid not tie up at the wharf not layIn supplies did not send rtmn ashoreIn tact she anchored in mldatream andonly remained long enough to lower aboat and send ashore the silk womanand her man compaMtott she

herewoo t eYed

its

d

q

shehus-

band from Inscriptionmain

Thursday

woman

when

ifoTHE MEMORY

OF A

FEMALE STRANGER

Wh e Mortal Sufferings

TenmntUd on the 4th day of

October 1816

Aged 23 Years and 8 Months

This sieve ij steeled sy her iiscottselate husband in whoie ske

bMatikfti et hr last fh who under Gad did hi utmost toseethe the MId tell oar of

Hew loved hew honored once availsTo whsm rotated or by whom begotA heap af dust alone remains of theeTh all Che art and all the proud shall be

TrwtbofBi the ptepheti witaees that through IIs name whojmmirttTmt1i 9f JHa raewve remiseios of sins

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I armsand

thee not

all

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death

4

gaysshall

OJ4 City Hotel Alexandria Va

TO SARAH CURRAN EMMETS SWEETHEART-By THOMAS MOORE

far from the land where her young hero sleepsH-

And lovers aroand her are siftix-Dut coldly she turns from their M and s W

For her heart in his grave is lagv

She sings the wild song of her dear native plains riEvery Wote which beloved aM aSflng

Stow the heart of niantrel k brooking X

He had lived for hi for hie country hoThey were all that to life lied

shall the tears of his country

for long will hie love stay behind

Oh make her a grave where the sunbeams restWhen they premise a glorious morrow

Theyll shine oer hor sleep like a smile from the WestFrom her own loved Island of Sorrow

j

i r-

t

r-

r little thinkoJ the f

love J

1

Nor soon be driedof

c

The

She isr

vase ig

rye

ilh they who delight in her strains

5

diedentwined him

hun

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and headed down the

In those days hospitality waited noton credentials The good people ofAlexandria stopped tp mak no in-

quiries No health ofllcfir with in-

spection and qikrantlne Intervened toprevent the Even when thecaptains gig polled alongside the pieranl It was seen tliat the face

covered with heavy veil no ques-tions were asxed but willing hands

ready std to transport her to theBunch of grapes afterward City

Hotel the largest tavern of the vil-lage The best room in the louse wasplaced at the disposal of the Invalid undher husband whose manner drew andhearing proclaimed them of the Highestsocial stratum The man Inquired thename jof the bet physician In the townDr Murphy was sent for und staked to

iturg of the caseBftl4e admitting Dr Murphy to the

sickroom however the strange gentle-man culled him aside ami pledged thephysician to regard the case from apurely sUmlpoint seekingtn know no than the nature ofthe ailment and putting him upon honornot to reveal what lie might see orlearn l physician gave andebservMi the required pledge theonly he was ever heard to makeht after years concerning tine cites Inreply to the many Inquiries was thathe never saw her lace nn It was always

Offers of AssistanceThe good townspeople as guest H they

learned of the sick stronger within theirmidst Iwsteried to the hostelry to proffertheir services volunteering to open their

to receive her It need IMS in-

stating upon taking turns at nursing theInvalid They met by the manwith p rfeet courtesy but re-

sistance their offers he said ap-preciated but no one should nurse herbut himself Faithful he was and de-

voted however eccentric his actionsmight be Day and night he stayed bythe bedside ministering with uncom-plaining patience No one who wit-nessed his devotion could doubt his lovefor the woman

Through the months of August and

JIR

womana

the

protea tonal

xO

andremark

covered wltha veil ten he lheChamber

and

wire

were

J

neighed anchor

his

s

was

gave

take

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rise

enter ed

homes

unlUnchin

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September the woman lingered betweenlife and death Wiiat Tf the natureof her malady Ute good Dr Murphywould never reveal Fe Mi time It

consumption but thereare rumors and whisperings that when

last night camel there heard thebrief wall of an infant puny weakcry us though the one expression of alife born but to die

At length others were let Into thesecret Human endurance has Its limitaUld the strange gentleman found hisstrength unequal to the task f

watching through so many daysand nights Living at tho hotel at thattime were Mrs Sarah Wise and MrsKlhtabeth Herbert members of two ofVirginias oldest families Often theyhad proffered their services only to becourteously told they were not neededAt l t however the men signified thathe was compelled to ask their assistanceIn nursing the Yet before hewould trust them in lie madeeach of them take a oath thatnever so long as they lived would theyreveal the secret of the womans iden-tity

At midnight of October 13 it was seenthat the Stranger could not survive thenight When this was made clear to

roan he that Mil but heshould withdraw from the room It wasfrom the adjoining room that the

landlords wife thought she heardthe cry of an Infant an hour or twolater Friday morning came in with acold east wind and a fine cutting rainJust us the gray light begun to revealthe dome of the distant Capitol throughtile mist the man haggardfreed andbroken staggered from tke room andtold the innkeeper that all was over

Death Brought No LightMystery was still preserved This was

before the days of the undertaker sothe fact of the man Inciting upon pre-paring with his own hands the bodyfor burial was nut so strange a proceed-ing as it would be today When thecoffin was brought he again iasleted onbeing alone and there were nfu tUtesseswhen he laW the cold forth uyihe collinand screwed down the lid none toknow if at

another and tiny lffl w body

wasthought to

the

s

womanthe ro m

the Ifte

he

was

con-tinuous

solemn

tile requested

curi-ous

apttfm he placed

therein

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JCurtaaSarah Theodosia Uwr

There remained the problem of theburial Qnce more he called to his aidMrs Wise and Mrs Herbert

estimable woilnen wereof St Paura Episcopal Church Bf Iiop-Gl pett the first American bishop ofthe BpiTCopal Church chanced to be inAlexandria To the bishop the twowomen wet told him they knew thesecret of the womans life and deathand that she was worthy of Christianburial This notwithstanding the inscription on the atone which clearly im-

plies that the woman had sinned Thogood bishop took thorn at their wordand hiiT elf officiated As he died sud-denly a law weeks laAr in Prince Georgecounty Md this is thought to be thelent funeral at which he acted Thehour of the funeral becoming known agreat concourse followed the body toSt Pauls graveyard where It was Interred under t large cedar The manremained only long enough to give di-

rection about the monument find to indicate the Inscription to be placed thereon and then he disappeared leaving hisunsolved mystery behind him

Mrs WIse and Mrs Herbert remainedfaithful to their trust The man hadchosen his conndantes wisely Or elsethe he required wash terrible inbinding effect Both lived to a ripe oldage and died wHnout revealing thesecret intrusted to their caro Mr JW Hernden clerk in the Howe foldingroom and secretary of the Society forthe Restoration of Historic Alexandriaremembers hearing his mother bog MrsWise for a hint of the secret arguing

that there was no longer any reasonthat It should be kept but to MrsHerndon as to all other inquirers MrsWise replied that her lips wire sealedand that there was no inducement onearth suolcient to cause a divulgenceof the secret All that these faithfulnurses ever toW r was that the womanwas beautiful nor would denythat she was of uncommonly high birth

Who She Might Have Been

With so little known conjecture liasrite as to who the beautiful

stranger have been Several dis-

trict legende have grown up about herYou will And many in Alexandria whowill tell you the woman was the beau-tiful and rifted Theodosla Burr

Aaron Burr and wife of theof North Carolina It will i be

forty years afterOrheodosflk Burr had been given up asboat at in a storm Cape Hatteras two men about executed inItprfolk bra confessed that they had

of gang of shore piratesmeans of a false light had

lured the Illfated Patriot on thepocks nnd had then forced all on boardincluding Mrs to walk the

plank A year or so later a dying sailorIn New Orleans confessed to complic-

ity in the crime Those who holdthat the stranger whd died In Alexan-dria was Tkfcodosia Burr argue that noirate would have been at the samutime so bajteland so Impervlojs to female as to have caused thedeath of Alston would it nethave probable that the wo-

man would be as a prize andwhen from shame griefbrought ashore with as much sverecy nspossible This would account theymaintain for the insistence on secrecyafter death

Unfortunately for the romance factsand dates Itecredit this theory Iton December v lilts that Mrs Alstonleft fc father in NewYork Th storm which enabled thesurf to lure the Patriot on therocks of Kngs Head occurred on Janu-ary 1 1S1JL Even lf escaped thefate of all others on hoard a woman ofMrs Alston refinement would not havelived through the horror of more thanthree in captivity More-

over this gang was composed of ielowest elements of humanity the nTun

who brougjit the dyns stranger to Alex-

andria was to all outward appearance-a Agaiq the inscription onthe stone complete familiaritywith the age of the dead woman whichis set dowiTas If she hadlived to that tine Theodosla Burrwould have been ten years olderThrough the eloquence of the

the man claims to have been thedead womans husband Governor Als-

ton of NWh Carolina could not haveontered Alexandria unknown

Was it Emmets SweetheartOthers with more reason think the

stranger WHH Sarah Curran thefiancee of Robert Bmmet the

martyred heart patriot It was tothat Thonlas Moore friend both to herand to ISnimet addressed those

lines beginningte the land where KM young

There is reason to believe that theman who to Alexandria anofficer In the English army It is knownthat Sarah

v

Curran though still piningfor her was two years afterhis execution forced to marry MajorSturgeon the British army staff

unil soon after the coupleleft EnglHtd Might It not be she griev-ing for hot lover who died In theof a husbftjtul site did not love and whoto protect her from the comments ofthe curiuuf withheld her name

Again tike d tes always stepin to controvert this hypothesis Thegirl died in itM at the axe of twentythree Robert Bmmet exsoutod

Bothmembers

beenapt

f mtfir

offtobe

a

ridand

gentlemAn

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stone

her

fShe tar froMhero

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corps

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was

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oath Pita

they

Aldendaughtergovernor

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beeamem zwho by

Alston

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dtIn

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Norfo join Tsar

pirates

she

ears suet

mute

broken-

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beauti-ful

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crime was

that

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THE HUSBANDS CONFESSION

Never had I loved her more than at that hour The glow of feverupon her and sparkled in her eye I to induce the

captain to return to Martinique and to assist in securing the forms neces-

sary to invalidate the matrimonial contractShe seemed to consider this a moment her eyes danced with a

brilliancy and the color of her cheeja deepened beyond all hues of

health Then suddenly her features contracted as though some horriblethought convulsed her brain and crying Oh the shame the shame shefell forward upon the floor in a swoon

For days her life hung lightly balanced Fortunately one of the mis-

sionaries aboard added a knowledge of medicine to his other acquiremontsand to his skill and attention she owed her life Her reason howeverfelt the shock and at times she would kneel before and beg me tomurder her When the vessel reached its destination St John N B

the physicians declared that to remain in that climate was certain deathfor her so we reembarked and in due time were put ashore in Alexan-

dria and were safely lodged at the City Hotel The ladies of thetown were doubly kind to her they never asked her name or family

for said one of them She is a stranger and letters of introduc-

tion from heavenAll help all sisterly ministrations were vain One night she woke

me who never left her bedside but nodded into a light slumber Ishall be away she said very softly far from living fears and eviltongues I strove to interrupt but she placed her finger on my lips and

K continuedYou have dearly loved me John promise me that no one here shallmy name or even from whence I came

As God lives I promise I replied

Then that is all over John she continued taking my hand whenI am dead marry some one worthy of you Kiss me

Our lips met but death came between the bridegroom and the bridefor Blanche was dead From the Narrative of John Trust by Wil-

liam F Carne

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Iwilder

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thirteen years before If she wore SarahCiirrsn daughter of the distinguishedIrish lawyer she would have had herromentle attachment for Emmet at theterider age of ten

Most widely current is the story thatthe stranger was one of four childrenborn of distinguished parents whomreverses forced to place the children inan English almshouse whence theywern taken by guardians from the four

of the globe growing up unknown to each other under differentnames Years after so the story runswith many brothers and asister met in the island of MartiniqueWest Indies Ignorant of their

both men fell in love with the girltheir sister One of the brothers by

means of the then little understoodscience of hypnotism stole the girl awayfrom the island and fled to the StatesWhen he went to board the ship which

was to carry them from the island aparty of Jesuit priests aboard insistedon a marriage ceremony before theywere allowed to climb the gangway so

the brother and sister were married inthe rocking boat alongside the shipwhile was In a hypnotic trance

Brother and Sister Married

Later through a chance revelationthe fact that they were brother andslater became known to the newly mar-

ried pair and the shame for one andremorse for the other wrecked both theirlives The revelation came while theywere In Halifax Immediately tho girlbegan to pint away The consciencestricken man sought to take her backto her friends in Martinique where itwas his intention to have the marriage

naMe but her health declined sorapidly that it was found necessary totake her ashore at Alexandria Knowing

she was to die the girl required of herhusbandbrother the promise that bewould prevent her Identity becomingknown well ho kept his pimisewe all know This story it supposed to

have come to light through the memoirsof the other brother who wrote them inSpanish after he had entered a Catholiccloister These memoirs are said tohave the hands of an attacheof the Spanish legation at Washingtonwho employed Mr William F Carne ofAlexandria to translate them

Mr Carne did publish The Narrativeof John Trust in 1S07 in which thisstory to told Today Mr Carne saysthe story is a romance of his ownthough he admits there is Mime founda-tion in truth and maintains that altthat is known of the girl is containedIn his narrative Just what was hissource of information ha declines tostate preserving the ame reticencethat all maintain who have stumbledon to any clue to the mystery-

So much for conjecture let us see

what the flotsam and jetsam of fastinnuendo and whispered hint gatheredfrom a hundred sources reveallife story of the mysterious stranger

Husband Revisits Grave

It is a fact that on October I SIT

the nrst anniversary of the girls deathher companion was again seen in Alex-

andria He stopped at no hotel spoke-

to no one but ferrying across frontWashington went directly to Sv Paulagraveyard wiser He spent the day by

the tomb of the unknown This was re

whan he left the tomb was fresh with

quarterS

detailstwo

relation-ship

the girl

I

set

How

oot18 into

alwitya

f

tptl fgra dense yearn and

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flowers the grass and green shrubberyneatly trimmed Some visitor to thotown who saw him on one of thesepilgrimages of devotion recognized himas an officer in the English army

At last however his visits ceasedand gradually the grave fell into decaythe heavy stone sinking on one sidetill it threatened to topple over Thenone spring morning as Emanuel Webbstill superintendent at St Paulswas planting some flowers on a newmade grave he was approached by twohandsomely gowned elderly womenwho pointing to the then dilapidatedgrave of the stranger with Its topplingstone demanded to know why it hadnot been better cared for

Who is to pay me for caring forthat demanded SuperintendentWebbWhat

have you not received a regular stipend for doing so indignantlyasked one of the ladies

No indeed said Mr WebbWhy that is incomprehensible ex-

claimed the woman There must havebeen some serious oversight

Tell me said Webb Do Knowwho she was

We are relatives replied the wo-man

Who was the manHe was an BngHah eCa strWhere did he go from AlexandriaTo Prance

At this juncture wINK Webb flatteredhimself that he was about to obtain asolution to the mystery of a centurydistinguished looking old gentlemanwho been standing by the strangergrave during this conversation hurriedup to the ladies took them by the armand led them quickly away On this as-

surance the quaint grave was embel-lished anew with lowers and shrubsand the stone propped into place butWebb heard no more from

callersCan we gather aught from the Inscrip-

tion on the stone Pleat the care takento preserve the secret of identity andthe faithfulness with which those whuknew the story preserved it in theirown consciousness argues a personugof such rank and so well known to the

that the very whisper of hername would set the world agate Againthe second line of the stanaa fromPope To whom related or by whombegot clearly impttea a parentage undfamily of consequence Then too theScripture quoted woukl sera to Implythat the woman was sane of Sv s erringdaughters whom a forgiving husbandsought to shield host fissjasslmnctraof her fifty Is this not the most rea-sonable hypothesis

But who was she Poet or peasantprincess or pauper

The answer to this question shall bethe Archangel Gabriel

sounds the summons which shall callthe deaJ from their tombs when thesea gives up Its dead and when allsecrets revealed Until then mys-tery inviolate will surround THcof the Stranger

WHAT HE TOOK IT FORStern MotJwrWilUeWillie OetbaekYesmTheres H whole UM ol ate tn

1 task k ier Jasju mtmiim sj t wua

graver

you

r

his

world

knownwhen

t i

lotot jarIt fr

tad

mys-terious

tie

ireGray o

ethin IttissifL hat lid take

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