Includes the letter Alfred Waud wrote to Mrs. Jewell, explaining how he eloped with her daughter, Mary. Transcription: [prop]ped by pillows that were not more ghostly pale than her face, she [Mary Brainard] sat. Recognizing me, she made a gesture with her hand that seemed full of misery and resignation to a fate, hopeless. Shocked I procured a dress makers card, and using invisible ink begged an interview the next day. She came, woe begone, and prostrate in mind and body. To my renewed entreaty to fly and leave a fate no longer bearable she consented. On the second of July following, disguise
Includes the letter Alfred Waud wrote to Mrs. Jewell, explaining how he eloped with her daughter, Mary. Transcription: [prop]ped by pillows that were not more ghostly pale than her face, she [Mary Brainard] sat. Recognizing me, she made a gesture with her hand that seemed full of misery and resignation to a fate, hopeless. Shocked I procured a dress makers card, and using invisible ink begged an interview the next day. She came, woe begone, and prostrate in mind and body. To my renewed entreaty to fly and leave a fate no longer bearable she consented. On the second of July following, disguised, I took her to a place where I had procured board for her as my sister, a statement for which our likeness gained implicit belief. Here after the first rush of sorrow and alarm she gained health and flesh once more. In three months we moved, and she lived with me as my wife before heaven. The numerous schemes I devised to baffle pursuit and the constant excitement I will not dwell on. I enjoyed it, and succeeded as I had determined, till I made arrangements to leave the city. By our laws such action is criminal, socially and legally, but is there no extermination? A young girl of good average qualities, sensibility, and affectionate disposition, as is often the case, not altogether understood by her own family, cursed instead of blessed by a sinful father [Charles W. Jewell], dependant on her mother [Celina Jewell], feeling unsettled, desirous of being Title: Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries: Volume 7, page 226, April 12, 1856 . 12 April 1856. Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891
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