A runaway match and what came of it.
--The Chicago
Journal publishes the details of an inquest held over the body of
Augustus C. Brod.
head, who died in that city on the 13th, of convulsions.
He was formerly an officer in the
British army, and served with distinction in
India.
The
Journal gives the following history of the deceased:
A few years ago
Brodhead — then in the prime of vigorous manhood, and wearing upon the dashing artillery uniform of the
British service several royal medals, which he had earned by bravery and success — formed the acquaintance of a wealthy Baroness of the Faget family, one of the most aristocratic houses of
England.
That acquaintance immediately became a love match, and one unrelenting opposition of her family only served to render it a runaway match.
The happy couple spent their honeymoon upon the Continent; visible
Italy,
Switzerland, and the
Egyptian pyramids, and two years ago came to
Illinois and purchased a form near
Clifton, in Iroquois county.
Brodhead was as ignorant of agricultural science as he was proficient in that of gunnery and projectiles.
And when to this serious impediment is adds a deep related habit of dissipation — an incoordinate fondness for the wine-cup — which his face and easy life had engendered, and which most unfortunately was shared by his wife, we have the sum total of causes sufficient to blast man's prospects in life.
His failure in agricultural life only confirmed him as a drunkard and hastened the denounment. An ardent lover of field sports, his dog and gun were in constant requisition, and his heavy libations on such occasions more than once laid him out for a night's lodging on the prairies. His wife, once a pet of British aristocratic circles, and at one time maid of honor to the
Queen, though a highly accomplished lady, an excellent musician and speaking with seven different languages, soon became even more besotted than himself.
She died drunk, a year ago, and
Brodhead was in such a state of intoxication as to be unable to comprehend the fact.
Since that time he has been rapidly "going under. " His property, dwindling away for years, soon vanished, and at the time of his death we find that he had been driven to the of pawning his golden medals.
