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Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner

"The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate"

I received no response to this, but Georgia's first
communication from school contained the following paragraph:
I saw Sallie Keiberg last week, who told me that her mother had a
letter from the old lady (Grandma Brunner) five weeks ago. A man
brought it. And that the old lady had sent us by him some jewellery,
gold breast-pins, earrings, and wristlets. He stopped at the William
Tell Hotel. And that is all they know about him and the presents.


CHAPTER XXXIV
TRAGEDY IN SONOMA--CHRISTIAN BRUNNER IN A PRISON CELL--ST. CATHERINE'S
CONVENT AT BENICIA--ROMANCE OF SPANISH CALIFORNIA--THE BEAUTIFUL ANGEL
IN BLACK--THE PRAYER OF DONA CONCEPCION ARGUELLO REALIZED--MONASTIC
BITES.

Time passed. Not a word had come to me from Sonoma in months, when
Benjamin handed me the _Union_, and with horror I read the headlines to
which he pointed: "TRAGEDY IN SONOMA. CHRISTIAN BRUNNER, AN OLD
RESIDENT, SLAYS HIS OWN NEPHEW!"
From the lurid details published, I learned that the Brunners had asked
this nephew to come to them, and had sent him money to defray his
expenses from Switzerland to California. Upon his arrival in Sonoma, he
had settled himself in the proffered home, and at once begun a life of
extravagance, at the expense of his relatives. He was repeatedly warned
against trifling with their affection, and wasting their hard-earned
riches. Then patience ceased, and he was forbidden the house of his
uncle.


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