South Park: A San Francisco Tragedy of 1855.

Chapter Three: Revenge

    In 1861 George Gordon received a crushing blow. Returning to South Park late one night he heard sounds of revelry coming from his wife's room. Opening he door he was staggered at the sight before him. His wife was swaying against the bed post, clutching a half empty bottle of rum.
    Across the room on a couch, barely able to hold her head up, was the pride of his life, Nellie, as drunk as her mother. She was sixteen years old.
     Gordon turned to his wife, the look in his eyes begging for an explanation.
    In one torrential outburst she screamed that she had made Nellie an alcoholic like herself. Since the time Nellie had been a baby she had been giving her rum or brandy mixed with her food. The older she got the more she received, and now the child had an insatiable craving for drink.
    Why? To fulfill the vow she had made years before that Gordon would suffer for making her leave England.
    Nellie was on her knees to her father, begging his forgiveness, and vowing she would stop drinking. To this her mother responded with a scornful laugh.  
Gordon told Nellie he believed her and would never stop helping her overcome her craving for drink.
    He had a good friend on the Peninsula, Faxon Atherton. Nellie would stay there, she would like the Atherton children and fresh air and sunshine would soon make her well. But above all she would be away from her mother.
    So Nellie went to Atherton, and for a time she did seem to be improving until one day she was discovered drinking, but how had she got the liquor?
    She had no contact with her mother, except for the weekly laundry sent in a basket from San Francisco.
    Mrs. Atherton went to the last one received and tore through the contents. There at the bottom she discovered a bottle of brandy. Mrs. Gordon was not easily beaten.
    Gordon now realized that if Nellie remained anywhere in California, her mother would somehow reach her. The only thing to do was to take Nellie to Europe. As soon as they boarded a ship, Mrs. Gordon's hold on her daughter would be broken.
    Gordon and Nellie sailed from San Francisco on the Pacific Mail steamship Golden City and for the first time he felt Nellie was free of her mother. That feeling was short lived.
    Mrs. Gordon didn't know it, but she had an ally aboard the vessel, a man who also liked to drink. He was Dr. Charles Gordon, the vessel's doctor, no relation to George. Dr. Gordon met Nellie and in the ship's bar soon discovered they had similar tastes.
    George Gordon again was devastated, but had some consolation. The doctor would leave the Golden City when they reached the Isthmus of Panama, while he and Nellie would cross to the Atlantic side and board another ship.
    Nellie and the doctor said goodbye.

Chapter four of four