Shipherd's Love Letters.

New York, 1895

The love letters that Shipherd wrote to Mrs. Crowell are a strong link in the scoundrelism of the whole case. Shipherd had had at least two wives before he became infatuated with Mrs. Crowell, or rather before he hypnotized her. One of these he divorced in Utah by a power of attorney, and then married the other, and it has always been a mooted question among lawyers whether he had not committed bigamy. The last woman that he is known to have married lives on Staten Island and, so far as any one knows, is still his wife, in law. If Shipherd has married any other women the fact has not appeared, but the language in some of his letters creates the impression that if he has not had other wives he has been a villainous woman hunter. Mrs. Crowell regards him as her "husband" and he recognizes the validity of it in his reply to her letters, but that may be based on their free love ideas rather than on the substance of a ceremonial marriage. She said to him as they parted in Philadelphia and he promised her a letter: "A piece of paper instead of my husband! No. I want my husband!" Then he writes to her from Atlanta: "A great many times those words have come back to me, and I have found my respect for them steadily increasing." * * "And then like a flash from heaven came back your words to me, 'A piece of paper instead of my husband! No. I want my husband!' And all my soul cried out, 'Those words are true."' * * "The words above all others in this No. 6 that my soul responds to this morning are these: 'When I am with my husband I feel as if I would like to shut out the world and be alone with my dearest, dearest.'"

Shipherd's ideas of a husband's responsibilities were well illustrated by his defence to an action brought against him for the recovery of property by the children of his last (legal) wife. He offset the children's claim to the property by charging them with the support of their mother, his wife, for a number of years, and for her hotel expenses at Washington during the time of his trouble with Secretary Blaine. Shipherd was beaten in this action. He could not have the services and comfort of a wife at some one else's expense, with the sanction of the court.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 4.

JAKE SHIPHERD'S LOVE LETTERS.

New York, 1895

Three that He Wrote to Mrs. Crowell.

SHE KNEW HOW TO LOVE

Called Her His "Dainty One," "My Own, My Only Own," "Loveliest Love," "Love of Loves," "Lovie" and "Lamb," "Lovie Sweet" and "Sweetest."

"HUSBAND" AND "WIFE."

THE FARMER gave last week but an outline of one or two letters written by Jacob Rudd Shipherd of Richmond Hill to Mrs. Lydia S. Crowell. We lay before the reading public to-day three of Shipherd's letters to Mrs. Crowell, taken from full stenographic notes of the trial of the divorce suit. In one or two particulars these letters may seem offensive, but we have no right to mutilate them, as they are part of the court record; and if mutilated Shipherd might claim that the omission did him an injustice, so they are printed verbatim. The letters are but three out of a lot. Some of the statements in them may not seem entirely clear in the absence of Mrs. Crowell's letters to which reference is had. It seems that they posed as husband and wife. Mrs. Crowell's terms of endearment for Shipherd must have been extravagant and ravishing, but they can only be guessed at. Shipherd's terms of endearment are soul stirring and heart crushing. She was his Rock and his rest in her was better than ten millions of money could make it. She was his "My Dainty One," his "My Own, All My Own, My Only Own," "My Lamb," "Lovie Sweet," "My Love," "Sweetest," "Sweetest, Loveliest Love," and "Best Loved," "Lovie," "Dearest Dearest," "My Love of Loves," and so on.

As Crowell still has a suit pending against Shipherd for damages for the loss of Mrs. Crowell's affections, the letters will prove important evidence for Mr. Crowell.

The letters follow:

ATLANTA, Oct. 8, 93.

"The happiest woman in this world." "The happiest woman in this world." My my though, wouldn't that be almost too happy, dearie? She doesn't say she is that — she only says she would be that if. If — that is, she thinks she wd be that — if. If — well, that's lovely reading anyway. It sort o' warms m' heart & things. I think it brings a shine into m' eyes. I know it makes me glad like solid gold.

I went to the university at 4.30 & got back 2 hours later. Then I went to the Cong. Ch. to Chr. Endeavor. The minister was there & made me talk again, & after the preaching he & I talked some more, & some more brethren came up to introduce themselves & hope I would keep coming right along. One of them saw me there once in May & had remembered it ever since. Pa makes nice boys & girls, dont he, dear? After church Pa sent me to studying on 271 & remarked that if it was his wife & sister he'd left in Phila he sh'd go round and see if there weren't some letters. Nuff ced. I went, and there they were — 2 letters & a big pkg. There is a bright electric light within 10 feet of 271, & a broad stand-up desk to lean on. It only took 1½ minutes to absorb both letters, & 2⅛ seconds more to get into the box.

O my lamb! It was lovely of you — but this Pig had other views. He wanted her to buy her a syringe or some such thing for herself out of those virgin bills — it adds inches to the feel of his ears to have her little savings lavished on him this way. Now if I send her $2 special will she please got her a syringe for me — just for me, lovie sweet? Tell me true & nice my dainty one.

It makes me glad without surprise that you like the city of your kin. It is the smoothest, most restful and peaceable settlement of size I was ever in. I was sure you must like it — but left you free to find your own impressions. Mayhap you & I will settle there or near there yet & put on (both of us) the plain dress and say "thee" and "thine" and so drift out together upon the sleeping sea. Would my love like it?

Every word you write sets my heart a-glow, sweetest. And the full, clear name at the end shines like a star cluster in my eyes. My own, my own, my only own — and all my own.

Oct. 14, '93.

Your No. 6 gladdens me this morning — but, O my loveliest love, every day I find your words talking for me better than my own. When I was coming away and you were rebelling — not naughtily, only helplessly — and I tried to comfort you with some reminder about letters, & you retorted indignantly, "A piece of paper instead of my husband. No, I want my husband." I thought at first — just for an instant — that you were scarcely appreciating letters.

A great many times since those words have come back to me, and I have found my respect for them steadily increasing, and this morning, after opening your parcel with quivering eagerness & feasting upon every mark of your pen, I lay it down as one famishing with thirst might set down the empty cup in the bottom of which he had found a few trickling drops only, & my soul cries out "And is that all? How am I to live all day on that? and probably must live 24 hours on it? And then there will be only as much more. O this is sheer starvation; and are there weeks and weeks of it yet to come?"

And then like a flash from heaven came back your words to me "A piece of paper instead of my husband. No, I want my husband." And all my soul cried out "Those words are true." The words above all others in this No. 6 that my soul responds to this morning are these: "When I am with my husband I feel as if I would like to shut out the world and be alone with my dearest, dearest."

The greater facts of life are the same, regardless of all time & space & surroundings. To each other we are alone — always, everywhere — what is ours is as separately ours as if God and we alone were alive. If our holy of holies could be entered, there could be no sacredness assured to us. But only God has access there, and he comes in only to cheer and bless and enrich and approve.

The longing we both feel to be absolutely (for the most part) left to ourselves, is only the nimbus of the sun of our joy — a halo surrounding the pure & central shining. It is sweet to be quite by ourselves — alone, alone, alone, alone, in every sense and manner of form. It is pain, a weight, a clog, a stricture, when we are parted in any manner, when any conditions intervene to divide us in any way to any extent. But it is not immeasurable relief to remember that as matter of fact, the most holy place which is ours alone can never be entered by any profane foot or eye or car. That what is truly ours alone can never be shared under any conceivable conditions by any other than our Father alone? And that all these interrupting experiences are in their very nature transient and fleeting — a part of those "light afflictions which are but for a moment."

Were it not so, O best loved, it seems to me I could not endure to live. You have had some hints — the merest hints only — of what I suffered when an infinitely lesser love was — in a manner, profaned and outraged. I had not then learned of the Inner temple of ALL; I did not then know where to take refuge. There are no words to tell of the uplifting of joy I have since known nor of the horrors of darkness out of which I have since been saved. Now love me somewhat as I do not mean less; I only mean that for the first time in my life I seem to have met one who can love as I can love.

Always hitherto I have given dollars for pennies, diamonds for stones — I mean of course outside my own family. Always hitherto, for one reason or another I have been compelled, even inside my own family, to limit my loving, to restrain myself, to forbid myself, to repeat over and over every hour of the day — "Stop here, stop here, stop here." Sometimes I have wondered how God could compel me to desire so much and to forbid myself almost all of it. But never mind now. In you & through you God has shown me so much of present sweetness, such promise of future sufficiency, and such eternal certainty — that I can now wait with such hope and such measure of content as I never knew before I knew you.

We are saved easily by hope, when our hope rises out of sufficient knowledge. Hope that is blind is but another form of desperation. Faith that does rise out of knowledge is but a dream and a snare.

I am glad Father cares. It would be much more agreeable to me to alternate the formal address; I know mother cared, and was not sure that Father did. I have obtruded so much loving upon so many people that I am very timid now. There is a sense in which it is necessary to be "weaned," nor is the experience seriously painful when the conditions are normal; but in the sense in which you cry out, "I shall never be weaned, darling, never," all my soul cries with you. Not only will it never be easier to be torn from you — it must always be harder and harder.

But we may learn & shall learn now (largely) to ignore the conditions of time and space. But for this our whole life wd grow harder & sorer, & wd soon become intolerable. Yes, lovie; please send me one of the photos. I must begin my day's work now.

This will be due in N. Y. at 1 P. M. tomorrow — in good season for R. H. on Monday A. M. O my love of loves.

Oct. 18, '93, 9 a. m.

At the office I found 4 letters waiting for me — four. I had them all for breakfast, and now I sit before my wife's No. 9, No. 10, No. 11 with a sense of wealth unknown before. I will write to Julia to hand you the $2. Let me know that you get it. I could write you pages of history about my care of your husband. If he gets any harm while in my charge it will not be my fault — the first cold night for example, the cold was so unexpected that no one was ready. The next morning at breakfast every one was clamoring about the inability to keep warm. But I wasn't caught napping, & I took care of your husband. I made him report to me every two or three minutes when he was awake. Of course we started with the foot muff. Then came the b-quilt. Next the knee quilt. Then a thin under vest; then thick drawers. Then thin stockings. Then woolen stockings over them. There were a heavy pair of new & handsome blankets & coverlid all the time, but as the night wore on & the cold steadily strengthened I found the man was still a shade too cool, & I bounded out once more. I brought him his brown coat and made him sit up & put it on. He laughed a pile & declared that in all his life he had never worn a coat in this way, but of course I was inexorable; it is easy enough to be flinty when you have a duty to do. His wife was right before me every minute, & I was hard as granite in her presence. There is nothing in the universe (I suppose) so flinty as pure love.

Julia writes that you mentioned the flowers I sent her but gave her none; I don't understand it; As to Sadie I think you are wise to be silent & let things take their course — no effort of ours can change anything and certainly we have no wisdom as to the future. How can we tell whether it is best, she sh'd. go with us or not? And is it not certain that only the best things will be given us? Is not the best good enough?

I have myself thought about a thicker overcoat. It is to say whether it will be needed or not. If I send for it, please pack it in one of those boxes you will find in the storeroom closet: "To whom does that table belong?" What table, dear. "I took charge of the small envelope." Thanks dearie. "Did your umbrella go all the way to Atlanta with you?" I am able to assure you, dear, upon the highest authority that my umbrella did go all the way to Atlanta with me. If you will be good enough to step into my room for a moment I will show you where it stands this moment, just over there in the southwest corner of my room, beside my cane. "Cane?"

Sure enough, your spouse hadn't told you, had he? Well, forgive him, and let me tell you all about it; He moves around more or less evenings, always to the P. O. and 2 or 3 times a week to some public place & felt sort o' unprotected in the dark, besides, he is so clumsy he likes to have something to sound the darker places with, and I told him to go right off and get him a cane, that his wife wouldn't allow the question to be debated, etc. He only hesitated about the expense but when I quoted his wife he knew I was right and said no more. He chose a very substantial hickory stick, closely like one he carries at home, with a round handle. It is handsome and it is strong, and he never goes out in the dark without it. It cost 75 cents & wd. be cheap at twice the money. His father said he'd provide the money (I hear his father is quite well to do; at least in comfortable circumstances.)

"I will have to come back to the thought that everything is right." I wouldn't love if I could do better. I think we have the right to demand always the best; for myself I confess I never came to that thought till I was forced to it by the failure of every other refuge; then I got away from it again directly, and I have got away from it a million times since and I never get back to it till I am driven back to it. Never.

This is the reason I do often hear these lines, "Blest be the tempest, kind the storm that drives me nearer home."

"I hope Pa will solve the lawyer problems and then your mind will rest." No dearest, not then. First because I can't wait. "I want it now." I must have it now. I can't stand on any uncertainty any more. Since I have once stood on the Rock.

Second, because I couldn't rest on any human thing — not for a moment. If I had the new charter now I could not rest on it an instant. If I had ten millions of money besides I couldn't rest on both of them a instant: Since I have found the Rock. Since I have found the Rock I can never rest anywhere else. I do rest now darling, absolutely, utterly.

There are no longer any problems (in the sense) for me. All my problems are solved. "Thy Maker is thy husband." Multiply your rest in your husband by a thousand millions or so — that is what it is to rest in Him. "Will you accept an unlimited number of kisses?" Try me, love. Try me.

————————

When Jacob Rudd Shipherd was first accused of wrongfully detaining Miss Bennett, and when he was strongly suspected of the infamy which was developed in the Crowell divorce trial, the Jamaica Standard's columns were used in his defense. It is said now that money was paid for the use of the paper.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

The Crowell Divorce Suit.

New York, 1895

Jacob Rudd Shipherd and Mrs. Lydia S. Crowell have had a fair trial before an impartial judge and an unbiased jury and they have been found guilty of the offense which Charles B. Crowell, the woman's husband, charged against them. The evidence of their guilt was overwhelming. Mrs. Crowell has been a most foolish woman. One might almost assume that she could not have been of sound sense so easily was she lured to her ruin, and that Shipherd is a hypnotist before whom DuMaurier's creation of the mythical Schvengali fades wholly away. From the first meeting of the couple on an electric car and their flirtation Shipherd seems to have marked the woman for his victim and to have pursued her relentlessly until at last he got her wholly within his power under his own roof. It cannot be said that she was not a willing victim, for she had been put on her guard by friends who knew full well the fate that would befall her if she continued to coquette with Shipherd. She received him in her home and concealed his visits from her husband. She received affectionate letters from him, and letters that were impious and nasty, and concealed the fact and the letters from her husband. The receipt of such letters by a woman is not in itself evidence of criminal conduct on her part, for a man might send such missives to her maliciously, with the intent of injuring her good name and disrupting her family relations, but when a woman consents to receive improper communications, breathing love or uttering unprintable words, and replies to them and revels in them, and makes her husband a thing to be mocked at by her duplicity, she becomes a moral criminal deserving only to be despised and cast out from association with decent people. This is Mrs. Crowell's case precisely. The verdict of the jury stamps Shipherd a scoundrel who ought to be in prison. There are purer and better men wearing stripes. In his temporary absence from the object of his lust he defiled Christianity by audaciously invading the sanctuary and making a religious address, by carrying his polluting person into the midst of an assemblage of pure young people of the Christian Endeavor order, and writing home to his concubine letters that sought by the use of Gospel quotations to justify his and her moral leprosy. Such a creature is not fit to be spat upon by the wayfarer.


Short Editorial, No Headline:

"Pig" was the pet name Mrs. Crowell choose for Jacob Rudd Shipherd. It was well chosen, too. His was not so happy a thought in calling her "Lamb." Old Mutton would have been better.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 4.

INFAMOUS.

New York, 1895

Jacob R. Shipherd's Ruin of Mrs. Crowell.

SOME LOVE LETTERS.

Invited Her Home With Him the First Time They Met.

AND GOT HER THERE LATER.

An Old Housekeeper that Goes By Three Names.

A DIVORCE FOR MR. CROWELL.

The Trial Lasted Two Days and the Jury Found a Substantial Verdict — A Present of a Bicycle — Mrs. Crowell Had Cramps and Shipherd Applied Hot Witch Hazel and Carried Her Corsets Home for Her — A Question She Could Not Answer Without Incriminating Herself — An Assault on a Process Server — Called Old Jake Her "Husband."

The suit of Charles B. Crowell of New York, formerly of Jamaica, for absolute divorce from his wife, Lydia S. Crowell, came on for trial before Justice Cullen at Long Island City on Saturday. Crowell is the New York agent of the Port Royal and Augusta railroad, the office of which is at 234 Broadway. The co-respondent is Jacob Rudd Shipherd, a lawyer and ex-preacher, of Richmond Hill.

Mrs. Crowell was present in court during the progress of the case. She was apparently very nervous, and continually marked with a pencil upon a piece of newspaper. Mr. Crowell sat near his lawyers, and seemed much pained by the testimony. The co-respondent, Shipherd, appeared for the most part unconcerned, except during the reading of some of his love-letters to Mrs. Crowell, when he wiped huge beads of perspiration from his brow.

Miss Sadie T. Bennet, a cousin of Mrs. Crowell, was the principal witness against her. She told in detail how Shipherd and the defendant spent many hours together at the house in Jamaica, where Mr. and Mrs. Crowell then lived. Shipherd, she said, would call at the house in the afternoon and would remain alone in the parlor with Mrs. Crowell until it was time for Mr. Crowell to return from work. Finally Mr. Crowell learned of this and went to New York to live. Thereafter Shipherd's calls became more frequent and were extended into the late hours of evening.

"Did Shipherd ever kiss Mrs. Crowell?" the witness asked.

"Oh, yes, frequently," was the answer. "And hug her?"

"Oh, often. They usually spent the whole evening on the sofa together."

The witness also told of visits which Mrs. Crowell made to Shipherd's house in Richmond Hill. On one of these visits, Mrs. Crowell told her, she was seized with cramps in the stomach. She removed her corsets and Shipherd gave her a hot application of witch hazel. He then took her home and carried her corsets for her.

In November, 1893, Shipherd went South, and during his stay there a correspondence was kept up between him and Mrs. Crowell. Some of Shipherd's letters to Mrs. Crowell Miss Bennet took from Mrs. Crowell's bureau drawer at the request of Mr. Crowell and gave to the latter's daughter. Three of the letters were offered in evidence in spite of vigorous objections from Lawyer Calvin. All of them were full of Shipherd's love for Mrs. Crowell, with an occasional admixture of piety.

The letters quote frequently from those sent by Mrs. Crowell to Shipherd, whom she referred to as her "husband." Part of one of the letters, dated Oct. 8, 1893, was as follows:

The happiest woman in the world? The happiest woman in the world? My! my, though! Wouldn't that be almost too happy, dearie?

Shipherd then went on to describe his visit to a Congregational church, where he spoke and was warmly welcomed. He also visited a meeting of a Christian endeavor society. After telling of his pleasure at receiving a package and two letters from Mrs. Crowell, he breaks out:

Oh, my lamb! It was lovely of you, but this Pig had other views. He wanted you to buy some things for yourself with those virgin bills. * * * It makes me glad with surprise that you like the city of your kin [Philadelphia] * * * Mayhap you and I will settle there yet and put on (both of us) the plain dress and say "thee" and "thine" and so drift out together upon the sleeping sea.

Another of the letters ends as follows:

Since I have found The Rock, I can never rest anywhere else. I do rest now, darling, absolutely, utterly. There is no longer any problems, in the old sense, for me. All my problems are solved. "Thy maker is thy husband," Multiply your rest in your husband by a thousand millions or so; that is what it is to rest in Him. Will you accept an unlimited number of kisses?" Try me, love. Try me.

Miss Bennet submitted to a sharp cross examination, and answered questions with much spirit. She recovered a judgment for $2,300 against Shipherd. She would not take the money, however, it still being in the possession of her lawyers. The ground on which she recovered this judgment was that Shipherd locked her in Lawyer Arthur M. Sanders' office at 29 Broadway, New York.

The next witness was Mrs. Alfaretta Klinck of Orange, who was an intimate friend of Mrs. Crowell. The latter told her all about her affairs with Shipherd, as she did Miss Bennet. Her testimony was substantially the same as Miss Bennet's. She added, however, that Mrs. Crowell said Shipherd had presented her with a bicycle that cost $125.

The trial was continued before Judge Cullen on Monday. A feature of the trial was the absence of the co-respondent, Jacob Rudd Shipherd. It was expected that he would go on the stand to deny some of the allegations as to the intimate relations between himself and Mrs. Crowell, but he did not appear upon the floor of the court room. Once during the afternoon his ruddy face was seen in the gallery, whence it as quickly disappeared. Mrs. Crowell was present throughout the day, and underwent a scathing cross examination.

A small, middle-aged woman first took the stand. She said her name was Helen Garfield, and that she kept house for Shipherd during a portion of the time that Mrs. Crowell lived there. She was with Shipherd on a trolley car one night, when he and Mrs. Crowell became acquainted. It was a stormy night, and Shipherd offered Mrs. Crowell the shelter of his house at Richmond Hill to avoid the necessity of her returning home to Jamaica. Mrs. Crowell declined but she and Shipherd exchanged invitations to call. Later the witness and Mrs. Crowell attended a series of lectures on theosophy in Brooklyn with Shipherd. Miss Garfield said she never saw any improprieties between Mrs. Crowell and the co-respondent. On cross-examination she admitted that Garfield was only one of her names. She had two others, Charlotte Rose and Katherine Potter.

Miss Garfield was a witness for the defence.

The prosecution then interposed a witness. He was Benjamin Jeselshon, a process server, and he told of his efforts to find Shipherd and Mrs. Crowell. He called at Shipherd's house in Richmond Hill on Aug. 17, 1894. Mrs. Crowell came to the door. The witness asked if Mrs. Crowell was in, and she replied that she was not and did not live there. Later in the day he encountered Mrs. Crowell near the Richmond Hill station. He told her he had a summons in an action for divorce to serve upon her. She declared she would not accept it.

"I then attempted to serve the paper by placing it on her shoulder," said the witness, "and she slapped me in the face."

The defence then resumed, and Mrs. Crowell herself walked up to the witness stand. The court attendant offered the Bible, but she refused it and made an affirmation. She said she was 48 years old and had been married to the plaintiff nine years. She declared that she and her husband had for a long time been unhappy together. He had frequently suggested divorce, but she had said she didn't want to be divorced. She wished to separate from him if he would allow her sufficient to live upon, but, she testified, he had insisted upon a divorce. The witness accused her husband of not paying her bills, and said her father, Hewlett J. Norris, had frequently been obliged to pay them.

When questioned as to Shipherd's visits, she said they were merely those of a lawyer to his client, her father's business being in Shipherd's hands.

"How did he come to give you a bicycle?" the witness was asked.

"Oh, he just bought it for me for cash, and I was to pay him back in monthly installments. I paid him twice and my father made the other payments. I took lessons on the wheel in New York and paid for them with money I earned myself."

Sho then told how she became acquainted with Shipherd on the trolley car without the formality of an introduction.

"It is untrue, is it not, that you and Shipherd were alone together?" she was asked.

"It is."

"Did he ever kiss you?"

"He did occasionally in a brotherly way."

"And hug you?"

"Never!"

The witness denied in detail all the other allegations of undue intimacy between herself and the co-respondent. Counsellor Luckey then began the cross-examination.

"How often did this man Shipherd call upon you?" he asked.

"About once a week," replied Mrs. Crowell.

"Did your husband over meet him?"

"Not that I know of."

"How many letters have passed between you?"

"I don't know."

"Did Shipherd address your parents as 'ma' and 'pa?'"

"Yes, sometimes."

"In 1886 did Dr. McGonigal, who is now serving a seventeen years' sentence in Sing Sing for malpractice, attend you at the house of a Mrs. Douglass in New York?"

Before answering this question the witness looked appealingly to Justice Cullen, and asked if she must answer it. She was told she must unless it might tend to incriminate her. She then declined to answer. Justice Cullen thereupon asked the witness several questions.

"You admit that Shipherd kissed you?" "He did; but the fact afterward caused me great mental agony."

"And he wrote you those extravagantly passionate letters?"

"Yes; it was foolish."

"Love letters are often foolish, and always so when the love is improper," said the Justice didactically.

The witness then denied that she parted her hair in the middle because Shipherd liked it that way. She further denied that she and Shipherd were once warned not to enter the Congregational church in Richmond Hill under penalty of expulsion.

In summing up for the defence, ex-Surrogate Delano C. Calvin said that Mrs. Crowell was a pure woman, and he denounced what he styled the plot of her husband and Miss Bennet to defame her. Ex-Judge McKoon, in his summing up, denounced Shipherd as an "infamous scoundrel," and said that Mrs. Crowell had been an unfaithful wife and a foolish woman. He re-read Shipherd's letters to Mrs. Crowell, and said they were evidence of the guilt of the two.

In his charge to the jury, Justice Cullen spoke of the letters as a preposterous mixture of piety and wrongful love.

THE VERDICT.

Supreme Court, Queens County. — Charles B. Crowell vs. Lidie S. Crowell. Question for the jury:

Did defendant commit adultery, or was defendant guilty of adultery with one Jacob R. Shipherd between January 1st, 1893, and December 30, 1893, at No. 40 Central avenue, Richmond Hill, L. I., or No. 20 Clinton avenue, Jamaica, L. I., or elsewhere?

Answer: Yes.

We, the jury, say that we find a verdict for plaintiff.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 1.

Duties of Brides Taught In College

1920

CLASS NOW LEARNING "HOW TO STAY MARRIED."

Engaged Girls Strive Hard for Immunity Against Grouchy Mates and Alluring Vamps.

DENTON, Texas, Jan. 1. — A school, unique in its purpose and unprecedented in the Southwest, is being conducted under the auspices of the College of Industrial Arts, a school for women here. "How to stay married" is what it teaches, and eighteen young ladies, from various towns in Texas, whose engagements have been announced, are the pupils.

For the purpose of giving these and other young ladies who expect to make homes for some good men, proper instructions in the art of housekeeping and home making, two cottages have been rented by the college. The members of the "How to Stay Married" class are actually keeping house in these cottages, and under the tutorage of a very successful married woman, are wrestling with the various problems which confront the housewife from the altar to the grave.

Right Down to Brass Tacks.

Those young ladies are making up the beds, mopping the floors, preparing sample meals for the prospective husbands, sweeping, ironing, dusting, arranging pictures on the walls, setting the table, washing dishes, polishing stoves and brushing the ceilings. Also they are preparing for receptions, entertaining guests, giving dinners, presiding at social functions and doing a little of any and everything which may fall their lot in after life.

But the mere drudgery of housework does not compose the entire course of "How to Stay Married." There are courses in the business of housekeeping. The students keep accurate sets of books showing imaginary expenses their "house" involves. They do the buying of groceries, complain about the prices, battle for reduction and full weight. They wrangle with the ice man and argue with the butcher. They skimp here and there and deposit their "earned" savings in the bank. They make old gowns over, Johnny's pants from father's old ones, convert worn out dresses into aprons for the girls or themselves and even make dishrags from old flour sacks.

Find Delight In Their Work.

They have their meals for "husband and the family" on the dot and they are all prim when the time for "hubby" to come home from work or the office arrives. It's a strenuous life, but the students declare they like it and are learning things which will be useful to them.

The matron in charge of the class and the president of the college have told the girls "that if they complete the course arranged for them and carry out the practices inculcated therein they will have husbands when they have grandchildren." The teacher said "girls who complete and follow this course of instruction need never fear any vamps, late nights, grouches or divorces."

The college expects to increase its activities along these lines during the next term of school. It is said already a number of young ladies have applied for the course next year. Those who graduate are given special diplomas.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Mother Whips Man Courting Her Girl

1920 (*1919)

But Maid Still Vows Love For Married Suitor

Unhappy Wife and Desperate Parent Are Victims of Sordid "Eternal Triangle"

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 1. — Love of the eternal triangle brand, which sneered at the marriage vow and set at naught horsewhippings of an angry mother and which had no regard for a little new life coming into the world, brazenly bared itself in the South Side Court.

Edward L. Branham, 22 years old, a telegraph operator, stood beside his wife, who is to bear him a child. He was there to answer a charge of disturbing the peace, sworn to by Mrs. Minnie Savage. Mrs. Savage's daughter, Lois Savage, 19 years old, Who is the "other woman," stood beside her mother.

Engaged Three Years Ago

Branham and Lois Savage had been engaged three years ago. Mrs. Savage would not approve the match. They parted. Branham married.

Mrs. Savage, a small, alert woman with reddish hair, was the first to testify.

"For two years Lois and Branham have been meeting each other, in spite of his marriage. My daughter is crazy in love with a married man. I have pleaded with them both in vain.

"I became desperate and went to his office and horsewhipped him publicly there. That had no particular effect. He would send her presents, candy, flowers. He would telegraph her when she was away on visits."

Judge Edward J. Fleming turned to the girl, Lois Savage.

Wished to Marry Him, Anyway

"Judge, I love him," she said. "If he got a divorce today, I would marry him tomorrow."

"Don't you realize," Judge Fleming asked, "that he is the type who would throw you over, too?"

The girl looked up boldly.

"It would not matter."

Then the wife, Mrs. Branham, spoke calmly:

"I love my husband. That woman has been breaking up my home. My husband has been urging a divorce, but I don't wish one. Everything would be settled if it were not for that girl."

Mrs. Branham told of Lois Savage visiting her home and asking Mrs. Branham to give up her husband. The girl went to Branham's room, the wife said, took a picture of him from the wall, kissed and caressed it and took it with her when she left.

"Is that all true?" Judge Fleming asked Branham.

Wife Refused Him a Divorce

"Yes," Branham admitted. "I kept company with her even after I was married. I desire a divorce, but my wife refuses it."

"Your fine is $500," the court told Branham. "I'll parole you if you leave the girl alone. If not, jail for you."

Then Judge Fleming turned to Mrs. Savage.

"As for that daughter of yours," he said, "a whipping would be a good thing for her, too."

Branham was paroled when he promised, after court adjourned, to cease association with Lois. The girl, weeping, was led from the courtroom by her mother and brother. Outside the building she attempted to return to the courtroom.

"Please," she said, "let me tell Edward good-by — for the last time! Please!"

She started to take a diamond ring from her finger, then said:

"No, I'll keep it to remember him!"

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 3. *Note: These events took place in 1919, like maybe November. The Blade seems to put a current dateline on everything, the date they were putting the story in the newspaper.

Bets on Race; Nevah Again!

1915

Virginia Gentleman Is Bittah Because Mistah Millah Wins His $1,000

PHILADELPHIA. Pa., Dec. 16. — A peanut grower from Virginia placed a cool thousand dollars on a race horse in a well-appointed apartment and lost. He is now touring the central section of the city with a detective in an endeavor to find the apartment and two men who escaped with the money he lost.

"Nevah again will I visit youah city, suh," said the indignant plantation owner, T. M. Edwards of Rushmere, Va. Edwards says a chance acquaintance introduced him to a man named Miller.

"Mistah Millah was represented to me as being the gentleman who won back Judge Grinell's fortune by playing the hosses," said Edwards. "I was prevailed upon to go to New York to get $1,000, and returned here today. I put up the money and lost. So did my friend.

"Mr. Millah won all. My friend was very bittah against Mistah Millah and vowed he would shoot him and get my money back. Then he disappeared."


Pleas for Woman's Life Win

OTTAWA, Ont., Dec. 16. — The women of Alberta have won their fight to save the life of Mrs. Annie Hawkes of Macleod, sentenced to hang for the killing of her husband's affinity. Announcement was made that executive clemency has been extended and the sentence commuted to 10 years' imprisonment.

Hundreds of petitions protesting against the death sentence imposed upon Mrs. Hawkes were received here. The plea was made that Mrs. Hawkes while hysterical killed the woman who had been brought into her home.

Girl Twice Bade Suitor 'Shoot' in Suicide Pact

1915

Town Gossip is Blamed for Maryland Tragedy

The town gossiped about them. The story spread and the morsel of scandal was rolled 'neath many tongues. So they made a pact. They went out into the woods, kissed each other good-by and then there were shots. So much for gossip.

CRISFIELD, Md., Dec. 16. — Dying as the result of two bullet wounds in her lung, Miss Hilda Sterling told painfully but graphically of the part she played in a suicide pact. Her partner in the tragedy, C. Clifford Reese, a druggist of this city, was buried the other day. His widow is in a critical condition as the result of shock.

The coroner's jury rendered a verdict of death as the result of a gunshot wound, self-inflicted, and made an ineffectual effort to suppress three letters, two of which Reese had written before his death. One was written to Reese by Miss Sterling, who had been in his employ. In it she said that because of gossip she no longer would come to the store, tho she could speak to him on the street and still be friendly.

The Suicide Pact

The other notes were written by Reese and professed true love for Miss Sterling. They announced the purpose of the pair to commit suicide on account of the town gossip.

Miss Sterling told of their decision to commit suicide. She said they secured a blanket and went to a woods in an isolated part of the county. After wrapping up in the blanket together each took six grains of morphine, which Reese had brought, and lay down to die together. They went to sleep, expecting never to awaken, but both recovered, chilled and dazed.

Reese then drew a pistol and asked the girl if he should shoot. Upon her replying in the affirmative, he pulled the trigger; but the pistol refused to work. He then declared he would go to Crisfield and get a pistol that would shoot.

Kiss Each Other Good-by

After he had gone she decided to leave the woods, but found she was too weak and dazed to move. Upon Reese's return they talked for a little while and then agreed to complete the pact.

After kissing each other good-by, Miss Sterling sat upon the ground. "Shoot, Clifford, shoot!" she begged. He fired three shots into her body, of which two pierced her lungs. He then shot himself in the chest and this not proving fatal, put the pistol into his mouth and fired.

The two lay there for several hours. Finally the girl recovered sufficient strength to crawl to his lifeless body. She wrapped the blanket about the corpse, brushed leaves up over the lower part of his body and placed her own coat upon it.

She fell across his body unconscious, but regaining a little strength, crawled to the side of the road where she was afterward found numbed with cold and dying.

Hit by Five Bullets; Hurt? Certainly Not

1915

Leaden Pellets From Revolver Strike His Breast, but Leave Only Slight Bruises

ATLANTA, Ga., Dec. 16. — A. W. Villard, 33 years old, signal operator of engine house No. 1, is apparently bulletproof. This was most convincingly demonstrated when S. W. Bacon, Jr., 36 years old, want ad manager of an Atlanta paper, fired five .32-caliber bullets "into" Villard from a revolver held a few inches from his body.

The shooting occurred in the Empire Life building, where Villard said he found Bacon in an office with Mrs. Villard, his wife, from whom the fireman has been separated for some time.

When Bacon started shooting at Villard, the latter was very close to the gun. Bacon fired at Villard's chest; the latter, said Bacon, instead of dropping to the floor, cursed him; Bacon fired again, and, he said, Villard cursed him again. This performance was repeated five times.

Then Bacon stood with the smoking, empty revolver in his hand, while Villard, somewhat dazed and confused from loud noise of the gun and the thumping shock of the five leaden pellets striking against his chest, reached down and picked up two of the bullets which hit him.

Later Villard picked out the other three bullets from against his skin, where they lodged harmlessly, leaving nothing more serious than blue bruises.

The police could not assign any reason for the bullets not taking fatal effect upon Villard, except that at the time Villard was wearing a heavy coat and overcoat.

Mrs. Villard, her husband declared, formerly worked for Bacon as a stenographer, and for about a year had been "going with" Bacon. For a long time Villard and wife have been living apart. He said he began to suspect recently that she was still going with Bacon. So, on the afternoon of the shooting he followed Bacon to the Empire Life building, and then up into the building and to an office of a friend of Bacon's, where the shooting occurred.

Gett Came So Often, Gaigg Just Got Out

Chicago, 1920

Now He's Getting a Divorce While the Getting Is Good

Ludwig Gaigg married Nora Gaigg Dec. 15, 1912.

Last year "Mr. Gett" got between them.

"Forget me, as I shall forget you," wrote Mrs. Gaigg to Mr. Gaigg.

Gaigg took the letter to Judge Sullivan of the Chicago Superior Court and got a divorce.

"We separated Sept. 1, 1919," Gaigg testified. "A man was there whenever I came home."

"Who was he?" asked his attorney, John V. McCormick.

"Mr. Gett," replied Mr. Gaigg. "When I objected, she told me to take my suitcase and get out."

Following is the "forget me" letter that Gaigg said he got from Nora Gaigg, his wife, Nov. 28, 1919:

"Mr. L. Gaigg: You will do me a great favor if you will stay away from me entirely, as I do not wish to see you or have anything to do with you any more. I am thru with you forever and would never think of living with you again. All the love I ever had for you has gone, and I hope you will forget me as I shall forget you."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1920, p. 3.

Wife Rifles Her Husband's Pockets

Indiana, 1905

Discovers Compromising Letters and Files Suit for Divorce — The Courts

Mrs. Leonora D. Butler's testimony was heard this morning in her divorce case against William D. Butler and at the conclusion Judge Heaton took the matter under advisement.

She stated that she found in her husband's pockets two letters and two notes signed by a woman named Angel and while she could not remember just what was in them she knew enough to state that the terms of all the epistles were very endearing. She didn't know the woman until she had made an investigation.

Butler's love grew cold. He went to the fair at St. Louis last fall and upon his return told his wife that he did not have any regard for her and refused to perform the duties of a husband. He is employed by the Wabash Valley Traction company and she asks $1,500.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Aug. 17, 1905, p. 2.

Rich Girl Sued for $150,000 — Stole Woman's Astrologer Husband

1909

RICH GIRL SUED FOR $150,000

Wife of Astrologer Says His Love Was Stolen.

FORGAVE HUSBAND ONCE.

Mrs. Marshall Clark Tells Graphic Story of Seeing Rival Run Out of Mr. Clark's Private Office and of Her Visit Later to Miss Gazzam, Who, She Says, Declared the Man Was Her "Affinity in Spirit, Soul and Body."

New York, Oct. 4.— Mrs. Marshall Clark of Chicago, a handsome brunette of thirty-five years, who has brought suit for $150,000 damages against Miss Antoinette Elizabeth Gazzam, possessor of a fortune of $3,500,000 and a palatial home at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, charging the young woman with alienating the affections of her husband, an astrologer known as "Professor Niblo," has come to New York to prosecute her claim against the heiress.

"I met Dr. Clark in Chicago," Mrs. Clark said. "We were married in New York on March 24, 1903, by the Rev. Dr. Anderson, a Methodist Episcopal minister. At that time Mr. Clark was conducting a real estate business in this city.

"We had an ideal married life until Miss Gazzam and her millions appeared. We traveled much. I was my husband's business partner and confidential adviser as well as his wife.

Consulted Him on Astrology.

"We were living in Los Angeles in April last when Miss Gazzam arrived in that city. She evidently had read Mr. Clark's advertisements about astrology, and she consulted him. They very soon were having frequent meetings. Indeed, Miss Gazzam engaged the rose parlor at the fashionable Lankershim hotel, in Los Angeles, in which to entertain him.

"On April 29 I called at my husband's office, and, not hearing any sound in his inner office, I opened the door and entered. As I did so I was amazed to see Miss Gazzam spring past me and run out of the office.

"I began screaming, and my husband ran to his desk and took from the drawer a revolver, which he pointed at me, threatening to shoot me if I did not stop making a noise.

She Forgave Him That Time.

"Although I forgave my husband for the presence of the woman and for his attack on me, I soon found out that this mysterious new friend was calling upon him every day and he upon her. She called upon him five times one day and telephoned him twenty times. I sought the advice of counsel and was told to see if I could have a personal conversation with Miss Gazzam. So on May 24 last I went to her apartments, then in the Zelda hotel She met me at the door.

" 'Do you know that Marshall Clark is my husband?' I asked.

" 'Yes, I know all about you,' she said.

"Then I asked her why she was acting in this manner. She replied:

" 'Because Mr. Clark is my affinity in spirit, soul and body.'

"I began to cry and told her I was talking to her in heart to heart fashion. I said: 'Don't you know these tears are tears of blood? My heart is breaking.'

Told to Get Out of Their Way.

" 'I don't care for your tears of blood or your breaking heart,' she retorted. 'There is only one thing for you to do, and that is to get out of our way. I have always had what I wanted, and I want this man and am going to have him, no matter what it costs you or anyone else.'

"I tried to continue the interview, but she gave me a violent push that nearly knocked me out of the window, which was on the fourth floor.

"Turning upon her, I screamed: 'Are you trying to take my life? You have already taken my husband and ruined my home!'

"At this she grabbed my lace coat and almost tore it from my back. When I came to myself I was out in a hallway of the hotel, my hair down my back, my silk coat torn to shreds and blood streaming down my face.

"I got out a warrant charging her with assault and battery, but before it was served she had disappeared. I learned later that she had moved to the Hotel Pepper, where she registered as Mrs. S. W. Moore. At the time she also registered at the Westlake hotel as Miss Mazzag of Pennsylvania.

"I learned then that my husband visited her every evening. He posed as a physician. When he called upon her he worse a false mustache."

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, NY, Oct. 5, 1909, p. 9.

Kisses for Pajamas Start Divorce Suit

1920

New Form of Affection Is Quickly Noted by Judge

LONDON, England. — A professional gymnast, Ernest Dillon, asked the dissolution of his marriage on the ground of his wife's misconduct with Francis William Chamberlain, a store keeper.

Florence Baker testified she assisted Mrs. Dillon at the house. The witness said that one day Mrs. Dillon appeared to be very much upset and was caressing and kissing some pajamas, at the same time exclaiming, "Oh, Frank."

"Do you say she was kissing and caressing the pajamas?" asked the court.

The Witness: "Yes."

The Court: "Well, I thought I had exhausted all possible forms of human affection."

The hearing was continued until the pajamas, initialed "F. W. C." could be positively identified as Chamberlain's.

Mrs. Dillon used to assist her husband in his work, but after a time she gave up the stage and bred pedigree dogs. In this way she got to know Chamberlain.

Another Male Victim for Seductive, Charming Mrs. McDermott

Ohio, 1897

ELOPERS

Left the City Early Yesterday Morning on Foot.

Harley Beckett Skips With Notorious Mrs. Joe McDermott

Leaving His Wife and Several Small Children In Destitute Circumstances—The Couple Chased Several Miles by Constable Sloan—Previous Escapades of Mrs. McDermott.

Mrs. Joe McDermott, a female whose escapades have more than once made her the subject of newspaper articles, has again sprung into notice. This time she eloped with a neighbor named Harley Beckett. The couple fled from the city Tuesday.

Beckett has been employed by J. B. Carter at his barrel factory on Chillicothe street. He is an expert cooper and makes good wages. He is married and has several children. For some time past he has been "rushing" the McDermott woman and spending his money on her. Tuesday they decided to skip, and early in the morning they left town.

Constable Frank Sloan was put on the trail yesterday morning by relatives of the eloping couple and was hot on their trail all morning. He traced them down across the Scioto bottoms and up the valley, but did not come up with them. It is thought they are about in this vicinity.

Mrs. Beckett called at the mayor's office that morning and told her tale of woe. She said she and her children had been left in destitute circumstances. She wanted warrants issued for the runaways. She finally left without causing warrants to be issued. The police are on the lookout for the couple, however, and if apprehended they will be locked up.

The McDermott woman is the female to whose seductive charms George W. Legg fell a victim several years ago. Legg was then treasurer of Pike county and was spending the money of Pike county tax-payers right and left. He came here several times to see the McDermott woman, and she and her confederates bled him out of several hundred dollars before he "tumbled" to the game.

—The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH, July 24, 1897, p. 1.

'Squaw Enters Happy Hunting Grounds' (Suicide), Worthless Husband

Reno, 1905

A YOUNG SQUAW TAKES HER LIFE

HATTIE JONES GOES TO THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS BECAUSE OF HER WORTHLESS HUSBAND

Hattie Jones, a young Indian squaw, has gone to the happy hunting grounds and her erstwhile faithless husband, who has the more pronounced ideas of the Mormon church, will have the opportunity to woo his new found love.

Hattie's heart was broken because her husband played fast and loose with other squaws of the lodge, and because of this she took her own life.

It is a rare occurrence for an Indian to commit suicide. The death of the woman was reported to the police yesterday morning and after an investigation by the officers it was found that she had taken a quantity of wild parsnips the night before and this was the cause of her death.

Hattie was happy until a few weeks ago when the first papoose came and then her man took to caring for another squaw and made life miserable for Hattie.

The Chief of Police acted the big chief to the departed squaw and tried to fix up the domestic infelicity and get things running smoothly in the family affairs, but as soon as her husband, John Jones, would get out of sight of the police station, he would hurry to the side of another comely squaw by the name of Hattie Moore, and then Hattie's troubles would begin all over again.

On Thursday night Hattie's rival called at the Jones' tepee and gave the former a severe beating. This was resented by Hattie, who immediately drew a knife and proceeded to cut up the Moore squaw, when the latter and a number of friends who were along fled.

Hattie was arrested at the time of the cutting, but as soon as the facts in the case were made known to the officers, she was released.

The husband and his paramour were placed in jail yesterday but as no evidence of crime has been found, it is probable they will not be prosecuted.

—Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Feb. 26, 1905, p. 1.

Comment: The article is so cold and callous, so unbelievable that they thought making Indian jokes would be a good way to handle a matter like this.

A Hardened Criminal Once, Now He Helps Reform Others

Davenport, Iowa, 1903

CONVICT TO PREACHER

HISTORY OF STANLEY FORREST, MISSIONARY.

A Hardened Criminal, He Was Arrested For the First Time In His Life Here In Davenport Fifteen Years Ago Today — Served Term In Ft. Madison — Gave Life to Fellow Convicts — Dying of Consumption.

Fifteen years ago today Stanley M. Forrest, one of the smoothest hotel swindlers that the criminal world has ever produced, was taken from his bed in the Harper house, in Rock Island and locked in the Rock Island jail until morning. In the morning he was brought to this city, given a preliminary hearing on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses from the management of the St. James hotel. Although he stoutly protested his innocence he was convicted in the district court and sentenced to serve two and one-half years at hard labor in the penitentiary at Fort Madison.

Now, today, Stanley M. Forrest, his hair whitened through sorrows and sickness and his once powerful constitution shattered by consumption, is back in this city to close his work as a jail evangelist and a convict's friend, by addressing the inmates of the Rock Island and the Davenport jails in which he was incarcerated fifteen years ago. He feels that the disease from which he is suffering does not give him a great while longer to live, so what could be more fitting than that should close in his work in the city which saw the beginning of the end.

Interesting Life Story.

His life story is one of exceptional interest. It is the story of a life crowded with action. Forty-eight years ago Stanley M. Forrest was born in England. His parents were well-to-do and gave him an exceptionally thorough education. At the age of 23 he came this country, possessed in his own right of some little money. He traveled from one place to another until his money ran out and then started in to live by his wits. Fashionable hotels in large cities presented a target for his practices. His scheme of operations were above the plane of the ordinary criminal. His education and natural good breeding were brought to the aid of a resourceful mind and an ability at disguises and he was very successful, if the word be permitted. In the pursuit of his prey he traveled from one side of the country to the other, never operating in any but the largest and most popular hotels, securing a wide acquaintance with statesmen, jurists and prominent men of business. His affable manners and neat dress gave him easy passport to hotel lobby acquaintances. One single haul netted him $2,800, with never a finger of suspicion pointed at him or the necessity of any attempt at hiding. Then the crash came.

First Arrested Here.

A little over 15 years ago he drifted into this city and registered at the St. James. One day at dinner he checked his overcoat, as usual, and went in dinner. When he came out, according the story which he told last evening to a representative of the Republican, he presented his check at the wardrobe door, but an exhaustive search failed to disclose the garment. It was gone, but that did not trouble the buoyant spirit of Forrest, for he knew that the landlord was responsible for the garment and he was. The landlord advanced him money to purchase a garment to replace the one lost, and he purchased a new coat. That evening Forrest went to the Burtis opera house with a well known woman of the town. He was seen there by an attache of the St. James, who recognized his companion and followed them after the performance, across the river and to the Harper house. Having them safely located he communicated with the hotel and they secured Forrest's arrest, shortly after midnight on the morning of March 6th. He spent the balance of the night in the Rock Island jail and the next morning was brought to this city and lodged in jail.

Convicted and Sentenced.

The charge was that of obtaining money under false pretenses. Forrest waived preliminary examination for the circumstantial evidence was strongly against him. He procured an attorney and made a hard fight for freedom, but the evidence was strongly against him. The theory of the state was that Forrest, unnoticed by the attache of the hotel had gone to the wardrobe, procured his coat, hid it and then boldly presented the check, demanding either the overcoat or its cash equivalent. The result was a conviction, and Forrest stood to receive a long sentence in the penitentiary. But the judge had become impressed by his personality and the apparent frankness of his demeanor in telling his story and he sentenced him to two and one-half years at Fort Madison. The well dressed gentleman of the world donned the convict's stripes with a terrible spirit of revenge nestled down in his heart. As he worked through the sentence at Fort Madison it was with the one determination that, when he was released he would come back to Davenport and shoot the man who had sworn his freedom away. By exemplary behavior in the penitentiary he reduced his sentence eight months and at the end of one year and ten months he was set free.

Fall Was Fast.

But when he stepped from the institute, a free man, his naturally generous spirit again began to return, and instead of coming back to this city to execute his threat he went East. With the stain of the convict upon him he became more careless and bold in his operations and the result that it was not long until he was an inmate of the Ohio penitentiary, serving a year's sentence. He came to be regarded as a criminal whom officials might well fear for his shrewdness and ability at planning and executing affairs which baffled their powers of detection. He was exceptionally lucky, along with his cunning, and while his confederates were sometimes hauled up short he generally escaped, or if arrested for the crime would manage to find a loop hole of escape.

How He Came to Reform.

The causes which led to his reforming were as unique as his career has been. When he was in the penitentiary at Fort Madison a private secretary to the governor of the state used to appear pretty regularly at the penitentiary, that was before the day of the board of control, and make speeches to the convicts. In these it was his custom to praise them for the reformation which he saw being worked out and to tell them how dearly he loved an ex-convict and what he would do for them at any time that it would be in his power. He would generally end his little speech by giving them an invitation to come to see him at any time they were in need or wanted work or help. So it happened that about ten years ago Forrest, tired with continual evading the officers of the law, decided to try and lead an honest life. He drifted to Burlington. The first man he met that he knew was a cellmate of his at Fort Madison. His prison friends told him that he was on his way to see the redoubtable private secretary and Forrest joined him. They found the private secretary to be a very busy man, and after taking their names he turned to dismiss them. But Forrest's companion was insistent. He said he needed help. The secretary gave him a quarter, told him to eat supper and then help himself. The ex-convict took the secretary at his word and helped himself to the secretary's horse and buggy as soon as they reached the open air. The secretary never saw either article again. And Forrest went to Chicago to take his start at honest life.

Rise Was Rapid.

In the world of crime he had been what might be called a successful man. In the world of labor he was almost equally successful. When he arrived in Chicago he applied to the superintendent of the street cleaning department and asked for a position on the streets. He told his story from the beginning of his prison life and said that he wanted a chance. His education stood him in good stead and he was made foreman of a gang. Three months afterward his natural ability won for him the position of chief inspector of streets at a salary of $2,000 a year. He held this position for some time, and married while in it. All of his spare time he began to devote to the work of trying to make the prisoners in the jails of Chicago and neighboring cities better. He was remarkably successful in this line. When the time came that a cutting down in expenses of the street department of the city of Chicago eliminated the office which he held he turned his time more than ever to the new field which had opened up before him and continued to be successful. He entered the penitentiaries and the prisons and talked to the inmates as a comrade who had saw the brighter side to life. His arguments were of the convincing sort. When he met a man who, to his eye, and he is an expert judge of human nature, would be really benefited by a pardon, he immediately set himself to the effort of securing such a pardon, and often he was successful, for executives with the pardoning power came to regard Forrest as a man upon whose word they could depend.

Came to Davenport.

Five years ago, on the anniversary of his first day in prison, Forrest returned to Davenport and did a very considerable amount of work among the people of this city, especially in the jails, both here and in Rock Island. His teachings were productive of much good, and there is one man who will long remember him. One Monday morning, according to Forrest's statements, Mrs. Hill, the police matron, interested him in the case of Joel Bledsoe, at that time serving a sentence in the Rock Island jail for drunkenness. Forrest investigated the case, and as a result he secured Bledsoe's release by signing a personal bond for his future good behavior. Bledsoe was very grateful, and more so when a position was secured for him as janitor of the Y. M. C. A. building. The reform was permanent and effectual. Again three years ago Forrest came to this city and labored for a considerable length of time among the jail inmates.

Sorrows Heap Upon Him.

But the life of love which had been brightening the career of Forrest for seven years came to a sudden end two and one-half years ago, when he suddenly discovered that an ex-convict whom he had taken into his own home in Chicago to keep until a position could be found had proved ungrateful and betrayed the trust of the home. His wife and home gone, Forrest, a tinge of white added to his hair, began with renewed vigor his life-work with the criminal class. His efforts were meeting with greater success than ever, and he was gaining a country wide reputation, when, while at Springfield, Ill., he contracted, a severe cold which developed into the dread consumption. Since that time he has been traveling constantly, seeking health and working among the prisoners in various jails until, a wreck of his former self, with all hope of recovery gone, he has come to Davenport to make his last pleas to criminals and, perhaps, to die in the city of his first arrest and conviction. He will speak tomorrow forenoon at 10:30 o'clock in the Rock Island jail, and in the afternoon at 2:30 in the Scott county jail. Everyone interested in jail work is invited to be present. The local Y. M. C. A, will have charge of both meetings, which will be free, and they will furnish music for each meeting.

How He Works.

A representative of the Republican enjoyed a most interesting visit with Forrest last evening. He is a brilliant conversationalist to start with, and, added to this, his vast fund of experience makes him a most interesting person to listen to. He said: "I have probably been most fortunate in my chosen work, and I blame it to the fact that I know criminals, being a graduate myself; and I know how to approach them. The man who enters the jail and goes up to the prisoner, extends a hearty hand and exclaims, 'Ha, old fellow, glad to see you here,' isn't going to make a success of the work. One must know criminals and approach them in a way at which they can take no offense, yet understand your position. In my experience I have met many criminals and befriended many, and it is seldom that I have been mistaken. I remember once, in Maine, I secured a pardon for a convict in the Thomastown penitentiary in whom I had become interested. He was an Englishman named Bird, and was in for seven years for perjury. I took the pardon to him and found him in a most irritable mood. I drew him to one side and questioned him as to what he might do as soon as he was free, in case he were pardoned. He had recently been flogged for misbehavior, and remarked with an oath that the first thing he would do would be to kill the deputy warden. I took the pardon out before his eyes and tore it into little bits. I knew that that man could not safely be pardoned."

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 6, 1903, page 7.

Judge Plays Racy Society - Thorkildsen Case

1920

Judge Plays Racy Society

Decree In Borax King Divorce Case Excoriates Social Conditions Among Wealthy

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24.-—The decision of Judge Works in the famous Thorkildsen divorce case, read from the bench at the conclusion of a sensational trial lasting twenty days, mercilessly flayed not only both principals in the case but as well most of those who figured in the case as members of the fast society set to which the Thorkildsens belong. He awarded Mrs. Thorkildsen the degree, $30,000 as her share of community property, $15,000 alimony payable in sixty monthly installments and $10,000 attorney's fees, roughly one-tenth of what she asked in a money way.

"The court's opinion embodied a terrific excoriation of social conditions such as were described in the case and which he declared were largely the fruits of alcohol and of great wealth in the hands of persons who do not know how to use it. Aside from the financial findings the court's rulings on the disputed points were as follows:

There were no acts of cruelty such as were mutually charged, except the one involving the transmission of diseases, as both principals were inordinate consumers of alcohol and "wallowed in the same trough."

He was the "donor" of the ailment which figured so extensively in the case.

Mrs. Thorkildsen's suit was filed in Good faith and she was not guilty of desertion.

He was guilty of misconduct with Mrs. Agnes Smith.

Both sides expressed themselves as satisfied with the findings.

Following is Judge Works' opinion:

In an experience of twenty-eight years at the bar and on the bench, I have never known the air of a courtroom to be burdened with the recital of such a mass o£ shocking and unprintable testimony. The columns of the newspapers of the city have been filled daily with startling stories of facts brought out at the trial, but the genius of newspaper management notwithstanding the frankness of the press of today, has balked at a reproduction of the real details of the evidence.

A faithful report of the trial would have made the vulgarities of Rabelais and Laurence Sterne seem, by comparison, like the pruderies of Jane Austen or the prosiness of Henry James. The personification of vice and licentiousness stalks through the pages of the record that has been made here. We who have worked together for these four weeks have heard from the witness stand, in a crowded courtroom, things of which one would hardly think, in the secret recesses of his own soul, without turning out his lights and locking his doors.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 24, 1920, page 2.

Two Sensational Killings

Grand Jury Ordered Release of Jessie Brown and R. A. Humphries.

Jacksonville, Fla., May 7.-Two sensational killing episodes were ended here today when the grand jury ordered the release of Miss Jessie Brown and R. A. Humphries.

Miss Brown shot and killed Earl P. Adams, her sweetheart, following the announcement of Adams' engagement to another young woman.

Humphries shot and killed both his 16-year-old wife and Thomas McManus, when he found the two together in his home. The mother of Mrs. Humphries committed suicide because of grief over her daughter's death.


Shot Man Who Eloped With Daughter.

Washington, May 7-Irving Beck of this city was shot, fatally it is believed, by Albert Willard, with whose 14-year-old daughter Beck, who is 33 years old, recently eloped. Beck refused to let Willard know where he was keeping his girl wife. Willard is under arrest.

--Warren Evening Mirror, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1909, page 6.


Broken Marriage Promise is Fatal
Florida Girl Shoots Actor Who Jilted Her.

Jacksonville, Fla., April 21.-Falling closely on the heels of an announcement of the approaching marriage of Earl P. Adams, a popular actor and stage director of a company now playing in this city, to Miss Elizabeth Bagley, Miss Jessie Brown, a well known young woman to whom Adams had been previously engaged, shot and killed him at her home, where, it is alleged, Adams went to explain to her the approaching marriage to Miss Bagley. Adams was shot several times by Miss Brown and he died almost instantly.

Miss Brown was arrested and placed in the county jail. One peculiar feature of the case is that Miss Brown is a sister of Miss May Brown, who was killed here in 1905 by her lover, who at the same time shot her mother, Mrs. Freeman, and Detective Cahoon.

--The Mansfield News, Mansfield, Ohio, April 21, 1909, page 2.