The Express.
London, England, 1857-11-26 00:00:00

(Stamped id. AdditiooaL) [TWOPENCE.

AN IXCIDANT OP SOCIAL LIFE AT NBIV YORK

The New York papers report a very extraordinary
and palatal affair which has lately become public there.
Some time ago, • Mrs. Woodman, wife of a wealthy New
Orleans merchant, while on a visit to Paris, became =-
quaint= with an American adventurer, one of the New York
faahionablee, named Garden. Furness, and the aequaintanee
was assiduously prosecuted by him both on the Cmitinest
and after the return of the eartke to America. Mr. Furness,
it sermilnitvialisfied with seducing tho wife, was desirous of
rep) hie puree at the expense of the unsuspecting
husband. ith infernal cruelty and pentevcrance he race
oeeded in gainintr4e; mastery over the actions and very
thoughts of his victim, who found herself com-
pelled to secedes her jewels and the liberal sums allowed her
by. her la aanndd,, absent in the South, without at all satis-
fying_ the greed of her persecutor. She fled to her
friends in the South, but threats of an =paean induced her
to return to New York and to her paramour. Shortly after
her return, however, the long-dreaded Vnoucment occurred.
The Wend =Abed, returning unexpectedly to him room in
the New York Hotel, discovered Furness there in company
with his wife. The heartless deceiver made a very ridiculous
exit., and the matter afforded subject for the usual gossip.
But Mr. Woodmen being called to New Orleans on Wainer,
and desirous ofhing • constraint upon his misguided*
week-minded placed her in a private lunette asylum in
Flushing, where she was detained until a few days ago. A
petition was presented to Judge Roosevelt as the basis for
the issue of a writ of habeas corpus, recriiring the proprietor
of the Lunailo Asylum to proclaim tlw lady in court. This
petition was promoted, on behalf of Mrs. Woodman, by
Furness, her paramour.
The counsel on the other side, who opposed the petition on
behalf of the proprietor of the asylum produced the =fide-
' vire of Drs. Barstow and MenrWa, aiding Mrs. Woodman
to have been placed in the asylum by her husband in cense-
quests of her being in an excited and wandering state of
mind, and furthermore testifying to the uniform kindness
with which she had been treated during her confinement in
that place. A communication was afro read from Mrs.
Woodman askirg a stay of proceedings in the case until the
arrival of her father or brother from New Orleans. The
counsel for the petitioner, in answer to the abovemientioned
affidavits, read letters from Mrs. Woodman to Mr. Fur-
ness, written during her confinement in tke asylum,
earnestly imploring him to help her to get out, and com-
plaining that she was kept there in prison by bar husband,
as a punishment, or, as sbe said, "for We revenge." She
addressed Furness, in these letters, in the most endearing
terms of blandishment, aid expreeeed a desperate affection
for him, entreating " Babie," as she wantonly called him, to
contrive the means of her release from the asylum,. where she
declared herself to be utterly miserublo. She said—" You
cannot imagine what an awful place this is ; the outside is
quite elegant, but that is all. Do not forsake me; at 01108
do something for me if you can ; but be careful and never let
any sae know I have written to you until lam out. If
I cried it would give them plc/mire, as all the
maniacs scream and cry. 1 hate them so much
I would not look sad to save them from where
they ought to be—the d—l." The unhappy woman, if she
wrote these letter!, earnestly protested that she
was not deranged, or crazy and claimed, if she were
really so, to be placed in a public institution, where a propere
medical certificate of her insanity would be required.
letters, when produced in court, excited a great deal of com-
cZngon for her. The case was adjourned ; and at the next
, the counsel for the proprietor of the asylum ten-
dered in evidence an affidavit 111•3111 to by Mrs. Woodman on
the let of September last, in which she gave the history of
the persecutions she had endured from Funnel, after her
return to America in 1865, and down to lest August. She
stated that he followed her from New York to New Orleans,
extorting money from her, taking away her jewels, and com-
pelling her to sell hew embroidery and drones to supply hinr.dede-
mends, under painof beimexoosed by him, and being d
and discarded by her husband. The following is a specimen :
" He called on me repeatedly for more money, and upon my
refusing to give it him he threatened to show to Mr. Wood-
man the letters which I had written him, and also a portrait
of me which be had. lie told me the letters which I hed
written him would cause Mr. Woodman to discard me, and
that he (Mr. Fermis) would disgrace and ruin toe, unless I
let him have all the money I could get. I had during that
period an allowance from my husband of 100 doll, per
month, all of which I gave Mr. Fumeee; be called on
me for money to pay his board bill, which he
said was about 280 dole. I had no money and told
him so, upon which he not only threatened me, but
actually beat me with violence—broke open ley warilrobe:
and took away my jewellery end valuable laces.'
He frequently beat her, and on one occasion almost strangled
her in her own room. "During the last interview." Me
odd. "Furness ageism So net the money by marks. oat
MN Mils, am me sane./ teem . ea.
by taking jewel . Also, he tweeted that he knew my
father had given, me
_2,600 dole. to buy diamonds or silver,
and he wee OsteriaMed to have it. When he found he could
not get money, he need violence, as I have stated. He mid,
Your husband and your brother are coming here; there'll
be a foss; and I mean to rain
If
first, and put you in
the gutter, where I shall be. I hate you, end I hate all
your family, because you won't behave to mew you should.'"
He wrote to her letters of the most Week= kind, of which
the following is a sample, alternating, however, with high*
flown professions of his love .—" Damn you—curse you—
may you never be but unhappy I Send me my things—
everything, or I will =meanie make you open your bedroom
door. I have depended upon you for what you promised,
and unless you send it tome, or allow me to obtain it =me-
diately—now that I must have it, and have no time to go
and borrow it—look oat I If you are too 111 to do what I
ask, I will sae= you. If well enough to be up. to Jesuit
. .

me, you are well enough to walk a step or two farther to
keep a promise. Look out, for I Late you, and am foaming
with rage. Send your answer immediately, or I will kick
your bedroom door down, if you do not see toe alone." By this
sort of treatment, the seducer had succeeded, for two
years, in obtaining from his victim very considerable rums,
and indulged in every luxury at her expense. The case,
having been again adjourned, was suddenly brought to a
conclusion, when the conned for the proprietor of the asylum
produced the two following letters from Mrs. Woodman,
which he read to the court. The fret wee addreseed to the
judge, the Hon. Imam J. Roosevelt:
" I wish the proceedings before you commenced by Mr.
Furness in relation to me to be diseonthmed and ended. I
am not in any way restrained of my liberty. Being entirely
free, I intend to retire at ono ID the home of my patent. in
Mississippi, with my brother, C. L. Thomas, who ii now
present, " CAROLINE WOODMAN.
" Nov. 3, 1867."
The second wee the following :
" Since being an inmate of Sanford Hall, I have been
treated by the general and doctor with great Madams, lied
also by every one connected with the bona.
"Nov. 4, 1867. "CAROLINE WOODMAN."
Ths reading of these documents produced a sensation fn
court which out be better imagined than described, and the
court and all concerned in the came seemed immensely re.
limed. The writ of habeas corpus was then discharged, and
the court adjourned, the affair Wog over.