The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-11-11
Disgraceful Liaison-The Affair
at a Fashionable Hotel.

hotei In Hew Eork ; the principal actors
ia which were an enrsged husband with
pistol in hand, and a faithless wife, and
last, though not least, a graceless scamp
with nothing on but his shirt; who, to
escape the wrath of the injured husband
bolted into the street, attired as he was,
and at q rapid pace faded from view
down Broadway. The Courier now
publishes the following narrative connec
ted with the parties above referred to-:
Some time ago we had occasion to
relate, IS an incident of the current his
tory of New York'a scandalous affair
that took place at one of our most fash
ionable hotels. It was the story of a
young man caught in a false position by
an injured husband, and escaping by a
fight, as ridiculous as it was precipitate,
the consequence of the unexpected sur
prise.
In itself the occurrence is not such a
rare one as to fix the attention long, for
we are no longer strangers to all the
immortality and libertinism that %conseal
themselves under the glided mantle of
our social elegance. We are far from
being lovers of scandal; but there are
cases-and this one was of the number
lin which it seems to. us hat we are
performing a duty to the comm unity
and rendering a service to perhaps nu-
merous families, in calling attention to
facts derived from the most authentic
sources. The example may, besides,
diminish the chance of analogous dan
gers, aud blast with signal contempt
crimes which would be more easily re-
newed, if they were not known.
The occurrence related by US was not,
as we ourselves supposed, the result of
an impulse of passion or of an impru-
deDce born of an occasion too full of
temptation. 1t was the consequence of
long and shameful manoeuvering, Of an
incredible oppression and a mercenary
avidity without scrnple and without
shame-in a word, the equalization, not
even under form of love, but By means
of intimidation and of the force of the
purse and pecuniary resources, of a wo
man) timorous and submissive to o long
martyrdom.
Let the facts speak for themselves:
Some years since, Mrs. Il, being Sc
riously unwell, and entertaining small
hopes OF a speedy recovery of health,
wasstaken by her husband TO Paris, when
Is was hoped that change of climate, and
medical skill would fight to greater ad
vantage, the peculiar disorders with
which her nervous system was affected.
But the course of treatment was long /;
aud as important affairs compelled the
return of Mr.. z to America, he was
obliged to leaAe his wife in France to
the care of a family of compatriots and
friends. 1t was then that a deplorable
~mischance threw the convalescent into
relations with one of those young Amer
leans, who are beggarly gentlemen of
leisure and unprlneipled yagabonds, and
who, having made their escape from the
family circle and left the paternal roof,
have no other aim in a foreign country
than to crafty their taste for pleasure
by all possible means without ever
weighing against their vanity any scru-
pie of personal dignity OF. of E lfrespect.
Ready to engage in any plan of rails.
leg the wind young x. was not slow to
understand that out of a woman de-
prived of the double protection of her
husband and family an excellent spec
ulation might be made. D~issombling
Mt first the baseness of his designs, he
devoted bimsclf to a sick lady; and ca
silly inspired her with an affectionate
gratitude which be was not slow to i'm
pose upon. The first care of x. when
admitted to the place ofa friend. was to
borrow Systematically at first small and
then larger amounts.
No account was kept with a man who
gave such proofs of devoted attention.
Sometimes he restored a part of what
be had received but with a feminine
delicacy all reference to the subject by
her was avoided, and when, after an in
innate acquaintance of more than a year,
Mad z was about to return to Aneri-
ca, there was a balance in her favor of
about $1,000 which her borrower owed
her.
After she had departed he was not slow
10 percetvfng tbat 1T worId--be-digiea4t
for him to continue to exercise his in
in Paris where there was no like
lihood of finding another woman dis
posed to pay for his interested preten-
ces of love. 1t naturally occurred to
him to continue his disgraceful l%iaison
unon this side of the Atlantic, and with
this view he managed to entrap Mrs u.
into a correspondence which put into
his hands a series of letters that COM
promised her, and constituted proofs of
the existence of the most criminal rela-
tiops between them. This feat accom
plished he repaired to the United States,
armed with those papers on the use of
which he had calculated.
He migt then have been seen in his
Partisan dress, just disembarked, his
hair very carefully parted in the middle
in front, rings on his fingers, his chains
on his waistcoat, sometimes at the opera.
But, not being able to pay his expenses
in New York, he went South, where his
victim had beon for some months under
tie coDjugal roof. There he threw off
the mask and commenced playing a role
fit only for such a filthy soul. He no
longer endeavored to obtain Mrs. rs.
money by entreaties. but by menaces
and constant intimidation. He must
have money. Should she refuse it him,
he would publish her letters-he would
send them to her husband-and she
should be driven from her home an out
cast-should be pointed at in the streets.
Money only could purchase silence.
Terrified and distracted, the unhappy
women dared refuse him nothing. To
preserve her reputation-to obtain a
momentary p~eace--she devoted to him
the sum of 500, her monthly allow
ance from her husband. But this
amnunt was far from satisfying the mis-.