The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-03-08
SickIes and His Wife.

A Washington correspondent says thai
the dinner party at which Mr.. Sckles re-
ceived the anonymous note which informed
him of his wife's dishonor, was q represen-
tative dinner party-representative of
Washington society-of which the strange
contrasts and scandafous features will be
fully brought out upon the trial, without
doubt I do not feel at liberty to name
many of thu guests. Suffice it to say, among
them were Mrs. James Gordon Bennett,
the Chevalier Wyckoff, Mr.. Arson Burlin-
game-aside from Mr.. Sickles, the only
member of Congress, l believe, in the COM
pany-and some of the most respectable
residents of Washington.
Strange to say, neither the President nor
Miss Lane were present, although Mrs. Ben
nett, in whose honor the party was given,
partook of the State dinner, to which the
Tribune SO kindly referred some weeks ago,
at the White House; ON Tuesday that
estimable lady took part in the mammoth
levee, receiving equally with Miss Lane on
Wednesday was the White House dinner !;
on Thursday the Sickles entertainment,
when Mr., Sckles led Mrs. Bennett to the ta-
BILE, leaving Mrs. Sickles to be escorted by
Mr. Burlingame. The dinner was as excel
lent and as stylish as any eaten this winter,
and the heterogeneous guests fused as peo-
pie fuse in Washington, into whose best So
ciety any well dressed man who may choose
can easily find access. --,-.,.-r ...-s-
And yet those who knew him and his
wife, as children, speak of their attachment
as dating from that period, and as having
been true and strong ever since, upon his
part. As boy and girl they loved, and since
| thei, marriage in 1852, not cloud has
darllened their happiness until this man
| Key asst season, aroused the husbands sus-
picio,.s, and was forbidden his house, al
| thou h not till long after the intrigue had
| become the talk of Washington, and the
| woman had been warned by friends. But
! Key did not desst from pursuing her, whom
| he, an accomplished libertine, man of fine
presence and captivating exterior, had
marked for his own. He was seen with her
| in the avenue, at parties, in the dining
! room of her husbands house, eating salad
/ in the morning, Mr.. Sickles being away
! At Mrs. Douglas hall, three weeks ago, he
| made love to her in a distant corner of the
| crowded rooms, while Mr.. Sickles was dane
! ing with the widow Mrs. Conrad. Pre-
/ viously to that time he had hired poor ne
! gro hut in the fields some quarter of mile
from her house, towards the back part of the
city, and there she met him between twelve
| and one o'clock nearly every day.
She would start out to do the family mar.
ket-that was the pretense. The mulattoe:
in the neighborhood of this Didos Cave
wondered to see two well dressed people
meeting under these circumstances and il
this clandestine way, and it may have beer
through their agency that the unsigned note
which led to the homicide, was sent to the
injured husband. These meetings were
planned elsewhere and signals arranged
He would watch for her from the Clul
House on the opposite side of the Park
| which fronts the Presidents grounds, anC
on which the Jackson statue stands-watcf
her with the lorgnette which he hurled a
Mr.. Sickles during the ARRAY. He would
pass by the house, waving his handkerchie
as he did when Sickles, espying him, wen
in search of his pistols.
The murderer's friends say that he hat
loved his wife for years and lavished mono,
upon her, gratifying her least and her great
est desires as soon as they were known t.
him. Where he got the money is mys
terry to most On the other hand, it is sal,
that Sickles did not love his wife in n wa,
that entitled him to chastity on her part
or to vengeance for its violation.