Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-06-04

INTERESTING BREACH OF PROMIsE.-One
Hundred thousand Dollars Damages.-The case
of Carstang VS.. Shaw, which has just been
decided in ST. Louis, the lady receiving the
above handsome douce,u for her wounded affec
tons, is one of the most remarkable on record
The defendant, Henry Shaw, Esq, is an elder
ly gentleman, of great wealth, and good social
position. The plaintiff, Emma G. Carstang, is
somewhat younger, but sufficiently mature to
take care of herself She was in the capacity
of landlady when the wicked millionaire
solicited and secured her affections Many of
the details of the courtship were testified to
during the trial by innocent fellow boarders
and unsophisticated servant girls, who were
accustomed to pass some of their elegant leis-
ure in listening behind doors ajar and in
microscopic observations of key-holes The
chief points however, on which the prosecu-
ton rested, were contained in letter written
by the lady after the desertion of her love:
1t is over two years, says the lady, since you
sought my acquaintance, and requested per-
mission to visit me, and offered me references
as to your character and position, and very
said your wealth and business did not answer
for company; you were very lonesome that
your mother was too old to live with you that
your single sister would probably die even be-
fore your mother. After delaying, to test the
sincerity of your offers, becoming satisfied
that you really desired me for your wife, ac-
cepted you, and from that time you were
constant visitor. You sent me flowers and
fruit and made me presents from time to time,
and frequently invited me to ride, and seemed
to desire that our relation should be made pub
lie. GU invited me to meet friends at your
house in the city, and to ride out to your
country seat. You sent me a piano and de-
sired that l should employ teacher You
told sister that you were going to take me
away, and finally named the time when we
would marry, and | made preparations for the
same. The time arrived, and you postponed
it, on account of your desire to perfect your
arrangements in relation to the botanical gar
den. You removed the piano to your own
house, under the pretence that you desired it
on account of a musical party to be held there.
Finally you cease to visit me, and when be-
come solicitous for fear you are ill, and call at
your house, you insult me with proposition
which any true woman would reject During
our engagement have avoided general socie-
ty, and declined the attentions of others, and
have endeavored to please you in every way.
Your attentions have been remarked by MANY
and | am now subjected to all the unhappiness
and modification arising from your desertion
of me. Had you called on me as a gentleman
and offered any reasonable excuse for this
treatment, or simply asked me to release you
from this engagement, and assigned no reason,
L trust should have had too much pride not
to have complied at once; but your desertion,
as it is, deserves whatever punishment the
opinion of just public may visit upon its au-
thor; and you may rest assured that if my
counsel so advises, such PREPARATION shall be de-
manded of you as your laws grant to my sex
under the circumstances.
This was written in the spring of 1858.
One year later the suit came to trial, and has
resulted in a verdict for damages unexampled
in the history of broken matrimonial promises.