The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-05-19
THE LATE PHILADELPHIA LIBEL
SUIT.


The following, we believe, will be found
to be plain and impartial history of the
difficulty between Mrs. Ellen B. Wells
and Mr.. VIM. Still, which terminated so
unhappily two or three weeks ago in Phil
adelpbia. Mrs. Wells, who had been en-
gagged for several years past in collecting
funds, first for the purchase of her own
freedom, and subsequently for the ransom
of a mother and other relatives, while in
Boston last winter learned that there was
letter at the Anti-Slavery Office in which
were made insinuations against her charac-
ter Upon calling at the Office, she found
the letter to be a private one from Mr..
Stillto Mrs. Mary AS. Cary, (who was then
in Boston collecting funds for the estab-
lishment of a school for the tugitives in
Canada in reply to one from Mrs. G. in
which were repeated charges made by
Mrs. Wells against Mr.. Still of extortionate
board bills and entertaining colored slave
holders at his house. After procuring
copy of said letter, Mrs Wells called upon
several of her friends in regard to it, among
whom was the Rev. Mr.. Grimes, who i'm
mediately wrote to Mr.. Still, from whose
answer the following extract is made:
"With regard to my high charges, liv-
ing rent free,' &C., she told what was as
far from the truth as words could make it.
I charged her only fifty cents day for her
board while she was in my house; her
naughty boy charged the same as her.
self preciSely-making dollar day for
the two-at which rate am sure / could
make but little if any profit. Persons beg
cling, wemake it rule to charge them Eff
ty cents day, while our regular price by
the day to regular paying boarders is one
dollar, which is the regular price in all the
principal cities in the Union, I believe,
with genteel colored boarding houses. So,
if she says l took the advantage of her,
she tells that which is not true. The fact
is, we never encourage beggars stopping
with us, and suffer it only when we cannot
very well help it, as we are always in dan
ger of being annoyed by them. They get
the notion that l have nothing else to do
but to serve the entire tribe for nothing
that the Anti-Slavery cause keeps me en-
ployed for that express object; but it is
not So"
Shortly after the receipt of Mr. Stills
letter, Mrs. Wells left Boston for Phila-
delphia, and spent some time, we are in
formed, in endeavoring to settle the matter
without resort to law; but in this effort she
was unsuccessful, for it finally found its
way into court. Upon the trial, Mr.. Stills
counsel raised an objection to the indict-
ment, as it did not contain an exact copy
of the letter, the date being wrong. This
was sustained by the court, and a verdict
of not guilty was rendered. Immediately
afterwards new bill was sent up to the
Grand Jury, and when it was called for
trial Mr.. Still made an acknowledgment
of having written the alleged libellous let
ter, which, in the opinion of the court, was
tantamount to pleading guilty
The counsel for Mrs. Wells were David
Paul Brown and w. S. Pierce, and w. D.
Kelley and George I'll. Earle for Mr. Still.
The "Daily News" says;
Counsel for accused called the following
witnesses:
Mrs. Cary testified that the letter said
to be ibellous was written to her by Mr..
Still, in reply to one she had written to
him in consequence of having heard that
Mrs. Wells had circulated untrue reports
about Stills house. The witness showed
the letter to w. Lloyd Garrison without
the knowledge of Still, and did not intend
it should have general circulation. Mrs.
Wells had admitted to the witness that
she did state that Still had overcharged
her. The witness also stated to persons
that the child Mrs. Wells had was not her
own; she made this assertion because Mrs.
Wells told her, in October, 1858, that she
had no children, and she did not see how
she could have child IA years of age by
the following April. The witness also
said that Mrs. Wells wore large quanti-
ty Of jewelry, and dressed in an extrava-
CANT manner, which she did not think right
for person collecting money for such