Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-06-03
an Expose

O.. 4>@4i--'1 an Expose 500 q: IzL
d A year or TWO ago, there came before the;
public forlorn South ern widow, who touch
ipgy described the loss of her darling hus-
band, and the sad1erphansge of her. chidreD,%
and who was, IN her own person, fine exam
.; pIo Of chastity and maternal tenderness. Her
{ only faults, if faults they may be called, were
! an iueradiccale propensity for lying, and a pas
sion for selling forged autographs. It has since
been surmised that this decately nurtured and
. most untruthfu! Virginia lady, whose little pa
radise of home had been destroyed by ''the
ruthless invader, was not she, but a hc;. or,
/ at all events, that. she had most unladylike
expansion of waistband and wore the-7weN,
! suppose we say, pantaloons. These little
bemishes in an otherwise estimable character,
were nevertheless regarded by a censorious
world as SO damaging that, alter awhile, the
: foriorn widow CEASED to tell her sorrowtul
story, or to offer for sac to sympathizing
souls her priceless relics. s.
No sooner, however, had she disappeared
from the scene than another female parsonage
took her place-another, and yet, strange to
: say, evidently the same. The Neo Platonists,
whose philosophy was tinctured with the
Hindoo doctrine Of metempsaychosIs, had a
theory that, in the trausmigratiOn of soul
from one body to another, 1t took lower or
higher form of humanity according as the
conduct OF abe individual in the previous
state of existence had improved 10 goodness
or increased in evil. Now, it is a remarkable
: fact which may be cited in confirmation of
this theory Of the Neo-P .atonists, that the
g., al h.yt tho. l,t
widow was OF rather lower grade, inasmuch
as twas that Of young lady who, although
j she had been betrothed to an English noble
man, had lost social caste, having uphap-
PLY ssscorched her wings On the Con
tinent." By another singular coincidence,
which is only susceptible of satisfactory ex
planation on the theory Of metempsycho:i :is,
this "schorched" but beautiful young aristo-
crat found herself, as the forlorn widow did be-
fore her, also resident of Montreal. She
was, likewise, similarly addicted to writing
multitude Of letters, all Of them literal copies
Of each other, but signed sometimes Minnie
Pury, and sometimes Clara Ashton All of
these letters conveying exactly the same story Of
shame and destitution, we're written tor the
u particular information Of my once ''dear cou-
sin, Lord" BY some strange halluclna-,
ton the tender confessions of irailty were mis-
directed to persons in the United States, and
invariably closed with beautiful. but vague
aspiration for the love of some congenial soul.
The yearning but absept-minded correspondent
speedily found not one but many "congenal
souls" st;the North-the sympathies Of a Ger.
I, tain sort of men being so wrought upon that
they not only sent Miss Minnie money, but
gallantIy invited her to become the beloved oc
cupant Of any number Of delightfully."-
secluded bowers Our readers can hardly have
forgotten the sequel to this romantic CORES
pondence; or how, when pouDced upon by the
81 Montreal police, pretty little Minnie Pury shed
suddenly her tabled crinolne, and expanded
into stout old gentleman dressed in a suit OF
country cloth, wearing heavy beard and
moustache, and sporting.a brlar wood pipe.
We should not have ventured to reproduce
these curious contributions to the annals Of
modern psychology, but that the forlorn widow,
alias Minnie Pury, alias Clara Ashton, has re-
Gently undergone other transformations, and as
Eva Ellis, and Kate Farran, and Fannie Ca!d-
we'll, has again, we regret to say, 'sstrayed
from the paths of virtue, and has sedulousy
solicited contributions from sympathetic lndi-
yiduaIs on the strength of it,: 1t would seem.
nowadays to be so meritorious a thing 10 love-
ly woman to ''stoop to foly' that when these
frail ones were arrested at Boston, the other
day, about fifty letters we're found in their pos.
session, in many Of which sums of money, va:
&rying from one dollar to hundred dollars, had
been enclosed The generous contributor OF
the larger amount seems to havo had some
previous correspondence with Miss Farran, and
to have been under the impression that be had
fairly purchased the right to address her lady
ship as %-sMy Darling Kate, Some other IN
families" also Expressed strong desire to
bor nd har -EetraV
expenses to certain hotels in certain cltles.-
Others gave her lots of good advice and no
money One old gentleman read her letter
and answered it in very impudeut manner !;
stating, among other things, that ne ceased
Years ago to give money to young ladies VINO
travelled on their muscle. !
But neither "Kate," nor "Evo," nor ''Fan,,
,me'-tor tits sometimes one who writes. aud
sometimes another-cared a hair pin for the
shock;ngly saucy rehuke of ''musty, rusty,
erusty, iusty" old gentleman. On the first of
April last, Eva, taking heart OF grace, wrote a
member of Congress from Maryland, and dell
eeately asked him if he was "the gentleman
Mr. Davis, Of Maryland, introduced to me at
Washington in the winter Of 1868 4, "a, and
whom vi l gladly met in society afterwards? =
Inc question was finely tentative but the pai'
In this instance was not taken, Eva's CORES
Pondent was not the gentleman alluded to, and
Evas letter was quietly returned to her with
some good "adyice.' Far otherwise was 1t
With a gushing enthusiast living near West
chester, Pennsylvania He entered into qnite
an extensive correspondence with Dear Fan
nle'-Eva's s'counterfeit resemblance. He
even got so far as to address her as My dar-
Ing angel" sent her, on several occasions,
sums Of money varying from ten to thirty dol
Iars,,aad, fnally, in a paroxysm of passionate
regret that so much beauty with "a worm
!!lee bud should waste it's sorrowtul sweetness
10 the desert air of Boston, implored her to
.ake .ss the next train to Westchestcr, put up at
the American Hotel, and register, ii neces'