The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-09-13
Tiston's Life OF Victoria woodhull.

public the most extraordinary production
of the age, which he Is pleased to call q
Life Of Mrs. Victoria Woodruff. Of all
his vagorles this is his greatest, and it is to
be hoped his last. He begius at her birth,
which he tells us happened in the year
1888. Her name was given in honor of the
Queen of England. From an early age she
has, as he puts it, " entertained angels, not
unawares," and the course Of her very re-
markable life has been shaped by them.
Her eccentric literary and political pro-
ductions have been received directly from
the same source. Her chief CANCEL" is
Demosthenes, who Is continually by her,
and once when he appeared in visible
shape wrote out his name in good, plain
English. These same "angels" have Mt
times made her as wonderful promises as
ever did the witches to Macbeth. She is,
according to them, to become the ruler
over the whole country and her ideas to
prevail among the people. Her father is
described US cruel tyrant, and her mo-
ther as something equally bad. Between
them she was forced at fourteen years OF
age into marriage with DR.. Woodruff.
She soon discovered her husband to be a
rake and hopeless sot. They fall into
poverty, and she supports him, first by
needle, and subsequently as an actress on
the stage. While acting before country
audience she was called to New York by
the spirit OF her sister "Tennie," and left
as hurriedly as Cinderella from the
Princes ball. Arriving In New York, she
takes the profession of Il spiritualist for.
tuna'tcller, and makes a very large fortune
for herself. Then comes her divorce, and
Of that aud other events we quote
Hitherto she had entertained an almost
supcrstitious idea of the devotion with
which wife should cling to her husband.
She had always been so faithful tn him that
in his cups he would mock and jeer ut her
fidelity, and call her q fool for maintaining
it. At length the fool grew wiser, and,
after eleven years of what, with cOnvcn-
tiOnal mockcry, was called marriage
during which time her husband had never
spent an evening with her at home, had
seldom drawn 4 sober breath, and had
spent on other women, not herself. all the
money bc had ever earncd-she applied in
Chicago fora divorce, and obtained it.
Previous to this crisis there had occurred
n remarkable incident which more than
ever confirmed her faith in the guardian
ship Of spirits. One day, during 4 severe
illness of her son, she left him to visit her
parents, and on her return was startled
with the news that the boy had died two
hours before. "No," she exclaimed, II
will not permit his death;" and with fran
tic energy she stripped her bosom naked,
caught up his lifcless form, pressed it to
her own, and sitting thus, flesh to flesh,
gidcd insensibly into i trance, in which she
remained seven hours; at the end of which
time she awokc, perspiration started from
his c!ammy skin, and the child that had
been thought dead was brought back again
to life, and lives to this day III sad half death.
1t is her belief that the spirit Of Jesus
Christ broodcd over the litciess form, and
reWrought the miracle Of Lazarus for q
sorrowing womaTs sake.
A SUPPLEMENTARY HUSBAND.
There is q maxim that marriages are
made in heaven, albeit contradictcd by the
scripture, which declares that in heaven
there is neither marrying nor giving in mar-
riagc. But even against the Scripture it is safe
10 say that NCtOria's second marriage was
made in heaven that is, it was decreed by
the Scif.samc spirits whom she is ever ready
to follow, whether they lead her for her
d discipline into the Valley uf the Shadow OF
Death, or for comfort in those ways OF
ptcaSantucSS which are paths of peace.
Colonel james II. Blood, commander OF the
SIKH Missouri Regiment, who, at the close
OF the war, was elected city auditor OF st.
Louis, who became president Of the society
of spiritualists in that place, and who had
himself been, like Victoria, the legal part
ncr of a morally sundcrCd marriage, called
one day on Mrs. Woodruff to consult her
as Il spiritnalistic physician (having never
met her hcfDre), and was startled to see her
pass into Il trance, during 1rhich she an
nounccd, unconsciousiy TO hcrsef, that his
future destiny ,rus TO be linked Nth hers IN
s,,y rI,c 10 bD, n 11
ment, but TO their subsequent happiness, they
wcre bctrothed on the spot by "he pOUerS
Of the air."
Thc legal tic by which at first they bound
themselves to each other WAS afterwards
by mutual consent aunullcd-thC necessary
form of Illinois law being complied with to
this effect. But the marriage stands on its
merits, and is TO all who witness its har.
mony known to be \ sweet and uccOrdant
union Of congenial souls.
Col. Blood is man of philOsophic and
reflective cast Of mind, an enthusiastic stu
dent Of the higher lore Of spirituaIism, re.
cltse from society, and an eXpcctant be-
lever in stupcndous destiny for Victoria.
A modesty not uncommon to men of intel
lcct prompts him TO sequeSter his name in
the shade rather than to set it glttcriug in
the SUN.
Ono night. about half 4 year after their
marriage, she and her husband We're
awakened at midnight in Cincinnati by the
announcement that a man by the name of
DR.. Woodruff had been attacked with de-
lirium tremens at the Burnet House, and
in lucid moment had spoken of the wo-
man from whom he had been divorced, and
begged to sec her. Colonel Blood immc-
Il; tn IN hnt oil
brought the wrctchcd victim home, and,
Jointly with Victoria, took care Of him
with life. saving kindness for six weeks. On
his going away they gave him a few hum
drcd dollars Of their joint property to make
him comfortable in another city. He de-
parted luIl Of gratitude, bearing with him
the assurance that lie would always be wei"
come to come and 20 as 4 friend Of the
family. And from that day to this the poor
man, dllpidated in body and emasculated
in spirit, has sometimes snjourncd under
Eict0ria'S roofand sometimes elsewhere, ac-
cording to his whim or will. LII the present
ruins of the young gallant of twenty years
ago, there is more manhood (albelt an
eX piring spark like u candle ut It's sockct)
than during any of the folmer years and
to be now turned out Of doors by the Wo-
man whom he wronged, but who would
not wrong him in return, would be al act
of inhumanity which it would be impoSsi-
BILE for Mrs. " oodhuIl and Col. Blood either
Jointly or separately to commit. For this
piece of noble conduct-what is commonly
called her living with two husbands under
one roof-she has received not so much CEN
sure OH earth as think she will receive re-
ward in heaven. No other passage of her
life more signaliy illustrates the nobility of
her moral judgments, or the supernal cour-
age with which she stands by her convic-
tions. Not all the clamorous tongues in
Christendom. though they should simuIta-