The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-04-13
A Female bandit.

al Il tlA
who, although generally deemed a respect
able and industrious citizen, had been go
indiscreet as to I" live up to- his whole IN.
come, and consequently left his fnfnIIv 40
poor ut his death that tho expenses of his
modest funeral, even, completely exhaust
ed the pitifnl estate. Bereft OF her hI1s.
band, the widow Hunt found herself ,nan.
niless in the world, with two Young laiiph.
tiers aud a son looking to her for support.
and in this accumulation of grief, helpless.
ness. and inordinate responsibility. knew
of naught else practicable than the removal
with her three charges, to New Orleans.
where lived some distant relatives. of
| her late husband, and where, her SON.
| at least, might be able to enter into Some
| employment as an aid to the maintenance
| of his sisters. To said city, then, after o
while, the Hunts removed, and. according
to report, lived there in very narrow cir
| cumstances tor two or three years. Drudge.
| nv and obscurity might have continued to
| be their lot hut>f for the more uncommon
and far less happy destiny of one of the
| daughters, Miss Laura, who, to personal
| beauty of a very striking type added men,
tai characteristics in chronic revolt against
her trying domestic station in : life.
At sixteen years OF age TINS girl was
az conscious Of her physical and intellec-
tual fitness to shine in the highest sphere
OF social existence as of the adverse
! worldly circumstances booming her to
| toll and hardship in the lowest, and, from
| the time Of the removal of the family to
Louisiana, she seems to have bent all her
keeuest faculties upon q scheme for break.
ing the bonds of adversely by the sheer
strength of her wit and beauty, and raising
her relatives and herself to something like
ambitious living. 1t Glanced that the inn
poverished family, in the course of their
petty trading, became acquainted with q
rich wholesale grocer, named Strong, who,
although old enough to have been the grand
father of Laura, suffered the attractions of
the young lady to enthral his widoWer's
heart with sentimental rapidity. and was
tempted by her amiable demeanor to offer
his hand in marriage. If there is nothing in.
the published record Of this part of Miss
! Hunt life toshow that she felt any particular
affection for the sutton, there is also moth
, ing to justify the idea that her acceptance.
of his ardent suit was any moreatainted
with unwomanly motives than are the
matches Of convenience arranged in the
most polite society every year. 1t is but
Just TO give her the credit in this mat
ter Of the supposition detracting the least
from her character for delicacY and average
integrity. Being that as it might have
, been, however, Mr.. Strong's offer was ac-
cepted, the marriage took place, and the
bridesroom's money liftedthe bride and her
family, temporarily, to comfortable clrcum-
stances. Summoning common Christian cha
rity to the qualification Of individual judg-
ment again, it is possible to believe that, if
this matrimonial union had proved even
pasSably harmonious, the nature ofthe young
wife might have been preserved from any
signal peryersion, and her subsequent
career undistinguiShed by more follies and
offences than ordinary self-willed women
find indulgence for every day but, unhap-
ply soon after the wedding the husband was
revealed rs little better than Il drunken,
despotic savage, who, in his frequent cups,
treated his wife with outright brutality. AT
first Laura was cOntented to know that her
friends understood the condition of affairs,
and sympathiZed with her us strongly as
they denounced her husband but, being
finally eXaspcrated into the bravado of a
pretended filtration by some particularly
insulting act of her husbands, the ~latter's
behavior to her became so outrageous that
she at once left him and made application
for divorce. The suit never came to trial,
because Strong died Of mania a potu while
it was yet pending; but from the moment
Of having resort to that remedy Laura SEEM
ed to cast aside all that there was of her bet
ter nature and become careless alike of the
judgments Of God and man. Because her
sister had married q relative of her late
husband, she persuaded her mother and
other relatives TO disown the offender re-
'lentlessly for life. All who had in the most
tritiing degree "made allowances" for the
deceased grocer she abused and defied
without stint, while her spirit of apprecia-
ton for those who had Internationally
championcd her cause was extrayagantly
evinced by her marriage with one OF them,
a gentleman named GraysOn, in the first
month of her widowhood. BY this act she
forfeited the regard ofall her worthy friends,
and scarcely was the scandal over it Of its
flood, when she left her second husband,
for some wild reason never explained, to
mourn that he had ever known her, and it is
said, to commit suicide. Become. now a
thorough female outlaw and adventurer,
and possessed, apparently, of a reckless de-
termination TO prey upon all whom she
could ensnare into her net, she induced
or, rather, communication rather weak
minded mother and brother to 20 with her
to California, where, as she thought, the
field of her proposed d%epredationsI might
be less circumscribed by the restraints of
social civilization. 1t does not appear
clearly whether her third husband, Colonel
Fair, was met and married by her in
the South before the California depart
ure, or was amongst those first greeting
her at ''the mines :" but it was certainly
as Mrs. Fair that the innocent and viva
ciouS Laura Hunt OF former times opened q
hotel-lhe Fair House"-in 1854 or 1856,
in Virginia City, Nevada. The story Of
this marriage Is enveloped in some mystery.
The Colorado Chiettdan says that its brief
period had its scene in Downisville, Cali
fornia, where, after many infeicities, the
husband blew his brains out, and the wife
departed with his effects for San Francisco.
According to this account, it must have
been late in 1854 or early in 1856 that
the woman undertook the career of
al actress on the stage of the Metropoli-
tan Theatre, in the city ofthe Golden Gate.
Whatever the exact date of it, this new VEN
ture did not attain sufficient success to last
long. 1n~the. character Of Lady Teazle,
however, Mrs. Fair was effective enough to
please at least one of her auditors, q bril-
liant lawyer and eXjudge named Critten.
den, who, forgetting his wife and family, Sc
cured an Introduction to the fair man-kil-
Ter, andfrom thenceforth, for some months,
allowed her to prey upon him to the extent
RADIO paper before mentioned says that she
was thus enabled to "settle" a fine house
and a proportionate fortune upon her
mother before going herself. to Virginia
City to open a hotel. In the last-named
town. according to another authority,
when, after a long career in the society
and shared yillainies Of a band of gamblers
and sharpers, she was keeping the Fair
House," or :" Hotel," her /" southern SYM
pathies" in the war induced her to shoota
fourth husband dead for eyincing his
tional flag to the staff Of the house Mr..
Crittenden, who. was in Virginia City at
that time attending TO ONE mining claims
of his own. defended her i'm her ensuing