New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-12
A Visit to Laura Fair.

A San Francisco correspondent of the st.
Louis Democrat writes:
By peculiar good luck, and the help of
| some friends, three of us obtained an inter
| view Yesterday with Mrs Laura Fair, OF
the famous Fair Crittenden murder case.
Mrs. Fair, it will be remembered, was tried
and convicted; an appeal was made to the
| Supreme Court, and a new trial was given
| her. This will commence early next month.
| For the present she is an inmate, as she has
been since her first incarceration. OF the
county Jail.
To reach it you toll up, through evil look
| ing streets, one of tie steepest hills in the
| city The Jail is a narrow, cramped struc-
/ ture, not uninviting externally, but i'll ven
tilated and poorly arranged within, sug-
costing that, like the boy of the fable, who
| was admOnished to steal shorter fish or
wear longer coat, San Francisco must
soon decrease the number of her criminals
or build them more cOmmOdiOus quarters.
After rambling through the corridors, past
| cells where halt a dozen persons we hud-
died together, and where strange Chinese
names adorned the portals, we gave our
cards to the sheriff, gOOd-natured, gentle
manly fellow, who spent without murmur
| the better part of half day in our service.
The sheriff disappeared through a plain
doorway, and after q few moments absence
returned, with an invitation for us to enter.
A young girlish-lOoking woman advanced
to give US kindly greeting. 1t took sec
ond thought to be convinced that this was
Mrs. Fair-a fair-haired, tall but slight per-
son, with an abundance of rlnglets caught
back and allowed to escape through the
knot of a loosely tied ribbon, large express
sive eyes, pretty, even teeth, and mouth
that committed the paradox of being at
the same time the hOmliest and the most
beautiful feature of an altogether
attractive face. Her expression is con-
stantly varying, owing to the changing
Jlor of her eyes, and the play of smiles
about her large but regularly formed
m ,uth. She has, perhaps, been handsome
" Iman-eertaintly a fascinating One-but
co lfinement is telling on her. She was
dressed, as most San Francisco ladies al e
at this time of the year, in white pique
dress, with an over skirt and plait trim
mings. A neat-ftting red flannel sack en-
cased her shoulders, and simple pin con-
fined the plain collar at the throat.
The room, which is painfully small, is
furnished with cottage set, to which
work basket and a low rockingham
added something to the appearance of wO-
manly comfort We apOlogiZed for intrud-
ing, and half explained our errand. She
tOyed moment with our cards, and seemed
to be weighing our names.
Two of us, madam, and the third an al
derman."
"Ah, WE'LL have nothing to fear from
aldermen-they are harmless -and think
you gentlemen of the press are my friends"
and so she dropped into an easy converse
ton, entertaining us without any apparent
embarrassment and with abundant humOr,
and far better than the most accomplished
society lady would entertain three strange
an+1arn an xuhO bad foraa6 fbarnaa1va 1Ju0u
her.
At first badinage ruled, and she proved
a full match for her guests, parrying and
thrusting in the iveliest manner, and with
the quickest repartee. She avoided all re-
ference to the circumstances of the crime
with which she is charged, but conversed
freely upon her early life, much of which
was spent in Mississippi, where she was
born, and in Alabama. She laughingly re-
marked that she was posted upon the object
of the st. Louis delegation in San Francisco
and was strongly in hopes the thirty-tifth
parallel road would soon be bullt-sO
strongly, in fact, that she was half mind
TO tell her lawyer to buy her quantity of its
stock. Nearly an hour was spent in easy
conversation, which was only terminated
when the sheriff suggested that we had
to friends in st. Louis, whom she hoped
soon to visit, and asked us to call again if
it would afford us any pleasure.
She is writing play, it is reported, and
if this be true, and she gives half the spice
to it she did to the conversation in our in
terview, it viii have no danger of dragging
or lacking in any way in interest What
ever else she may be, she is clever wO-
man, and hanging, to speak harshly, would
be about the worst use she could possibly
be put to. Public sentiment here is, how
ever, set against her and unless she OBJ
tains a change of venue to some more IA
vorable county, it will require the bright
est wits of the legal profession TO procure
her release.