The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-06-03
From the S.ssLouis Times.
A New Orleans Renliniscence which Sur.
passes Fiction.

A New Orleans Reniniscencc which Sur
passes Fiction.
The readers of this paper may possibly recol-
lect the circumstances of Il fatal duel, widely
published at the time, which occurred on the
Srd of April, 1874, on the old dueling ground
on the sandy stretch of shore fronting Bay st.
Louis. The participants were Article Bienve-
nue. a broker, and Andrea Phillips, a lawyer,
of New Orleans. It was on the same spot where
the fatal bullet of Rhett of the Picayune sped
to flight the gallant spirit of the intrepid Coo
lev: the ground on which the rife shots of
Badger and Carter were exchanged; where
Scott and Campbell met and where many a
previous bloody episode had expiated real or
imaginary fault
Aside from the fatal termination of the meet
ing, the contest between Phillips and Bienve-
nue. would not have been unusually remarka-
BILE, but for the fact that it was the final scene
in the tragic welded lives Of three women
sisters-whose husbands fell by the hand of
violence, melted by the evil courses of their
wives.
Born of reputable creole parents these sisters
were inheritors of vast wealth and n stainless
name, and distinguished for personal beauty in
a land where the lovelness of women was pro-
verbal Tenderly reared and brilliantly edu-
Gated, with possessions that rivaled in extent
and excelled in value German principally, it
is not surprising that they became the fattered
bellies of society, and were the boast and pride
of the merchant and planter beaux in all the
wide coast country. That these brilliant pro-
teges of the haughtiest aristocracy of the old
regime should be destined to exercise the fatal
influence they exerted, on the men who loved
them, and made them their wives, is indeed
surprising. But they were hirts from their
cradles. Born to admiration their lives were
spent from youth to maturity in an atmosphere
of fictitious sentiment and unreal passion.
They looked upon men as merely the ministers
of pleasures, and as the mediums through which
their Aattered vanity might grow and expand,
as the flower blooms in the warmth of the sun
shine All the aims and duties of life we're
bounded by the ambitions of society. Admi-
ration to them was appreciation. Taught to
regard their individual pleasures as superior to
ali considerations of convenience to others it is
not surprising that selishness Indifference and
folly became the mainsprings to their actions.
Nor is it astonishing that they exercised the
fatal influence they did upon men. Their
beauty was glorious. The youngest was the
living type of the other two. AS the writer
saw her but little over year ago, she rises be-
fore his vision now: tall, graceful, slender
woman, 1.-THE willowy form of splendid con-
tour and exquisite symmetry The oval tinted
face gows with health and is radiant with in
telligence. Deep slumberous black eyes un-
fathomable in their depths, which q word can
kindle with excitement or make aglow with
passion queenly woman, regnant in youth,
grace and the empire of mems hearts. The
Rich coils of hair, black and intense, were
wound above the low broad forehead and
formed a raven like crown to the dusky splen
dor of the dark Egyptian face. Not even the
star-eyed enchantress of the Nile was more
wondrou beautiful. Men paused to look at
her. and women sighed with envy as she passed.
What she was in her youthful bridehood, has
been imperfectly described what her sisters
we're in their matured and splendid woman
hood the enthusiasts Imagination alone can
And now for the story of their lives, The
oldest sister was married to DR.. Sharp, of Tus-
caloosa, Ala, polished, graceful gentleman,
whose love and devotion might have contented
any woman less prone to the allurements of So
ciety and the admiration Of men than his wife.
1t was in the first year of the war, and the
most brilliant society in the south WAS gathered
at Mobile and New Orleans. With an appetite
whetted to fever heat by a few months absti-
nence from social pleasures she plunged reck-
lessly into a whirlpool Of gaiety. The married
Airt wears no armor Of innocence. Her love
of admiration is pitted against mans duplicity
and cunning She staked and lost. From folly
there is but step to imprudence, and thatstep
was taken, despite husbands jealousy and
sense of honor. The end was inevitable:
challenge and duel, and her husband fell pierced
to the heart by the bullet of her seducer..
There was no pity for a woman like this; So
ciety repeled her, her friends discarded her,
and she fled to New Orleans to lead the life of
adventures.
The second sister shortly afterward married
the son of distinguished journalist in Mobile.
The fate of her elder sister was no bar to
career of similar folly. Society received her
with open arms Wealth, influential connec-
tions and alliance with distinguished family
obscured for time the recollection of sisters
imprudence. But gossip soon grew busy with
passed with fatal haste and seeming indifer-
ence, until in fatal hour her husband learned
that the woman he loved, the wife that he
idolized was thing to be Kissed and scorned,
the plaything of the idle passions and illicit
of his idol, his reason wavered, and he perished
by his own hand. The recollection of that
sad suicide is still mournful memory in Mo-
bile. Eyes that are unused to weep shed tears
in recalling the virtues of one of the truest and
noblest gentlemen the South has ever seen.
But for all his brilliant talents. and the promise
of a splendid future, he died the victim of a
woman's perfidy.
The youngest sister became the wife of Ben-
venue, young broker of New Orleans. Rich,
beautiful and accomplished, shc was at once
leader in society Courted, f!attercd and ca
ressed, she plunged headlong into the vortex
that had engulfed her sisters. Men lavished
praises upon her-women hated and smiled
upon her. What cared she ; beautiful, reckless,
heartless and indifferent to all alike she cared
only for that social admiration which was the
sunshine of her life. Her large fortune gave
her all income in her individual right. This
gave wings to her extravaganza and enabled
he 20 contract bills in her own name. One of
thcm--a millincr's bill-over due suit was
brought and execution issued which Mr.. Phil
Inns the LAWYER had levied for satisfaction upon