Connecticut western news., 1875-09-24
A STORY OF REAL LIFE.
The Falling of Three Beautiful and Wealthy W9d 9t. Sisters and Their Fate.

W9d 9t Sisters and Their Fate.
 Our readers, says the St. Louis Tunes,
 may possibly recollect the circumstances of a fatal duel, widely published at the time, which occurred on the third of April, 1874, on the old dueling ground on the sandy stretch of shore fronting say St. Louis. The participants were Artelle Bienvenue, broker, and An drea Phillips, lawyer, of New Or leans. It was on the same spot where the fatal bullet of Rhett, of the Picay- M'ae, sped to flight the gallant spirit of the intrepid Cooley the ground on which the rife shots of Badger and Car ter were exchanged where Scott and Campbell met; and where many pre- vious bloody episode had expiated real or imaginary fault.
 Aside from the fatal termination of the meeting, the contest between Phillips and Bienvenue would not have been un- usually remarkable 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 vio- lence, melted by the evil courses of their wives. -'.'.-> '--e.'''tf .'.-.i ''-@
 Born of reputable creole parents these sisters were inheritors of vast wealth and 8 stainless name, and distinguished for personal beauty in 8 land where the love hness of women was proverbial. Ten derly reared and brilliantly educated, with possessions that rivaIed in extent and excelled in value German princi- pality, it is not surprising that they be- came the fattered bellies of society, and were the boast and pride of the planter and merchant beaux in all the wild coast country. That these brilliant proteges 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 firts from their cradles. Born to admiration, their lives were spent from youth to maturity in an>atmosphere of fictitious sentiment and unreal pas sion. They looked upon men as merely the ministers of pleasures, and as the mediums through which their fattered vanity might grow and expand, as the flower blooms in the warmth of the sum- shine. All the aims and duties of life were bounded by the ambitions of so- ciety. Admiration to them was appreci- ation. Taught to regard their individual pleasures as superior to all considera- tions of convenience to others, it is not surprising that selfshness, indifference, and folly became the mainsprings to their actions. -.., ,4....r t..-. ..
 Nor is it astonishing that they exer- cised the fatal influence tLey did upon men. Their beauty was glorious. The youngest was the living type of the other %f,o ho,, L,,k over year ago, she rises before his vis- ion now, tall, graceful, slender woman, 1.-the, willowy, form of splendid con tinted face glows with health, and is ra- diant with intelligence. Deep, slumber- ous black eyes, unfathomable in their depths, which 8 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 in- tense, were wound above the low, broad forehead, and formed 8 raven-like crown to the dusky splendor of the dark Egyp- tian face. Men paused to look at her, and women sighed with envy as she passed. What she was in her youthful bridehood has been imperfectly de- scribed; what her sisters were in their married and splendid womanhood the enthusiastic imagination alone can pic ture. -' .-.:' >. 't -t-'. ,.. =.
 And now for the story of their lives. The oldest sister was married to Dr. Sharp, of Tuscaloosa, Ala, 8 polished, graceful gentleman, whose love and de- votion might have contented any woman less prone to the allurements of society and the admiration of men. It was in the first year of the war, and the most brilliant society in the South was gath cred at Mobile and New Orleans. With an appetite whetted to fever heat by 8 few months abstinence from social pleasures, she plunged 'recklessly into a whirlpool.of gayety. The married f1irt wears no armor of innocence. Her love of admiration is pitted against man s du- plicity and cunning. She staked and lost. From folly there is but one step to imprudence, and that step was taken, despite husbands jealousy and sense of honor. The end was inevitable a 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; society repelled her,
 
 to New Orleans to lead the life of an adventuress.
 The second sister shortly afterward married the son of distinguished jour nalist in Mobile. The fate of her elder sister was no bar to a career of similar folly. Society received her with open arms. Wealth, influential connections and alliances with distinguished family obscured for time the recollections of a sisters imprudence. But gossip soon grew busy with her name. From one folly to another she passed with fatal haste and seeming indifference, until in a fatal hour her husband learned that the woman he loved, the wife that he idolized, was thing to be scorned. It broke his healt. With the downfall of his idol, his reason wavered, and he perished by his own hand. For all his brilliant talents, and the promise of 8 splendid woman, he died the victim of a woman's perfdy.
 The younger sister became the wife of BienvenUe, young broker of New Or leans. Rich, beautiful and accomplish ed, she was at once leader in society. Courted, fattered and caressed, she plunged headlong into the vortex. Men lavished praises upon her-women hated and smiled upon her. What cared she ? Beautiful, reckless, heartless and indif- ferept to all alike, she cared only for that social admiration which was the sunshine of her life. Her large fortune gave her an income in her individual right. This gave wings to her extrava- gance and enabled her to contract bills in her own name. One of them-a mil liners bill-was overdue, suit was brought and execution issued which MT. Phillips, the lawyer, had levied for satis- faction upon her carriage and horses. In an interview subsequently had with the lady regarding the settlement of the bill, words which she construed into an insult were charged upon the attorney. Her husband resented it-a challenge ensued-and then the fatal duel on that