The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-03-11
MYRA CLARK GAINES.
The Herofne OF the Great American 4
. Lassuit--A SprightIy Lady OF sixty
eight Summers--Romantie Incidents /
of Her Life.

OF Her Life.
New Orleans Correspondence Chicago Inter
70 Ocean. rTe ~ l-rfF
i Every Northern visitor here is curious
to see Myra Clark Gaines, the heroine of
the courts for nearly half a century.
You are to reflect, p said Lawyer Kenge,
of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce, that this
has been great cause, that this has been
"a protracted cause, that this has been a
complex cause ;.....,..that on the numer-
Gus difficulties. contingencies, masterly
tictions, and forms of procedure in this
great cause, there have been expended
study, ability, elOquence, knowledge, in
tellect.' ' 1t was all q troubled dream"
said the broken-hearted ward, CarstOne,
as he closed his eyes and sought the gra-
cious equity of Higher Court.
A little mad old woman, however. had
a more resolute hope than he, and always
haunted the court for some incemprehen-
sible judgment in her favor. Mrs. Gaines
is the
LITTLE MISS FLLTE
of American chancery, with no less
] faith than had Dickens woman-a faith,
however, that has not faded to a cobweb
film, but is sturdy, intelligent courage.
To my mind there is infinitely more pathos
in Miss Flite's portraiture than in Car
stone 's-with his shattered hopes he sur
4 rendered his life. She had long survived
] her heart-break without showing it; she
had watched the fog in waiting for an iris
until her patience became lunacy and
limned such an augury of clear sky {; she
was poor, incarnate little ghost that
would not enter her grave, but leaped
across it in untiring chase of phantasm.
Mrs. Gaines, on the contrary, is robust
little woman, 6S years of age !; trots the
thoroughfares as nimbly as a miss of 16 !;
has fresh, ruddy skin, light blue eyes,
and volume of blonde hair such as
crowns few modern bellies. TOughened
by resolution, she steps friskily over the
years as though they were cobble-stones
on wet day-very disagreeable, rough,
liable to lame one, but inevitable in her
path. She has been many years
in a storm that might well have dam
pened her ardor, poor soul, and has
carried more sunshine under her moral
umbrella than has glowed for her above
it. How, despite all her reverses, her
judicial buffets, her keen disappointments,
she has not only held unflinchingly to her
purpose, but kept her semblance Of youth,
is marvel. Even her garb gainsays age.
No squeezed bonnet like Miss Elites
for her from her dainty foot to her jaunty
hat she obdurately refuses to be an old
| H.. d
head, with big earrings a-quiver, and
hands busily emphasize; yet here you re-
mark an incongruity that her youthful at
tire has not hitherto suggested. The lips
have no shrivel, yet their articulation is
not always clear. No wonder they have
told their story to so many courts, to
TWO GENERATIONS OF LAWYERS,
and suppressed so many sobs for fruitless
WEAKNESS. When at times her tone is
shriIl, it sounds like wall tempering her
speech. 1t is only the sough through the
branches, so to speak, of the bleak winds
that have mdurated both her fiber and the
grasp of her roots upon the rock of her
great plea.
Fond at times of lively chat, she ripples
out CHEEKY laugh, but humor seems less
an instinct with her than graceful respite
from her stubborn engrossing thought.
Few who meet her fail to hear her narrate
her irksome pursuit of justice, and to be
persuaded that her sanguine little fingers
will still clinch to a fist and pound away at
the doors of the tribunals while life lasts.
She may truthfully say with Miss Elite
81 expect a Judgment. Shortly. On the
day of judgment. pass my days in court.
| find the nights long, for | sleep but little
and think much. That is, of course, una
voidable- being in chancery. | sometimes
find it difficult to keep up genteel ap-
pearance. have felt the cold here. l have
felt something sharper than cold. 1t mat
: ters very little" This is the sorry truth
but she never confesses it-of one on
whose property in land, two miles square,
, worth SO, 900 600, and located in the very
heart of the Crescent City, are piles OF
marble and brick, whose owners, year af:
ter year. reap. fortunes and retire for their
successors, who in turn transmit the pro-
prietary right to grin over the claims of
THIS INDoMITABLE LITTLE WOMAN.
; Yet to wrest her duchy from this vast
! herd of trespassers she has made siren.
+ uous battle for fOrty-twO years, and with
every balk has lifted firm face from her
tear-wet hands: still smiled like Miss
Flite: still assured herself ''It matters Lit.
: tie. expect a judgment. Shortly" and
renewed The struggle. That despite an
empty purse she has been able to com.
mand the best talent of the country, is
! surprising, yet Notwithstanding the many
: great lawyers employed against her she
has never failed to recruit all the resour.
ces which Counsellor Kenge said were ex
pended on the Jarndyce cause. She is
7 eight-eighths lawyer herself-a complete
digest of the outlets, ''maSterly fic-
, tions," "precedents, and forms of procedure
! with which her bitter experience has
seasoned her. She prods her counselOrs
she patters into court, not like Miss Flitt
to await an Ultimate recognition from the
! bench, but to compel it tstraightway and tC
be heard: she is all buzz and flutter, but
these are logical expressions of heI
method of doing business. She wants the
y torpid court to receive under its solemn
|. wig the knowledge that she can't enter
her Eldorado; that she passes, repasses,
! and vainly attempts its gate, and that the
key thereto turks somewhere in the musty
: judicial gown, if his Honor will only rise
TO his feet and shake himself. She coquet
tishly affirms her belief that although sc
many Judges are stolid mummies, anC
: have gravely declined to bulge, her lega
' persuasion will yet succeed, and that sht
d has half century ahead to persist in it. Sht
!, has as vet recovered, in all her years o
litigation, but about 100000, and at ;
cost of S250.000 to the pockets of her two
deceased husbands. She inherits with the
!" estate
A MARVELLOUS ROMANCE.
During Spain's ownership of Louisiana
Jerome DeGrange, a Frenchman, married
. pretty little Spanish Creole here OF Il
years, named Zulieme Carriere. Soon aftel
= it was disclosed that DeGrange had a wit,
!. in New York, but had forgotten, in the
o vehemence of his new passion, to mention
6 it. Zulieme forthwith lett his domicile, al
n did he when she proceeded against him fo
i bigamy. He took French leave, so to speak
n and to this hour has not Responded
to the charge. Then it was that DAME
j. Clark, shrewd Irishman, merchant, ant
, land speculator in New Orleans, met her
q courted her with fierce Hibernian ardor
3 and at length privately welded her il
10 Philadelphia, whence she never returne'
a to Louisiana. 1t was mutually agrees
- that until DeGrange should be decreed
a bigamist the second marriage should b
as kept secret. In due time came Myra a
"A issue from it, much to the embarrassment
~ of both parties, to avert which the bab
q was confided to the charge of Colone
n Davis, who, an old New Orleans friend {
st Clark. had removed to Wilmington, De
"a Some years aftsrward Clark died hert
n and Myra, kept in ignorance OF her p;
n rents, fully believed herself. until she wa
IL "A years old, TO be Davis daughter. he
N mother at Philadelphia had meantim