Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-09-17

ME EOlL1 AND FATE Ut 11IkG |
TIFUL sIsTERs-THE sTRANGEsT OF
sTORIE IN EVERY DAY LIFE-A FATED
FAMILY,
&C., &C., &c.
Our readers may possibly recollect the
circumstances of Il fatal duel, widely pub
lished at the time; which occurred on the
Sd of April, 1874, IN the old dueling ground
on the sandy stretch of shore fronting Bay
st. Louis. The participants were Article
B%ienvenue, a broker. and Andrea Phillips,
a lawyer, of New Orleans, the former be-
ing killed. The St. Louis Chimes" pub
fishes the following remarkable history Of
the cause that led to that and other TRACE
dies:
Aside from the fatal termination of the
meeting, the contest between Phillips and
Bienvenue would not have been unusually
remarkable but for the fact that it was the
final scene in the tragic welded lives OF
three MISUNDERSTANDING 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
a stainless name, and distinguished for per-
sonal beauty in a land where the loneliness
of women was proverbial. Tenderly reared
and brilliantly educated, with possessions
that rivalled in extent andexcelled in value
Il German principality. it is not surprising
that they became the fiattered bellies OF So
ciety, 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
fIirtS from their cradles. Born to admira-
| ton, 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 pleas
ures, and as mediums Through which their
tiattered vanity might grow and expand,
as the flower blooms in the warmth of the
| sunshine. All the aims and duties of life
were bounded by the ambitions of society.
Admiration to them was appreciation.
| Taught to regard their individual pleas
ures as superior to all considerations of
| convenience to others, it net surprising
| that selfishness, Indifference, and folly be-
| came the handspring 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 a little over a year
ago, she rises before his vision now, a tall,
| graceful, slender woman, a 1.-THE, willOwy
form of splendid contour aud exquisite
| symmetry. The oval, tinted face glows
with health, and is radiant with intelli.
| gence. Deep, slumberOus black eyes, un-
fashionable in their depths, which a word
can kindle with excitement or make aglow
with passion; a queenly woman, regnant
in youth, grace and the empire of mems
hearts. The rich coils of hair, black and
intense, we've wound above the low, broad
forehead, and formed d raven-like crown
to the dusky splendor OF the dark Egyptian
face. Men paused to look at her, and wo-
men sighed with envy as she passed. What
she was in heryoutllfui bridehood has been
imperfectly described; what her sisters
were in their matured and splendid woman
hood the enthusiasts imagination alone
a picture.
And now for the story of their lives.
The Oldest sister was married to DR.. Sharp,
OF Tuscaloosa, Ala. a polished. graceful
gentleman, whose love and devotion might
have contented amy woman less prone to
the allurements Of society and the admira-
ton of men. 1t was in the first year of the
South was gathered at Mobile and New
Orleans. With an appetite whetted to
fever heat by a few months absence from
social pleasures, she plunged recklessly in
to a whirlpool Of gaiety. The married 1irt
wears no armOr OF innocence. Her love of
admiration is pitted against mans dupli-
city and cunning. She staked and lost.
From folly there is but one step tt impru-
dcnce, and that step was taken, despite a
husbands jealousy and sense of honor.
The end was inevitable; a challenge and a
dI1pF anl hor husband foil ,;o,oo1 ~ tbo
heart by the bullet OF her seducer. There
was no pity for the woman like this: So
Getty repelled her, her friends discarded
her, and she fled to New Orleans to lead
the life Of an adventures.
The second sister shortly afterward mar |
ried the son of a distinguished Journalist
in Mobile. The fate Of her elder sister was
no bar to a career of similar folly. Society
received her with open arms. Wealth, in
fluential connections and alliances with a
distinguished family obscured for a 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 he idOlized,
was a thing to be scorned. 1t broke his
heart. With the downfall of his idol. his
reason wavered, and he persisted by his
hand. For I'LL his brilliant talents, |
and the promise Of Il splendid name, he
died the victim of a Woman's pertidy.
The younger sister became the wife of
Bienvenue, a young broker of New Orleans.
Rich, beautiful and accomplished, she was
at once a leader in society. COurted, fiat
tered n caressed, she plunged headlong
into the vortex. Men laviShed praise upon
her-wOmen hated and smiled upon her.
What cared she? beautiful, reckless, heart
less and Indifferent 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 extravaganza and
enabled her to contract bills in her own
name. One OF them-a milliner's bill
was overdue, suit was brought and execu-
ton issued which MI. Phillips, the lawyer, |
had levied for satisfaction upon her car
rlage and horses. In all interview subse-
quently had with the lady. regarding the
settlement of the bill, words which she
construed into al insult were charged up !
on the attorney. Her husband resented it
"a challenge ensued-and then the fatal
duel on that April morning, when a hus-
bands life ebbed away it's purple tide up
on the lonely beach, the last unhappy vic |
tim OF the fatal sisters folly and extrava-
gance.
STRANGE SCENE AT A LYNCHING.--
Jesse Woodson, colored, was hung by a
mob near Murfreesboro, Tenn, last week,
for the murder of a woman. One of the
participants in the tragedy relates the fol-
strange incident:
After arriving at the place of execution
were told that it was n solemn and Sc
rious duty we were about to discharge, so
much so that it was thought advisable
that we should implore the mercy, bless