Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1875-10-30
A TERRIBLE STORY.

THE Folly AND FATE OF THREE
BEAUTIFUL SIsTERs.-Our reaoers may
possibly recolect the circumstances OF
fatal duel, widely published at the
time, which occurred on the 3rd OF
April, 1874, on the old dueling ground
on the sandy stretch of shore fronting
Bay st. Louis. The participants were
Artelle Bienvenue, a broker, and An
drea Philips, lawyer of New Orleans.
1t was on the same spot where the fatal
bullet of Rhett, of the Picnyune sped
to flight the gallant spirit OF the intrep-
id Cooley; the ground on which the rifle
shots of Badger and Carter were ex-
changed; where Scott and Campbell
met; where many aprevious episode
had expiated real or imaginary fault.
Aside from the fatal termination OF
the meeting, the contest between Phil
ips 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 women-sisters-
whose husbands fell by the hand OF yio-
lence, melted by the evil courses OF
their wives.
Born Of reputable creole parents
these sisters were inheritors of vast
wealth and stainless name, and distln,
guished to personal beauty in land
where the loveliness of women was pro-
verbal. Tenderly reared and brilliant
ly educated, with possessions that rival
ed in extent and excelled in value a
German principality, it is not surprising
that they became the fattered bellies OF
society, and were the boast and PRIDE
of the merchant and planter beaux III
all the wide coast country. That these
brilliant proteges of the hanghtiest ar
istocracy 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 lu-
deed surprising. But they were tllrts
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 fattered 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 20 them was appreciation
Taught to regard their individual pleas
ures as superiors to all considerations OF
convenience to others, it is not snrprls.
inc, that sefshness, Indifference, and
folly, became the handspring 70 their ac-
| tions.
Nor is it astonishing that they exer-
cised 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 before
his vision now, a tall, graceful, slender
woman, 1.-THE, willowy form of spen-
did contour and exquisite symmetry.
The oval, tinted face glows with health,
and is radiant with intelligence. Deep,
slumberous black eyes, unfavorable in
their depths, which word can kindle
with excitement or make aglow with
passion; a queenly woman, regnant in
youth, grace, and the empire of men S
hearts. The rich coils of hair, black
aud intense, were wound above the low,
broad forehead, and formed a raven-like
crown to the dusky splendor of the dark
Egyptian face. Men paused to look at
her, and women sighed with envy when
she passed. What she was in her
youthful bridehood has been imperfect
ly described; what her sisters were in
their matured and splendid womanhoOd
the enthusiasts imagination alone can
picture.
And now for the story of their lives.
The oldest sister was married to DIR.
Sharp, of Tuscaloosa, AID, polished,
graceful gentleman, whose love and de-
votion might have contented any wo-
man less prone to the allurements of So
cietv and the admiration of men. 1t
was in the first year of the war, and the
most brilliant society of the South was
gathered at Mobile and New Orleans.
With an appetite whetted to fever heat
by few months abstinence from social
pleasures, she plunged recklessly into a
whirlpool of gaity. The married tiirt
wears 70 armor Of innocence. Her
love of admiration is pitted against
mans duplicty and cunning She stalk
ed and lost. From folly there is but
Que step TO imprudence, and that step
was taken, despite husbands jealousy
and sense OF honor. The end was i'll
evitable, challenge and duel, and
her husband fell pierced to the heart by
the bullet of her seducer. There was
no pity for the woman like this; society
repelled her, her friends discarded her,
and she fed to New Orleans to lead
the life of an adventures.
The second sister shortly afterward
married the son of distinguished jour
nalist in Mobile. The fate of her elder
sister was no bar to career of similar
folly. Society received her with open
arms. Wealth, influential connections
and alliances with distinguished fami-
ly obscured for time the recollections
of sisters imprudence. But gossip
soon grew busy with her name. From
one folly to another she passed with Ia
tai 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 scosned. 1t
broke his heart. With the downfall of
his idol. his reason YaYered. aud he