Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-30
LOW DOWN.

aCttH u CHIcdDO man ana others.
r. w. G. Mitchell, private secretary of
Secretary Schurz, has ventilated himself in
a tWo-cOlumn card to refute the assertion
made by his wife, from whom he was recent
ly divorced, that he besought her to prosti-
tute her body to members of Congress for
money. He makes rather strong defense
against the allegation, but in doing SO drags
the history of his married existence before
the public in a manner unbecoming the
ordinary decencies of life. It Will be re-
membered that some weeks ago a letter was
published in the Washington Post, and
widely copied, written by his wife, wherein
she charged that he had demanded that she
should sell her body. The letter was writ
ten in the most earnest vein of one suffering
under cruel wrong inflicted, and was in
terwoven with sentences calculated to arouse
for the woman the most hearty sympathies.
When the letter was called to Schurz' atten-
ton he ordered an Investigation. The ap-
Polntment clerk of the department was de-
signated as the officer to investigate the un-
clean business, and: the present letter is one
written by Mitchell to the investigating Of
hcer, which proves that, no matter how
guilty the woman may be, she allied to
man and bore him children, who, in the
attempt to crush her, sadly befouls himself,
He charges that she was seduced by one
Alonzo w. Adams, and likewise had ha5s031s
with Charles Gage, of Chicago, and man
named Won Flop, of New Jersey. Won Flop,
according to Mitchell, was no SLOUGH at
storming woman's heart. Mitchell in his
letter says of him: ''The late Mrs. Mitchell
told me this man was dear old friend of
hers in Albany, i'll 1864; that he was intimate
with her sister Clara, and in love with her:
that he took her sister to the soldiers bazar
held in Albany in 1864, introduced her to
Gov Seymour, and dined with that gentle
man, purchased costly bouquets and other
presents, and would have married her if he
could have gotten a divorce During his
visits he gave my late wife many presents,
always under the guise of philopena. These
included dresses, which 1 Immediately de-
stroyed upon learning his true character
This man assisted Mrs Mitchell in the re-
ceptlons by describing her sister Clara and
the fine times they had in Albany. His
audacity went so far as to propose visit to
her in Canada during the following summer
l became suspicious of him short time
after he made my acquaintance because of a
surrePtlt1ous visit my late wife paid him at
his Office at night and wrote to her sister
Clara, asking who he was. was astounded
to receive her emphatic denial of all knowl-
edge of him, and in subsequent letters she
lntimated thai something must be wrong
with her sister {my wife). 1 wrote to her
brother, Benjamin, who resided at the time
Won Flop claimed to have known her in
Albany, and his reply showed that Clara left
Albany two years before the time mentioned.
I walked this out of the house in the
face of my wife's pleading as bashful and
pltlful as she now presents herself to the
public. 1t was cruel thing to do, but it
made condonement impracticable as a de-
Tense of the part of Mrs. Mitchell to my
suit This man seemed to have gained com
plete control of Mrs. Mitchell, and at his
door most of the guilt should be laid. He
influenced her even to the extent of making
herignore her motherhood, and at his bidding
her children became messengers between the
two by carrying notes and keeping the fact
from the father" 70 explain the scars on
Mrs. Mitchell's body, which she alleges were
caused by blows inflicted by him, Mitchell
Says '!As to the scars she mentioned, one
she received from hoe when girl engaged
| in digging worms for fsh-bait. The bruise
on her thigh is nothing more nor less than a
varicose vein, which she had years before I
knew her, and which still remains The
scar on her forehead she received when in a
drunken fury she attacked me in the pres
ence of my second child and my sister, I
threw carving knife at her, followed with a
teapot filled with scalding tea; and when she
rushed on me with fork, in sheer self-de-
tense pushed her over chair, and in the
fall she struck her head. Under the cir
cumstances would do it again. To prove
that Mrs. Mitchell never wrote the pathetic
letter reciting the wrongs alleged to have
been heaped upon her by her husband
Mitchell descends to the degradation OF
quoting from her letters written during theil
married existence to show her illiteracy, and
| as sequence, her inability to write the let
ter attributed to her. He says: 'sIn let
ter written Aug. 5, 1872, her spelling shows
an utter disregard for all rules of orthogra.
ply, while the composition is simply extra
| ordinary It is full of jealousy withou,
cause, and in it she hopes will not have tc
wait for any one until they get ready to come
says she has made me a birthday present
herself, but which afterward I learned she
bought while shopping with the dissolute
person, Cage The publication of Mitchell's
two-column card is the gossip of the town.