The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-09-19
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

The week has gone by in quiet. The
late experience of storms has not been
repeated, nor has internal strife or po-
iticaI excitement occurred to disturb
the city's majestic repose. On the
street, the hum OF business has lapsed
to the languid tide Of declining summer,
when clerks have gone home to their
friends, politicians with their followers
have departed for other fields to wire
pull, and families not yet returned from
retreats where summers heat takes
flight upon cool air. Elegance and
beauty, not absent from the city, stay
at home resting in the comforts " Sc
clusion, and only the professional and
the tradesman, the detained official and
the omnipresent poor make up the daily
street scene. In the departments is un-
usual quiet; the vacant seats look
mournful, while in the great halls, foot
steps and voices resound of loneliness.
But the mill Of social grist grinds on,
and, while the States are wrangling
over politics, the capital is talking So
ciety affairs. Admiral Porter is in the
tolls Of a scandal, a suit having been
commenced against him by II. ;. Wet
more, formerly Lieutenant under the
Admiral, who is charged with too great
an intimacy with Wetmore's wife, re-
sulting in the latter getting a divorce.
Sometime later, Admiral Porter Sc
cured a clerkship for the Lieutenant, he
having left the army. Out Of the salary
it seems a certain amount was re-
tanned for his divorced wife each month,
and this at the instigation Of the patron
Of the divorced couple. Mr.. Wetmore
sues for $1,000, the amount thus, he
says, unjustly withheld, and to which be
has tamety submitted long enough.
Suspicion, temper aud wealth give the
foundation for another rumored un-
happy affair more exciting than the
above, Of which vague hints have been
circulating for some time: Mrs. Law
renee, daughter Of General Taylor, and
granddaughter of John Mclean, of
Ohio, who held different high places in
State and nation, was, when quite
young, married to Captain Kingsbury,
an officer on the staff Of General Law
renee, son of Governor Lawrence, Of
Rhode Island. The young husband was
soon after killed at the battle Of Antie-
tam. His death, the wife mourned
with touching affection. After a time,
the beautiful and wealthy young widow
was besieged with many admiring suit
ors, among whom was General Law
renee, whom in the duecouTse Of events
she married, and moved with him to
Chicago. where she owned considerable
property. There on unpleasant circum-
stance occurred, grating harshly on the
sensitive purity Of the lady's mind, in
duciug them to leave aud come to
Washington, where Mrs Lawrence
soon became a favorite of society for
her bright accomplishments. She
sought the society Of the diplomats,
among whom was Mr.. Van West,
First Secretary of the Belgian legation,
who was particularly brilliant and fas-
cinating, and of whose society the ac-
complished lady was particularly fond.
However, the attraction was only the
enjoyment of each others intellectual
society. But the General was suspi-
cious, and charged his wife unjustly,
after which they lived very unhappily
together until they finally separated,
she going to Europe. Van West after
a while returned home, where General
Lawrence, brooding over his supposed
wrongs, followed him, challenging him
to a duel. 1t took place at Hamburg
| The General having first shot but missed
/ fire, whereupon his adversary fired his
pistol in the air. After this, General
Lawrence returned home, while his
wife still remains abroad. But the
case Of Mrs. Laura +. Mitchell, for
mournful pathos and terrible wrongs,
surpasses all. Fourteen years ago, a
young girl Of rare sensibiIities and mem
tai endowment, she married r. w. c.
Mitchell, a promising young journalist.
He became dissipated and treacherous,
violating the fidelity Of his marriage
vows, till the sorrows and trials of the
wife were those Of a martyr Finally,
that be might join himself to another
woman, he hired a peuurer to prefer
false charges against his wife, to aid
him to a divorce, suppOsing the forgiv-
ing and long-sutlering woman to SUBJ
NIT to even this wrong. She filed a
cross bill with overwhelming evidence,
proving him to be the vilest Of the vile
himself a eess-pOol Of rottenness who
would have made the mother Of hi:
children a harlot, pleading with her tC
offer her virtue to Congressman anC
Senators to get money for him, and like
; terrible indignities. In his attempts tC
blacken her name, she turned upon him
, obtained divorce, and has now venti.
! lated his crimes. This man is Secretary
Sehurz's private secretary, who wai
very recently married to a Mississippi
lady. FELIX.
] Washington, August %, 1873.
The miners in the Comstock lode ar
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