The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-03-25
MashIrrten Letter.
PROM our rssular corre.popdent.l


are making things lively for poIiti.
clans generally. The Senate Election
COMMITTEES created quite fiutter of
excitement among all our nation. saw
ers by their declaration that Senator
Kellogg's seat was vacant, and that
Spofford Ia legally entitled thereto.
The Republicans insist that such action
is revolutionary In its tendency, aud
portends serious future trouble, since
intended as one ofthe means by which
the Democrat candidate for President
may be counted In next spring. whether
legally elected or not In November.
Kellogg never was elected; that this
action Is strictly In accordance with
right and justice, and that the people
will next fall sustain Il when the
facts are properly put before them.
At any rate, nothing has occurred in
the Capitol this winter which has in
duced more outside discussion and
debate than this move. Mr.. Kellogg
and his friends claim that Senator
Hill, who pressed the matter to vote,
was actuated by personal rather than
party motives, and intended it to di-
vert public attention from himself in
the Raymond scandal. Whether this
assertion be true or untrue, Senator
Hill has certainly stirred up a hornets
nest in attacking Mrs. Belva Lock-
wood. Our recent prediction that he
would regret his action has been fully
verified, for she is after him with all
the fury Of "woman scorned."
Though he tries to ease her blows
with charges of attempted blackmail
falsifier etc., she is terribly persistent
and the end is not yet. She publicly
accuses him Of seducing young girls
and of being bad fellow generally,
and no one doubts she will have the
last word, whatever he may say and
do in the future. She undoubtedly
acted in good professional faith in fill
ing a bill in the courts against him
for Miss Raymond, as the evidence
to sustain her on this point is indis-
putable. Miss Raymond's denial of
ever having charged the Senator with
seducing her is unwarranted under
the facts; yet there Is no evidence, be-
yond her own allegations, that her
charges had the slightest foundation
in fact. But the endeavors to saddle
all responsibility for her statement
upon Mrs. Lockwood was unfortunate
as it puts her, not Miss Raymond, in
the category of shyster and black
mailer. She, therefore, as a purely
personal matter, has gone into fight
against him with all her ability and
aroused woman's ire, which will, to
say the last, be an unpleasant one to
him before she gets through with him
as she can throw dirt equal to any
male lawyer at the bar. One of the
sequences of this quarrel has been the
introduction of bill into the House
to prevent blackmail. Notwithstand-
ing the need of stringent statute up
on this matter, yet this bill will not
now become o law, for it win meet a
fatal opposition from the lobby, which
as it is composed largely of women
has strength enough to defeat any
measure encroaching on their privil-
eyes. A little restraint placed upon
our Legislators won't hurt them, and
perhaps it Is better to have no prohibi-
tory statute. Some of those solons
have not sowed their wild oats as yet,
and their friskinesss leads them often
into bad associations. The existence
Of law agains blackmail might in
duce others, whose walk is now COM
paratively straight, to yield to the
temptations which surround the in
nocent and unsophisticated legislator.
At last the domestic infelicities
which have been known to exist be-
tween ex-senator Christinancy-now
minister in Peru-and his wife, have
eliminated, and we are promised o
divorce suit as full of nauseating de-
tails as any in which the Prince of
Wales ever figured as witness or
participator. Mrs. Christiancy re-
turned here sonme months since from
Peru, and her husbands friends assert
that her conduct has been quite re
prehensible, though only in keeping
with her actions for several years past
not only in this country, but in Peru.
He has applied for leave of absence,
and will return here to institute pro-
ceedings against her for divorce. She
on the other hand, charges him with
extreme cruelty, and asserts her in
nocence of crime. 1t Is not at all
likely that Mr.. Christiancy will invoke
much sympathy for himself, no mat.
tor what his witnesses may prove
against her. She was q mere child
when he married her, younger in
years than some of his children, and
beyond that, was destitute of any ol
the solidity Of sensible womanhood
She was regarded as volatile and
frivolous, and could not fail to make
the wedlock of such extreme disparity
of ages and temperament an unhappy
one, even il, as she insists, her skirt:
are clear ofunfaithfulness.
The President has approved the bill
allowing one, hundred additional pen