The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-22
THE Seer ETARY OF THE NAVY.
Political and MatrimoninI Experience,
Of Mr.. W. III. Hunt, formerly OF
Louisiana.

Secretary Hunt is to represent the south in
the cabinet apparently because lie has not
lived in it since four years ago, when he left
it under a social and political cloud. While
he lived there he was always overshadowed
by his brothers, one of whom-Randal Hunt
was once wing Encouragement of Louisi-
ana and twice the whig caucus candidate for
United States Senator, and the other brother,
Theodore q. Hunt, was a member of con-
gress from New Orleans in FillmOre's time.
Secretary Hunt was in Yale College, but did
not graduate. He practiced law in Louisiana
from the time of the Mexican to thai of the
civil war. During the civil war he was neither
a secesslonist or a Union man. After peace
he pronounced tor republicaniSm, and became
one Of Kellogg's right hand men. When
Sherman, Garfield, and the visiting statesmen
were in New Orleans, in 1876, he made their
acquaintance. He was the republican candi-
date for attorney-general, and for a time could
not understand why Hayes should have been
elected and not himself also. He was soon
afterwards made to comprehend the distinc-
ton by being made a judge of the court of
claims. Mr.. Hunt has been a much married
man. His first wife, now dead, was a Miss
Andrews of Mississippi. His second wife, al
so dead, was a Baltimore lady and the daugh-
ter of a commodore of the United States ma
Wy. His third wife was a widow-Mrs. Har-
rlson-a daughter Of the late Jacob Barker
and was some years the senior OF Mr.. Hunt.
After three years of union they mutually
agreed to separate and she was to go to Eu-
rope. While she was there Hunt undoubt-
eddy procured the passage of a divorce act by
the Legislature OF Louisiana, adding a clause
which would embrace his case and abridging
the time for DEGREES. Another legislature re-
pealed this, but it was in force while he be-
uan a diparnh Snif Inn ,nntst,tal s;, ,-;A
while his wife Was absent, who was repre-
scented, according to law practice, by a cura-
tor All hoe to represent her, and whose duty
it was to inform her Of the suit. This pro-
ceeding was equivalent to the New York
practice of service OF summons by pablica-
tion. The curator appointed by the court
was Mr.. ID. c. Labatt. A decree was rem
dered agar her (the curator filing an an
swer for her and defending thes suit as best
he conld) of absolute divorce. A year after
this Mr.. Hunt married a fourth time-a wild
ow lady-the daughter of a Mr.. Adams, of
New Orleans, who is his present wife. Mrs.
Harrison Hunt undoubtedly knew of the
Louisiana proceeding, but was advised that 1t
would be a nullity, and that the probabilities
were that under the h republican regime
she would not obtain justice. When he and
his new wife, the fourth Mrs. Hunt, came on
their wedding tour to New York, the third
Mrs. Hunt, by John X. Porter, brought suit
for divorce, alleging the relations of Mr.. and
Mrs. Hunt No. 4. The result, after some
years of litigation, was as indicated in my
yesterdays dispatches. Mrs. Harrison Hunt
was very r~esolute, as were her friends, who
thought, as New Orleans society thought and
still thinks, that Hunt had taken unfair ad.
vantage. She took the case up to the United
States Supreme Court, but every court and
Judge held that under the constitution they
must give full force to the Louisiana decree
-NeU York World.