The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-11-09
A Womau's Fight for Her Rights.

There is not a case in the annals of
American jurisprudence which APP
proaches in interest and compleXity,
in what really might be called ro-
nance. to the damage suits instituted
by Walburga Wackerle against the
4Etna and Mutual Life Insurance
companies, and the history therein
contained. TO the impartial observer
Mrs. Wackerle does not look at all like
a heroine. She is a plain-featured,
washed-out, nervous-looking little wo-
man, Wiry in build, blue-eyed, partly
gray, and bearing upon her shoulders
the burden of fifty years of hard
work. She does not look at all like
in novels, whose nature has been
transformed and who devote
themselves, body and soul, to
retribution, with an upper case
''R" thereafter Mrs. Wackerle has
been about as deeply wronged as any
of these heroines, however. She has
always been poor, and yet she has
fought and won battle at desperate
odds against two powerful corporations.
She has Travelled up and down the
country from Connecticut to Texas, and
from Louisiana to Minnesota time and
time again, without money. When
kindly people secured passage for her on
her quest she rode, when there was no
other way she walked, often walking
| fifty and sixty miles at stretch. In
a word, this woman with her pale.
wasked-out face, her hard hands and
! iarring nerves has been and is very
volcano, a steam engine of energy in
righting the wrongs which have been
done her.
! The history of the case as it came up
/ in the st. Louis courts has been al
| ready told. Mrs. Wackerle brought
suit against the Mutual Life Insurance
company to recover $4,000, the amount
of a policy upon her husbands life.
| For answer the insurance company
produced the dead man in court. 1t
was the supreme moment of the wild
ow's life. After hard legal fight the
bogus Wackerle was stripped of his
false feathers and exposed in court as
"A fraud and perjurer, and the long
weary nine years struggle for justice
was closed with justice won. After d
nine years fight Mrs. Wackerle will
get her money. Mr.. \ r. Taylor and
Mr.. DonOhue, who have conducted
the case for her, spent
their own money in helping
her to get her testimony together, have
already received an intimation that the
defendants are ready to disgorge. Who
the false Wackerle is no one knows
Mrs. Wackerle believes that he is Chris
Wackerle. but is not at all sure. join
Wackerle swore that the false Wack
erie was his brother, and stopped there
His benefit comes from the fact tha
he secured back pension and arrears
and benefits amounting to nearl!
$4,000; besides, he swore to receiving
S45 month and board and expense
from the Mutual Life Insurance com
pany for his services in this suit. Mrs
Wackerle believes that he gets lilI
allowance from the Etna. Wackerl
gets $2,0 900 and his expenses. Mr.. Bliss
the district attorney, has ordered hi
pension stopped, but the impostor can
not be arrested until he returns to tn
place where the pension fraud wa
committed, or until the United State
court in California orders his arrest
He has left st. Louis no one know
for what place. Mrs. Wackerle is liy
ing at Seventh and Rutgers streets, il
a tenement, and is just now in wretche
health. She was out at work ever,
day, and it may be two or three month
before the case is definitely settled
There are technicalities to which tn
defense may still cling, which can dC
lay but which cannot bar ultimate jus
tice being done to this most indomitf
bic and wonderful woman.-St. Lou,
PoSt-DiSpatch.
"Never smoke before ladies'" w
suppose one must let the ladies smok
first.-LQpre7lce american.