Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1883-01-27
NEW YORK GOSSIP.

cVa'C tuC DCNA Au- uc IuaS<I uVT0Uc
Crowds to Look On, but Few to Take
Part-Etc.
Special Correspondence Of the TIxEsl
The sensation Of the week vas un-
questionably the suit for $4,000 dam
ages for breach Of promise of mar
rage, brought by Miss Mary A. A.
Livingston, against Henry Fleming, a
young millionaire. The details as de-
veloped in the course of the trial
were prurient in the extreme, and the
court room in Brooklyn was packed to
repletion with curiosity seekers. The
trial resulted in verdict for the
plaintiff in the full amount asked for,
the heaviest amount ever awarded in
a breach-of-promise case in the his
tory of legal practice. Now, there is
no doubt that such verdict would
not have been given in any other city
in the Union save Brooklyn. That
city has not its like in the country.
1t has more scandals to the square
yard than other large cities have to the
square mile. 1t combines the pecul-
lar freshness of Chicago with the out
ward occurrences of Quaker town.
Everybody goes to church, and yet
everybody looks as if he or she had
history. Outside of that, however,
Mr.. Fleming's case was grossly mis-
managed. His lawyer, Mr.. Howe,
who is very good at saving criminals
from the gallows, seems to have been
at sea in this case. He attacked the
girl in most brutal manner, calling
her cyprian and the daughter of
cyprian. On the testimony of de-
tective, who seems to be a paragon Of
asininity, he charged her with having
kept an improper clearinghouse ten
years ago. Now the girl is not yet
p, and the detective simply ascribed
to her the doings of woman by the
name of Livingston, who for ten or
fifteen years prior to 1874 was fash
ionable, notorious character of met
ropolitan shady life. OF course the
jury had to sympa hize and side with
her.
Said lawyer to me, a man who at
one time filled the position Of Judge
in one of our leading State Courts.
and who has gained many laurels by
his pleadings at the bar, "the day of
bullying plaintiff or heaping vile
abuse on him, and treating him or her
in such manner as to arouse all that
is manly in bystanders are over. A
lawyer WHO attempts to rely on such a
method will not only lose his own
cases, but he will make himself liable
to prosecution. The spirit Of the age
is in favor of moderation, and it was
high time that this spirit made itself
felt"
An appeal has been taken from the
verdict, and additional evidence
against the character of the woman
has, it is claimed, been discovered.
During the trial it was charged that
Miss Livingston had been intimate
with her mothers coachman, one
Alexander Cornelius. This person
has now come forward and produced
the letters alleged to have been writ
ten to him by the girl. This, of course,
will open the sluice-gates again. The
spectacle is not edifying. And yet,
strange are the workings of woman's
mind, or rather feelings-this girl
even now would marry Fleming, We're
he willing. am so informed by a
person who knows both parties.
The first of the great masquerade
balls is over. The French Society
rAmitie gave their tenth annual mas
querade at the Academy Of Music last
evening, and of course the place was
packed after midnight. L'Amitie's
is not the French ball; it is but the
preliminary canter-to use racing
phrase-to the grand pageant of the
Ccrcle Francois de rHarmonie, next
Monday. Then in rapid succession
come the Elks, the Leiderkrantz and
Arion pageants. The ball-goer will
be pretty we'll worn out by the begin
ming Of Lent. The season Of pen.
ance and sorrow this year begins on
Al A1