The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-02-28
WHY BLAINE KICKED.
HIS DA UGHTER'S MARRIAGE TO
A GRAY-HAIRED ROUE

Ine W asnlngtOn correspondent Ol
the Chicago Herald gives this inside
history of the first man in a matTi-
monial consummation that has al
ready beea chronicled in these col
umns:
The Blaine -Coppinger nuptials,
which were celebrated yesterday,
though attended with gorgeous GER
emonies and honored with the pres
ence of the President, Cabinet and
Supreme Court Judges, have yet
given rise to no end of comment,
and tonight the busy tongue of gos-
sip is hung in the middle. There are
several incongruities in the match,
which alone excite talk. The idea
that the accomplished daughter of
so great and rich a man as Mr..
Blaine should want to marry a pen
niless and gray-headed army officer,
with but a stained social position at
best, a person of obscure birth, of
opposite religion, and a man who
had been publicly proclaimed as the
destroyer of one household at least,
is what puzzles society. 1t is but
justice to Mr.. Blaine to say that he
opposed the match from the outset.
He did it not only on account of dis
parity in years and social position,
but COppinger's record was not un-
known to him. Coppinger is not n
West Pointer. He was appointed to
the army through the power of an
ultra-Irish influence in New York,
which was no guarantee or recogni-
ton of anything but votes. Twelve
or fifteen years ago he was known
as a kind of wild Irishman in the
saloons and a gallant Irishman in
the salons among the ladies. He was
ordered to California in 1868, and it
was then and there that the dashmg
Captain he was Captain in those
days. achieved his great feat of
storming a household and compell-
ing a surrender of its citadel.
Mr.. Thomas NJ. Cash was then re-
preventative in San Francisco of the
New York Herald. He had q young,
pretty and fascinating wife. Cash
and his wife and Coppinger lived in
the same house. Cash's duties kept
him out of nights. Captain Cop
pinger's military duties were such
that he could stay In of nights. The
result was that the gallant Captain
and the lady were thrown together
much, and it soon got so that while
Cash was sending off Herald dis
patches his wife and the Captain
were doing dispatch work at the
theatres and restaurants. There is
no need 10 indicate the result. One
day Cash found some letters, put a
watch on his spouse, went himself
home suddenly one evening and !
found the gallant Captain in unmil-
itary attire and his wife untitled for |
on the street. Instead |
Of making cold meat of Coppinger,
Dr. star ting a lead mine with him,
Cash pocketed his wrong. Once
discovered, the Captain and the lady !
led East, and Cash perpetrated a
revenge by publishing a
pamphlet giving the full particulars !
Of the escladnaire, and copies of let
ters that had passed between the |
guilty pair. Mr.. Cash with true
news instinct made several columns |
Of the matter, and wound up with a
pathetic appeal for the public sym
pathy.
Coppinger aud the lady went to
st. Louis. Cash reported his wife's |
lover to the War Department, and |
the Captain, no doubt, would have |
been tried "for conduct unbecoming |
4 United States officer and a
4 gentleman" if Cash had not made |
such an ass of himself. The War |
could hardly afford to
redress the wrongs of a man who |
had advertised himself broad cast as
4 -. The only thing the army |
people did was to give Coppinger a
hint to drop the lady and assign him |
TO other duty. Poor Cash, broken
hearted and ruined. not to say ieer-
ed at, and losing his place on the |
Herald because of it, got into the !
employ Of the Central Pacific rail |
road company, and when last heard |
from was ticket agent down in Ari-
zona- The facts are all known, and |
in spite Of the brilliant wedding of /
yesterday, there are many who be
.ieve that the gallant Colonel Cop /
pinger hardly dared lift his eyes
yesterday, lest the vision of the ru-
ned Mrs. Cash should present itself. /
1t is no wonder that Mr.. Blaine /
kicked at the match. The wonder
IS that he didn't kick hard enough |
% break it,