Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1883-05-25
SPRAGUES CsURTSHIP.
Meeting Kate Chase Ut Cleveland and
Failing I'm Love OF First Sight

Correspondence of Philadelphia Times.
"Did you know that it was in this
town that Kate Chase and Governor
Sprague first metz" asked Colonel Dick
Parsons, toying idly with an afterdin-
ner cigar, as we sat to-day in the cosy
library of mis- home on Prospect street.
eyes, sir, introduced them myself,
and they fell Ia love with each other
right off. 1t was at the time of the IN
yelling of the Perry Monument, down
ia The Park, early in the war. Cover
nor Chase and his family always stopp-
ed at my house when in Cleveland, and
Kate was visiting us then. Over there"
pointing to a leather-covered easy
chair in the corner, lis where Cover
nor Chase used to sit, ia the same
chair and on the same spot, and the
room. overhead he used to occupy.
We have always called it the Cover
nor's room. 1t was in that chair he
decided to accept the Chief Justiceship.
He came here one night and we talked
it all over, the reasons for and against
his acceptance l thought he ought to
take 1t. We sat up late, but before he
went to bed his decision WIS cached
dllNl Vic lS Az ia III G1lo lO'Ntt4 Nc N1OAC
out his acceptance. Garfield came
here the second day after his nomina-
ton. He sat in the Governors chair
for about an hour or two talking about
the nomination and feeling pretty blue
that day. Then he opened his mail
and answered 81 lot Of dispatches from
thst table.
about Kate Chase? On, yes. Well,
the Perry ceremonies lasted over sew
pral days, ending with Il call at the
Kennard House. My wife and Kate
and | drove down in, my carriage. We
had hardly entered the hall when W.
met Spague. | presented him to the
la1ies. He and Kate went off together,
and for the rest of the evening VIXEN
ever We saw one of them we were pretty
sure to see the other. 1t was a case of
mutual and instant infatuation, AMI no
wonder. Rhode Island had sent dep
udation to share in the celebration be-
cause Parsons-or my family, by the
way, and who was Perry's right
hand man in the fight on the
lake-was Rhode Islander. Sprague
was attended by his full staff and
y Governors GUARD of about a hun
bred, with a fine band of music. They
made gorgeous display and stunning
impression. He was the only man in
black clothes in the who'e party, and
being young ard handsome and splen-
didly surrounded he seemed exactly
suited to Kate's brilliancy aud beauty,
for she was not only the most brilliant
girl. but most brilliant woman | ever
met. Her vivdcious manner and grace
full figure, clear complexion, chestnut
hair and expressive eyes commanded
everyone's admiration. So was it
wonder they took to each other? | re- |
member very well how, when it was
getting late that light and we wanted to
so home, Kate came over to us with |
Sprague and persuaded us to say
Longer. believe tie celebration ended |
with the ball. | can't remember |
whether SpraQue called here before he
left for home, but in any event he went
to Washington the next winter. Kate |
was living there. They met again and |
within a week of their introduction |
we're married. | believe that mean
while SpraGue became interested In a |
widow, who afterwards married here |
and lived in the big house on Euclid |
ahenus now owned by the Union Club. |
But when Sprague and Kate met again
the old tilme was famed; he forgot the |
widow and wedding soon followed.
They came here on their bridal trip |
and of course h&d the governors |
room
II don't know much about the early |
period of their married life, because |
soon after the wedding | went as consul |
to Rio Janeiro and didn't hear about
them, but some years before publicity |
war given TO their relations, Hates |
friends knew that it had been a hssty |
ard mistaken marriage. Sprseue's |
dissipated habits, however varied, were
not all that made them unhappy. The |
truth was they were not of congenial |
temperament or disposition. AS far |
back as 1873 or 1879 Kate informed me |
that their relations for two years had |
been of the most distant character and |
long before that they had ceased to be
attractive 10 each other. 1t was sad,
indeed, that one so we'll fitted to make |
home a paradise should have found it |
purgatory, and while all her friends |
deplored the misfortune, i. vas but nat.
ural that she should have been gratifed |
when at last the certainty appeared of |
her release from a nismated alliance. |
Cne mistake was discovered and the end |
foreshadowed long before Crnkliug APP
peared upon the scene in any capac-
ity."