Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-10-28

uAanapOits, tnere 10 announce herself as
a medium and to treat patents for the
cure OF disease. She soon began to at
tract attention, and so many wonderful
things were credited to her thatsh reap.
cd golden harvest from the crowds that
visited her. She is said to have wrought
some apparently miraculous cures; %
nave Strengthened the feet OF the lame,
| opened the ears OF the deaf detected the
robbers OF bank; brought to light hiC-
Den crimes, solved physiological prob
lens, unveiled business secrets, ana
proDhesied future events
one day Col. James ii. Blood. commanG-
er OF the Sixth Missouri Regiment, VITO
aU Inc close of the war was elected CIy
Auditor OF St. Louis, called upon Ms.
woodruff to consult her as q spirituals-
nc physician. The Colonel, who had, like
victoria, been unhappilY married before,
was PRESIDENT of the st. Louis Society OF
sprltuahsts. He was startled to see the
medium pass into trance, during which
she announced uncOnsciOusly to herself
that his future destiny was to be linked
with hers in marriage. They were be-
trothed on the spot by ''the powers of the
air" At first they had a maria ge cere-
mony performed; but afterwards, on ac-
count OF N1ctoria's free-lOve theories. the
tie was by mutual consent annulled by
law, though they continued to live as man
and wife. Victoria, however, all this time
continued to support DR.. Woodruff, who
still lived in her house.
In Imminent of prophecy and follow
ing celestial mandate, in 1869 the sis.
ters founded a brokerage establishment
on Broad street, under the firm name OF
woodruff & Clatiin, and began to print
journal, which was placed under the di-
rectton Of Col. Blood. When the doors Of
the office we're first thrown open to the
public several thousand visitors iOoked
there through curiosity. The sgady
brokers" as they were called, were be-
sieged like liOnesses in a cage. The daily
press interviewed them, the weekly wits
eatirized them, the comic sheets carica-
tured them, and all this notoriety to graft
~ the two women. ie
me new brokers started ont with some
prestige, as it was known that CommO-
dore anderoilt was a great friend of
thelrs, and 1t was limited that he was
backing them and giving them points on
the market. The majority OF their Gus
toners were ladies' but when certain Tu-
mors began to be publicly talked about
this patronage rapidly decreased.
About this time Mrs. Woodruff began
TO speak frequently in pubic. Her faYO-
rite themes were on social freedoms One
Of her pamphlets began as tollowd:U
already determined, neither will love obey
II law command. Law cannot compel
two to love. 1t has nothing to do with
love or with its absence. 1t legitimately
and logically follows, if love have any
thing to do with marriage that law has
nothing to do with 1t. And on the con-
trary, if law have anything to do with
marriage, that love has nothing to do with
1T. There is no escaping the deduction
One night IN December, 1859, Victoria
| woodruff received, as she claimed, from
the spirits the memorial which she ad-
dressed to Congress claiming under the
fourteenth amendment the right Of wO-
men, as of other 'citiZens of the United
States" to vote in the State wherein they
reside-asking, moreover, that the State
of New York, of which she was a citizen,
should be restrained by Federal authority
from preventing her exercise Of this con-
stitutional right. Up to that time she
had not been greatly interested in the wo-
man suffrage question.
From this time forward Mrs. Woodruff
took prominent part in the wOmen's
rights agitatiOhs. She was well received
at first by the leaders Of the movement,
but subsequently she quarreled with
many of them. At a meeting of the New
York Suffrage Association on May p,
1871, Miss Anthony and others were
called to account for having extended to
her the hand of friendship on the platform,
thus presumably.indOrsing her free-loVe
doctrines.
In May, 1871, Mrs. Annie Cla1in, moth
er Of the Two brokers, caused the arrest of
Col. Blood, who was then known under
the alias OF DR.. j. FL. Harvey, on the
charge OF having caused the ruin OF one
of her daughters, having tried to ruin an
other, and finally having compelled them
to refuse TO support the complainant. At
this trial Miss Tennie Clafin testified:
"COl. Blood is good son-in-law. If my
husband submitted to the abuse he re-
ceived from her would not live with him
one day. The object of this prosecution
is this; MY mother is insane on spirit-
ualism; l am spiritualist and b aye fol
lowed the business of fortune-teller and
clairvoyant since l was II years old;
have lett the degradation of a life where I
was almost lost, and because Will not
return TO 1t and leave my present position
l am prosecuted; have followed The BUSH
ness and have humbugged a great many
rich people, Vanderbilt included. and be-
cause / will not return to the business
she has instigated this attack on my char
acter."
Miss Clafin exhibited considerable
feeling and offered to leave 5000 month
in the hands of the court for the support
OF her mother. Shortly before this she
had been married to a young gentleman of
this city, and afterwards secured a divorce
from him.
Miss Claflin announced herself as cam
didate for Congress from the Eighth New
York Congressional District, in a speech
she made before the German-American
Progressive Association on Aug. II, 1871,
but she is not known to have received a
single vote. On Sept. Is Of the same year
Mrs. Woodruff was elected President of
the National AssOcia ton OF Spiritualists.
The following May the Equal Rights party
held meeting at Apollo hall In this city
and nominated Mrs. Woodruff for Presi-
dent of the United States and Fred Doug
lass for Vice President. In June, 1872,
Tennie Clatiin was appointed Colonel OF a
colored veteran guard in this city,and an
nounced her intention OF accepting the
Office and wearing a costume about mid
way between the feminine and the mas
cullne styles Of attire. She was never
commissioned, however, and never had
the opportunity Of displaying the uniform
she had devised.
The first of long series Of troubles for
the brokers began with their arrest on
Nov, 2, 1872, on the charge OF sending OBJ
scene literature through the United states
mails. The warrant was granted by U.
$. Commissioner C8bOrn upon being
shown copy Of their weekly paper. Col.
Blood and W. A. Smith were arrested as
the publishers Of the paper on warrant
r. U q J.