Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-01-03
A Righteous Judgment.

The text of Judge Sullivan's decision es-
tablishing the validity of Sharon's marriage
with Sarah Althea Hill, the woman whom
he admitted to be his mistress and denied to
be his wife, should dispel much of the sur
prise that was alleged TO have been felt and
expressed when this judgment was first an
nounced. That there was an immense
amount Of lying, subornation of perjury,
forgery and even resort to the wiles of
witchcraft in this remarkable case. every
reader of its nauseating details has long
since found out that il was confined to
either side in particular is highly improba-
BILE, considering the revealed character of
all the parties to the litigation.
Judge Sullivan has therefore been com
PEELED to go behind the apparently fraudu-
lent testimony, and to get at a few leading
facts of the case that are undisputed. Some
OF these were that Sharon had addressed,
supported, consorted with and introduced
the woman as his wife. These are the es-
sential circumstances that make marriage
in Pennsylvania, and under almost any law
that recognizes the marriage relation as
civil contract only. Blackmailer, ad-
ventures and prostitute that she was,
Sharon chose to treat her as his wife, and
to hold her out as such To the world. Be-
tween themselves there may have been some
other understanding, but that is not what
society has to do with. To it she was rep
resented as his wife, by his own conduct,
and he is now fairly held responsible for it.
More forcible however, than his presen-
tation of this side of the case is the judges
characterization of Sharon's conduct in his
own family, with relation to the woman
whom he now seeks to shake off. When
he presented her at his own daughters
wedding, as the head of his household, he
gave her standing that he could not there
after disavow, and it is not permitted him
in law, as il is not in decency, to now:plead
that he "desecrated the marriage feast of
his daughter by the presence of lascivious
wanton who had wormed herself into his
society and his embraces" Upon this the
Judge says;
He should not, at the very moment when
he stood there TO extend the parental blessing
and TO charge the young man to love,
new-made husband an example Of disrespect
and dishonor TO that child at the time when,
above all others, he should respect and
honor her. ! cannot believe that this man,
this father, so far forgot his duty 10 the
memory of his deceased wife, his duty TO his
daughter, his duty to the friends and guests
who had assembled TO do honor 10 the occa-
sion, as to subject them TO the polluting
presence OF a creature who differed from the
common courtesan only to the extent that
her commerce was with one man. He must
in his heart, have regarded her as more than
mistress He certainly must, or he would
not, after inviting her there and honoring
her by his personal attention, have been
guilty of what otherwise would be the infamy
of introducing her 10 his own son and re-
questing him TO pay the attentions proper to
the occasion.
Sharon deserves and he will get no
popular sympathy in the imposition of the
Judgment which has been visited upon
him. The vileness of the woman who
triumphs over him only makes his fate the
more deserved.