The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-05-21
ROUGH ON sROsSY."
THE COURTS OVERLAPPING A Ro-
NANCE OF ROSS WiNANS.
A Suit in which the Baltimore Million
aire Appears, So Far, in Bad Light
Letters In Evidence-The
Woman's Story.

had married since the events upon which |
she based her suit She admitted the latter
allegation to be true, but said she had been
advised that her marriage to Winans would
not hold and so had married Mr. O'keefe, |
but she had since learned differently. The |
case was referred to Stephen p Nash as
referee and he began taking testimony Tues
day.
The suit is not only interesting from the
wealth of the defendant, but also from the
fact that Mrs. 0'Keefe is an accomplished |
woman of q good English family. She
studied music under Halter in London and
under Heller in Paris, and learned German |
and French in Berlin and Paris respectively. |
She is handsome woman also, and was ele |
gantly attired upon her appearance before
the referee with ex-Judge Porter her coun
sci. Winans made no sign of recognition
when she came in Then the means by
which Winans accomplished his
purpose, if Mrs O'Keefe's story Is true, in
dictate degree of moral turpitLde that is
almost incredible.
The first witness examined was the COM
plainant She testified that she first met
Mr.. Winans at the Langham hotel, in Lon.
don, in 1871. She was introduced to him,
and he sent her gifts of books and flowers.
She left the hotel soon after because Mrs
Hunt, by whom she was employed
as governess failed to pay her
salary. She subsequently obtained a
position in the same capacity with
Lady Dukes. of Lewes, England When she
departed for Lewes, Winans went to the
depot with her. Fe told her he was fond of
her, and asked her st correspond with him.
Ho wrote to her frequently. She came to
London, and had lunch and drive with
him. Winans proposed marriage to her,
but she said she could not wed him,
as her mother and family were not
there. When he asked her second
time to marry him, she consented, but
insisted that the ceremony take place in
church. Winans said he was an American,
and that in this country church ceremony
was not considered necessary, and that a
man and woman who agreed to live to-
gether were regarded as husband and wife.
He finally induced her to acquiesce, and
they went to the Grosvenor hotel, in Lon
don, where he gave her a ring and
solemnly pledged himself to take heI
as his wife, He put the ring on her
finger They lived at the hotel as man
and wife, and she was known to the servants
in the house as his wife They then went
to Cambridge, where his studies were not
completed. There he called her his wife be-
fore servants and others. The couple
journeyed back to London and went thence
to Spa, Germany, where they remained five
or six weeks Articles shipped to the
plaintiff while at Spa were addressed
to her as Mrs Winans. The defendant
spoke of her as his wife, and he introduced
her to a Mr.. Latrobe and to his (Winans1
own brother as Mrs. Winans. The plaintiff
and defendant came to this country on the
steamer Scotia, which arrived here May 30,
1871 They were booked on the passenger
list as "Ross R Winans and lady" They
put up at the Brevoort house, where the re-
spondent registered, in his own handwriting,
"R. R Winaas and wife"
Upon her arrival Mrs. Winans so-called,
found that her mother was living in Chi
cago. She wanted public wedding, but he
demurred, alleging that his father was
very i'll, and he did not want to break the
news of his marriage to him. The defend
ant consented to a repetition of the cere-
mony gone through in London, just
to ease her mind She then went to
Chicago to see her mother, while he jour-
neyed to his fathers bedside at Baltimore.
He wrote to her every day while she was in
Chicago They met again in this city after
an interval of couple of weeks, and went
to the st. James hstel, but subsequently re-
moved to 10 West Twenty fourth street.
where she was also known as Mrs. Winans
In addition to her wedding ring, he had
given her ring which he said belonged to
his mother.
Following are extracts from some of the
letters (of which Mrs. O'Keefe has large
number) read in evidence
From Baltimore, while the plaintiff was in
Chicago, June T. the day after arriving.
My Own SWEET DuCKY: | suppose by
this time my poor little pet is pretty near
| home. What a long, tiresome, lonely,
dusty, hot journey she must have had My
poor little darling, if you had seen Rosy as
he was going home on the ferry boat you
| would have pitied him much more than
| yourself. He went to the outside of the
boat and cried like a regular baby.
l swear that l regularly boo
hooed, so MITCH in fact, that an old
Niger came up and stared at me to see
what the devil was the matter.
| Do you know that never knew how fond
was of my little devil till now that l am
parted from her, but be at rest, Rosy will
not be any longer than he can possibly help.
] must get up now for breakfast Oh, how
lonely it is in this big bed all by myself
Well, my little darling, must say good bye,
with as many kisses as will last.Eou till to
morrow. Believe me to be your loving and
sad Rosy.
Counsel for plaintiff read the following
"for all it is worth"
TUESDAY My LITTLE DARLING: 4
| elaI fn
to the theatre. My dear little girl, how in
the world did you ever allow yourself tC
lose your good sense so far as tC
get acquainted with any Of them a.
| to give him the right to dare to ask you
to do such thing. My God, you ought
to have got as mad as hi at this presump
ton to AJAX a married lady on as short an &C
quaintance as that such an insolent question.
Have nothing more to do with the black.
Many, many kisses from your loving old
boy, Rosy.
On June II Winans wrote the following
letter:
| To MY Own LITTLE PRECIOUS ONE: Oh
what day and night OF worry, pain and
grief had after receiving that precious let
ter of yours saying you had yet received no
letter, when Rosy had already written
three How delighted l was to get letter
| laSb nlRnb saying Jnat you nau gOb my let
ters. From your loving old boy. Rosy.
There were several photographs Of
Winanis on the refree's desk. On the bacl
of one piosure where the defendant appear
as swell in loud Astrachan-trimmeC
coat, the following is written: aTo Mis-
Sac lEeld, as help for the remembrance O
Ross r. Winans" On another the follow
ing is scrubbed ITO Ally from Rosy, witt
the sweetest of kisses and the best of -
- - from Rossy to his little dsvi
Alice"
The effect upon the defendant of the pro
duotion of these tell-tale results of photo
graphic art was but tame compared witt
the look of blank despair and dismay upor
his coun tenance as the letters were produced
Winans is represented by L s. Choate, j.
C. Carter and l. G. Ledyard. The hearing
was continued until Friday. The defendan
is worth so, 00O, 900, and the yearly increas
amounts to s400, 600