The Clifton clarion., 1888-11-28
Myra Clark Gaines Case.

w aSnlngton, U. C.. NOV. lS.- The Supreme Court of the United States will probably render final decision tomorrow in case that in its sensational features, the
 bitterness with which it has been contested, and its protracted liti
 gation through over 50 years, stands without a parallel in the judicial annals of this country, and throws into the shade many of the celebrated cases in the Eng fish chancery courts. This is the suit of Myra Clark Gaines against
 the city of New Orleans. Since 1884 this case has been in the courts, and in that time nearly ev- cry prominent lawyer Tn the coun
 try has taken part in the case on one side or the other. The va rious suits have been brought say agely and relentlessly; opprobrium abuse, vituperation and islander have been poured upon all con nected with the case. Miss Gaines has been assailed as an imposter. Her legitimacy has been called in question, her mo- ther has been declared bigamist and an impure woman. When the exigency seemed to demand 1t, even the manhood of Gen. Clark, whose child Mrs. Gaines claimed to be, has been disputed. The case has been tried time and again in the state courts of Louisiana, and 1t is said this is the tenth time 1t has been in the Supreme Court of the United States. It has been re- garded as settled and determined conclusively at various times in the last thirty years, but each time the ingenuity of the counsel employed has found some means of posiponing the final settlement It is now declared that the closing act of the drama has come and MT. Beckwith, the attorney for the city of New Orleans, says that the resources of the law have been exhausted, and if defeated there is nothing for the city to do but to make some arrangement for the damages awarded by the court.
 The contests between Mrs. Gaines and her lawyers have formed not the least conspicuous feature of the case. The most eminent attorneys have been en- ployed and nearly all of them have withdrawn at different times. Ca leb Cushing, ReYerdy Johnson, Judge John Campbell and Jere Black are some of them, who have represented Mrs. Gaines, while Daniel Webst of legal lumi- nousness has represented the oth- CT side. Deserted by one counsel after another, Mrs. Gaines strug- gled on hopeful, buoyant, conf dent of victory, until she was final ly laid in her grave. Long years of litigation washed away her money, and at times she was too poor to pay the court costs. But still she persevered in her deter imitation to clear the stain from her mothers name and to secure what she regarded as her right. Many residents of Washington remember her as little, thin, old woman, whose cheerfulness, vivac- ity and energy remained to the last. For years she was a famil- jar figure on the street as she went smartly along with her son and son-in-law at her side. She died in January, 1885. Her son and son-in-law have also passed away, and nobody now remains but Hat tie L. Whitney, her daughter-in- law, whose husband was killed by James H. Christmas, Mrs. Gaines son-in-law, in a family quarrel a few years ago. Mrs. Whitney IS living very quietly in Washing ton.
 In 1881, Mrs. Gaines, then 75 years old, was given judgment against the city of New Orleans for $1,925,667.S3 by the United States Circuit Court. Four years later she died, while the case was