The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-21
A GAY LorHARIo AT 90.
Sickles as Gallant as Ever and a Great
Metropolite.


sickles as Gallant as Ever and a Great
Metropolite.
Copyright 1891
New YORK, Oct. I9.-Gen. Sickles has
been selected by the government of Venezu-
ella to receive the Bolivar medal with Gen.
Sherman. The old hero of Gettysburg has
almost dropped out of sight since he left the
public service III 1873, but occasionally an
incident recalls some event in his romantic
history.
One day last winter the ticket agent Of
the Fifth Avenue theater went out for
lunch, and left the theater manager, Mr..
Barton Key, who is the son OF the man shot
by SicNles, in charge Of the Office. Fate
willed that Sickles should present himself
at this particular window at this moment
and ask for tickets. An ominous some-
thing in the air made him look up, and his
glance fell into the eyes Of young Key. 1t
is unnecessary to state that the subsequent
transaction passed in silence.
All lovers affairs find a soft spot in his
heart When last winter Judge Brady's
two daughters were married on the same
day, one Of them unexpectedly and under
romantic circumstances Gen. Sickles was q
delighted and sympathetic participant in
the affair, and one of the young ladies' car
ried his splendid gift to the altar, fan OF
point lace and pearl, inlaid with gold and
diamonds.
But 1t must not be thought that our
heros own love-making days are over. By
no means. He is gala { yet in spite Of
the sixty-six years 60 which he acknowl-
edges, as the following story will show:
Last year during the hot season he was
resident at Saratoga. Twice a week he dis.
appeared, and his friends obtained no salts
factory account of his absence. During
this period the dwellers about Washington
square observed at regular intervals
| closed cab enter the square
and meander slowly along the devious
winding ways as though it had intent to
spend the day there. Now, closed cab is
| not an extraordinary sight, but the per-
| sistency of this one drew attention to it.
| Soon it was observed tnat the occupants
| eye was kept close at the back window, and
| this whetted curiosity the more. Shortly il
was discovered that simultaneously with
| the appearance Of the cab woman heavily
yelled entered the square, sauntered,
as if she meant but to take an innocent
constitutional there. But when she comes
| opposite the cab the eye at the window dis
appears, the door opens, the lady enters, the
! driver puts his horse to furious pace, and
the whole equipage disappears in cloud Of
dust. The person in the Gao takes great
pains TO keep himself from being seen, but
one day, in his eagerness to assist a lady, be
bends forward when the door is open. and
lo the gay Daniel Sickes.
He Is not "a man to be bid iH a cab or
under bushel any where. and in New York
society he is a unique figure, q sort of Mai.
Pendennis, in fact Like his fictitious pro-
totype, he is the solicited guest Of many
coteries, and other men envy him his
quantity Of billet doux" and his privilege
of taking off his hat TO every mem
Der of tho haut ton. AS In the
case OF the major, the morning paper
seldom fails to inform the world that he
was conspicuous guest at the fashionable
fete on the night before. Like the majors,
his costume is a perfect specimen of a mil
itary mans en- retrGlte, and, like him
also, ii is only 'by near inspection that
you see few crows feet round about the
handsome mottled face" He is a popular
lion, but one who, it must be said, depends
depends considerably on his soldiers epau-
letJes to give him caste in exclusive circles.
When he rises from his stall in the orches-
ira at the end Of an act and hobbies up the
aisle, IA whisper always spreads round in
the audience. There goes Gen. Sickles. y
His crutches make him conspicuous, but he
is noticeable without them on account of
his easy, positive bearing, and handsome
face with its military mustache. As the
old beau gossips with the dudes in the
foyer 1t is hard TO realize that he had a
street DreeZes as far back as AL
But so it was. He has accompanied
fashion and the opera and playhouse the
entire way from the Battery and Castle
garden to Forty second street, and greeted
all the stars that have risen, and set on that
journey Of nearly fifty years. He saw the
rise Of the Astor dynasty, and to him the
Vanderbilts are noWUeGU richie. Like PEN
dennis, if there is any question about who
was married to whom, and of what age
such and such persons are, he is the mau
who is able to answer, and society secrets
which haunted the boxes at Castle garden
are known to him equally with the living
skeleton which lurk in the opera-house Of to-
paw.
Unlike the immortal Pendennis, he has
not always lived a bachelor, and in his
marriage episodes he has shown more of the
mettle Of that gentlemans impulsive
nephew The women who have most infiu-
enced his life have been of the voluptuous
southern type. Near the outset of his career
he married an Italian, daughter of a music
teacher, Antonio Bagioh. Tradition says
she was but IL when he first saw her,
and that they were married when she
was I5 All the world knows of
her intrigue with Key, and how Sckles shot
Key ana stoOd murder trial, IN Wnlcn ne
was acquitted. The war followed on this
episode, and was a godsend for Sickles, as
1T gave him an opportunity to restore his
impaired social standing or an honorable
way to die. He was "a brave soldier, and
his reckless bearing sometimes suggested
the thought that possibly he sought death ;
but IL he did really pursue that cold nymph,
fate willed that he should grasp, instead, the
laurel. He left leg on the battlefield,
but lived for fame and offices.
In Madrid, whittier Grant sent him as
minister, he fell madly in love with dark
eyed Spaniard and married her. What
became Of this Spanish wife l am not cer-
tain; my impres ion Is that she ~ dead
however that may be, the general ia now
without ties, occupies elegant bachelor
quarters on Fifth avenue near Washington
square, and Is listed as q proininent man
about-town and great metropolite. ysdi.
Ana CoEE. y
vEaY FKw rEoPLE are aware how many mora
peouls have visited the Paris exposition than