Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-07
,srEc1AL TELEGRAM TO THE D1srArcH.,

NEW YORK, September 6.-Robert Ray
his friends had promised, and under oath
before curious throng of men and women
told how he had met, four years ago, the
woman who is now his wife, in place the
exact location of which he did not remem-
Der, but the character Of which was very
certain; that he had lived with her and sup
ported her almost ever since, and had
trusted her as fully and completely as ever
a man trusted a woman; that she had OBJ
tained from him up to the beginning of this
year more than $4,000 in money. in ad-
dition to the generous allowance that he
made for her support; that she had pre-
tended to have become a mother and had
produced an infant which she alleged was
his; that he had cherished the infant and
married the alleged mother for its sake, and
that he had now discovered that the baby
was bogus and the woman was the head of a
conspiracy against his purse, at least.
DETAILS OF SHAME.
There were many details that had not yet
been known to the public and thai brought
out clearly the remarkable extent to which
Hamilton had become the dupe of the
woman and her associates. For instance,
Mr.. Hamilton had to tell, with a bowed
head and shame-faced air, that once when
Joshua Mann, his wife's lover, had disap-
peared and the woman was worried over it,
she made him go out with her and attempt
to find her lover for her.
Mr.. Hamilton appeared while giving this
testimony like a man completely broken,
L. 1, 4 81 @l, e..
the bitterest experience of his life. His
face was haggard. Friends who had not
seen him since this trouble came upon him
said that he had aged ten years in three
months. His forehead was most of the time
covered with wrinkles as though he were
suffering from physical pain. His manner
was meek and appealing, and he lacked the
spirit or disposition to resent even the
coarsest attacks of the lawyer who repre-
sented the two of the conspirators who were
in court.
CAUSED SOME SURPRISE.
The charge Hamilton made was a sur
prise. 1t was larceny in the second degree.
While he never suspected that the child
which now bears his name was not his own,
he did suspect that Mrs. Swinton and Josh
Mann were conspiring, some time IN last
June, to obtain some of his money. One day
In June, when Mrs Swinton called at Ham
ilton's Office and asked him for $50 with
which to pay her house rent, he said: 81
am under no obligation whatever to you,
and you have no right to ask anything of
me; will not submit to blackmail. Leave
my office"
After his ordeal was over he retired to a
dark corner behind the witness box and sat
there away from his friends, unheeded and 4
apparently unheedinp for the rest of the ex-
animation, while Inspector Byrnes repeated
to him and of the results of the inyestiga-
tions he had made.
THE PRISONERS HELD.
The prisoners were arraigned upon the
comparatively trifing charge of larceny in
the second degree by the obtaining of money
under false pretenses, the lawyers having
decided that in the absence of the chief |
conspirator, Evangeline, it would be hard
to make out a case of conspif- |
acy against the accomplices, and that |
probably the easiest charge upon which to |
secure the holding of the prisoners for the |
grand jury would be larceny. After they |
have been held upon that the grand jury |
can make full investigation, and bring in |
dictments for the more serious allegations if |
the evidence sustains them.
To simplify the matter, the complaint was
confined to one specific case-the $500 which |
Hamilton sent to Eva at Elmira, where she |
and Josh had gone for her pretended con-
fnement. The testimony had to be limited |
to this one transaction, and only small
portion of the strength OF the case was
brought out, Hamilton himself and In
spector Byrnes being the only witnesses e1-
amined.