Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-03

man was dying of malaria
fever and pneumonia. caused
by dissipation and
aged negress and braFhy mulatt.
were the other inhabitantspf this shantyi
both of whom watched fAe white ye-
man until life had departed
The doctor gave medicine 70 the wo-
man which appeared to give her new life
and ease her pain, but he saw no helI
for her and said that she must dis
When this was made plain to the Rsel
woman she gave the doctor short sketch
of her career, during the recitation Of
which DR.. Curtis said he neyer before
lsHitnessed greater amount of rantTitiol
sghd anguish w
OVER MIssPENF LIFE.
Before she died she gsEe to the doctor
papers and letters which eorroborHted
her story, and asked him never to inform
her relatives of how and where she did
From the documents in the dQaf6rs3
\ possession it appears that she was fDfer-
ly Mrs. Mary Livingstone. ,Ehe was
| born in Peekskill, N. Y. ins51S54, her
father being Samuel Dobson, cousin of
the Dobsons of Philadelphia, the great
carpet manufacturers. The letters and
| other documents in full corroborated her
| statements that she had been reared in
the lap of wealth and had everything she
desired. She was sent to Wesleyan uni
versity In Connecticut, where she was
educated. Her parents moved to New
York city after the war and there she
| made her debut In society and reigned for
q season as a favorite.
In 1873 she was married in great style
in ia nhf
ing William II. Livingstone, q young
broker, who was a member of the we'll
known Livingstone family, one of the
oldest and most respected Knickerbocker
families on Manhattan island. Among
the woman papers is a clipping from
the society columns of New York paper
giving an account of the wedding. re-
ception, etc. and stating that the happy
couple would start for Europe in few
days. The account covered a
COLUMN AND HALF,
and was very minute in its details. There
was nothing in The woman's story to in.
dictate that the marriage was not happy.
one.
Mrs. Livingstone told the doctor that
she lived with her husband three years,
and then he secured divorce from her.
This was borne out by clipping which
gave an account OF the commencement
of a divorce suit in the courts of New
York. This was from the New York.
Herald of March 5, 1876. The date was
written across the clipping with red ink.
1t stated the cause of the suit was a
scandal arising out OF Mrs. Livingstone's
intimacy with some English officers,
members of the nobility in Paris and
Brussels. The article further stated that
the defendant was abroad and that inf
deity was the ground, and that it was
long expected by many society people
who were on intimate terms with the
Livingstones. -.
The remainder of the story of the wo-
mans life was not corroborated by
papers or letters, but was Just what
might have been expected, and was told
by the poor creature in a manner which
left no doubt of its truth. After the
European scandal her parents disownedsI
her, and with the money gratuitousiy
furnished her by Livingstone she livedsa
gay and frivolous life in New York, Bal
timore and Washington. In the latter
place she married DIR. Fletcher, who had
been connected with the regular army.
In few years Fletcher became. con-
firmed invalid, and went to Florida with
after mis- arrival. He left his wife
LARGE SUM OF MONEY
and considerable property. His will was
contested and a compromise effected.
Mrs. Fletcher went to Chicago, where |
she lived VIGOROUSLY for several years.
She then went to Washington and was an |
effective lobbyist, being connected with !
the De Golyer pavement bill. After this !
she stated that she began to fall rapidly. |
She ran of with a wholesale clothing |
merchant of Cincinnati to San Francisco, |
where she was deserted and left to shift |
for herself. She then took the name of |
Stone. In California she became addicted !
to drink, and dropped still lower in the |
social scale. She became the mistress |
of first one man and then another, and |
finally went TO Denver, from where she
came to Kansas City in 1885. She was !
sent to the workhouse seven times for
street walking. For the last six months |
of her life she was intoxicated and con-
sorted with only the most degraded ne
groes on the Ievee, as her former DISCO
lutte companions regarded her as being
too low even for them to associate with.
This was the story told by the woman.
as she lay
BETWEEN LEE AND DEATH,
and the clammy dew Of another world
gathering on her brow. Her language.
her situation and her evident remorse
convinced the physician of the sincerity
OF her story. and with the confederation
OF the papers and letters leave no doubt |.
that she. was the wreck of . society bellaafE
The day after her death she was buried
in pauper's grave and her only
was the aged negress, who had
strong liking for the way
ward woman.
Thus in rough shanty in a Western
atty died a woman who was once sur
by all the comforts and Iuxuries
that wealth could offer, courted and adj
mired even by her own sex. She died a
miserable and degraded death eaused asy
aa16wn folly and rashnssss
Aftar a zfae@.ss.kess5ask $50 i,-rs.t,. nm.