The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-06-21
THWARTED IN LOVE
The Daughter Of General Sickles
Leads a Mad Career.
LOVE, ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY
Laura sickIes, Once COurted by Kings and
Queens, SINKS TO the Lowest Depths
The Story Of Her Life.


such as fiction seldom equals. In an upper
room of the modest house at No. IL De
Bevoise Place, Brooklyn, the maker of this
will, died on May %, woman almost
friendless, who once had received the adu-
latien Of dignitsries and crowned heads.
Laura 3. Sickles at one time could have
claimed the hand os the bravest and best in
America or Europe. The daughter of
man of distinction. wealth aud power
there was nothing the future might not
have brought her. While still in her teens,
she reigned with a queenly sway at the
court of Madrid. Laura Sickles was not
girl one would call beautiful, though her
mother was gifted with
RADIANT CHARMS OF FEATURE AND PERSON.
Her father, too, the famous General B.
Sickles, was and still is a splendid speci-
men of physical manhood. His seventy
years are carried with dignity, from which
his crutches cannot detract
1t was away back in 1853 that Daniel r.
Sickles, then in his thirty-first year and
corporation attorney for New York city,
was married to Teresa Bagioli She was
nearly seventeen, and the daughter OF
Bagioi, an Italian music teacher OF this
CITY. 1u6 yOunS lbNycI uiob uSl NhSh 10
was studying Italian under Lorenzo Da-
ronte, libcettist of Verdrs most celebrated
opera.
James Buchanan, already power in the
politics of New York, was sent to London
as minister from the United States. He
took young Sickles as secretary of the le-
CATION In London Mrs. Sickles was pre-
scented to the queen, and at many of the
great social functions in the English CAPT
tai and at the country houses OF the aris-
tocracy It was while her father was IN
LONDON in 1854, that little Laura was born
at the old Sickles' homestead in Blooming
dale. Laura Bsgioli Sickles, she was
christened.
Among chosen friends of Mr. and Mrs.
Sickles was
HANDSOME PHILIP BARTON KEY,
son of Francis Scott Key, author of ':Star
SpangIed Banner" He escorted Mrs.
Sckles to the opera, ana was a devoted
admlrer and attendant OF hers
at the receptions at the White
House and legation. Mrs. Grundy began
Mr.. Sickles 1t was on February u, 1889,
that Congressman
sICKLEs KILLED KEY,
then United States district attorney for the
District of Columbia. He had two der
ringers on his person and i've shot re-
volver Mrs Sickles had previously con-
fessed her SIN to her husband in writing.
Sickles walked up TO Key, told him to pre-
pare TO die for dishOnoring him, and put
three bullets in his body. The trial is a
matter of history. Sickles was acquitted.
| His wife, whom he had sent back 10 her
father, was almost hesrtbroken.
Public sentiment WAS with Mr.. Sickies,
but before long there was revolution. In
m he r1lo nj
daughter Lapra, ne took mis- beautiful wife
again to his,arms. 1t was not for long,
though, she soon
| DIED OF A BROKEN HEART,
shunned by former admirers. Little Laura
grew apace aud.when the general was ap-
| pointed minister to Spain by President
Grant, she was fifteen years Old She
went with him TO Madrid. and there learned
whatit was to receive the homage Of mobiles
and princes.
The military hero and diplomat was little
! fitted to nurture and direct a growing
young lady. She inherited the stubborn
will of her father, and the impetuous
nature of her Italian mother. In her train
at Madrid was handsome young cavalier
and she loved him. The courtship went on
until the general concluded that the young
Spaniard was after his daughters money
and
BROKE THE ENGAGEMENT.
About the same time he took to himself q
| young Spanish wife. Laura refused to
submit. She came back to the United
States The quarrel that took place in the
| American ministers house at Madrid was
never healed. The father and daughter
never saw each other again. Even when
death came to her in the little house in
Brooklyn he did not know of it until all
was over.
To the last she begged that her father,
who had wrecked her hopes, be not told of
her illness and sufferings. Laura came
here and went to live with her grand
mother, Nine. Bagioli, in Fifty-second
| street. She became possessed of about
| 500, COO well invested In real estate. The
elder Sickles had married again and in the
last few years every now and then scandal
would crop out bout the elopement OF his
daughter with bartenders and worthless
young mon. Laura's heritage of stubborn
ness began to manifest ITSELF She left her
grandmother's house
| TO PLUNGE INTO SEA OF DISSIPATION
Her name was linked with that of John
Bloodgood, then with that of Mr.. Hughes,
and then with other by the score. I'm
trammeIIed by social connections, reckless
of her own and her family's name, she be-
| came the extravagant queen of the widest
set III New York. There was nothing
mercenary about this butterfly of gilded
purlieus. OF hardy race, strong and sup
/ pie limbed, she babe fair to withstand the
| immense tax she put upon her endurance.
But the pace was too rapid even for her.
/ The attracJiveness which brought to her
feet the accomplished youths and wealthy
bankers and merchants began to disappear.
HER LINES OF BEAUTY DISAPPEARED.
! - ill, IL,
obesity. From champagne and the costii-
est wines that private and public cellars
could afford she turned to gin and whisky.
1 The girl who had graced receptions at the
court of Spain, was now the circe of
4. the back rooms il New York and Brookly n
groggeries She still had her followers,
though. Her income purchased what grace
and charm had once commanded. She
moved over to Brooklyn four years ago,
spending her time in recuperating from the
effects OF debauches. Sne took mp her
home at IL De Bevoise place, the house of
! George w. Cook. Mr. Cook is clerk 10
the New York pcstoffice. General Sickles
often heard Of his waywsrd daughter
and through Intermediates often tried to
reclaim her, but all efforts failed. She had
DRANK THE cur OF PLEASURE TO THE DREGs,
and solace alone was found in drink. So
passed the last Gays of Laura Bagioli
Sickles.
She was So years old when she died. She
made her will on March "a, 1891. In it she
provides for the payment of her funeral
expenses and monument to cost $500, to
be placed over the graves of herself and
mother All her furniture aud bricabrGt
she devises 20 Lizzie ]. Cook Her fortune
which has dwindled to something like
$40, 600 was then divided among her reia
tives.
at her death, General Sickles sent flow