Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-03-22

leaving the cross-eNaminaticn unfn-
ished.
New York, March 1.-THE Evening
Post says today that certificate filed
in the health department by Rev. DR.
John r. Paxton shows that w. C. P.
Breckenridge married Louisa r. Swing,
April 20, 1893. This was secret mar
rage, the public ceremony taking place
last July
1t is thought this may play a part
in the rd-Breckinridg trial, as
going to show that when he promised
to marry Miss Pollard, in the presence
of Col. Moore, chief of police of Wash
ington, last May, he was not in a posi-
ton to redeem his promise, being al
ready married.
1t is also learned that although Con
gresham Breckenridge was married to
Mrs. Wing in this city on April %.
1893, the marriage certificate was not
filed until today. The ceremony was
performed by the Rev. DR.. Paxton at
his residence.
Washington, March 17.-What will
be the nature Of Col. Breckinridge's
defense? The line Of CT DISCRIMINATION
pursued by counsel has thus far af-
forded no distinct clue as to what the
answer will be to the terribly distinct
and circumStantial evidence of the
plaintiff and her witnesses, some of
them of a character impossible of i'm
parchment. No point in the defend
ants favor has yet been established
except the admission from Miss Pol
lard that during her engagement Tor
contract, as she insists it shall be
called with James G. Rhodes, and
while her liasOn with Col Breckenridge
was going on, she was engaged to be
married to a young man named ROSell
and was obliged to break the engage
ment in order to go away from the
Wesleyan seminary to make arrange
ments for the birth of her first child.
Each Of the distinct allegations in
the plaintiffs voluminous petition has
been sustained by proof more or less
positive. Some of the witnesses fail
clearly to identify Miss Pollard as the
person who presented herself to them
in her difficulties under various as
sumed names, but they testify that
there was such a person, and sustain
the facts as set out in the petition.
The defendant, in his sworn answer,
denies leading plaintiff astray; denies
the paternity of the plaintiffs children,
and says the allegation that he
promised to marry plaintiff at the tine
she alleges, it not true, for the reason
possible"
The meaning of this last phrase in
the answer is now made clear by the
production Of the certificate of the pri-
vate marriage of Col. Breckenridge and
Mrs. Wing in New York on April 20,
| 1893, two months before his public
marriage to the same woman in Ken
lucky.
But lawyers still fail to see how
marriage in April can be pleaded
against a promise of marriage made in
! the preceding August, according to the
plaintiffs evidence, and repeated in the
presence of Mrs. Julia G. Blackburn,
on the following Good Friday, March
81. The secret marriage, it is held,
only affects the promises to marry
made in the presence of Maj. Moore,
chief of police, and DR.. Lincoln, both
Of which took place subsequent to
April %, 1893. The almost general be,
lief is that the counsel for Col. Brock
inridge will try to prove that Miss
Pollard had been led astray before Col
Breckenridge met her, an that she sus.
tanned improper relations with other
men. No evidence has yet appeared
tending to prove this assertion.