Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-05-06
TWO FAMOUS SISTERS.
Beechers Sad Experience With Some
Cincinnati Girls.

The announcement Of the death at
Las Palmas, in the Canary islands, Of
the eminent English banker, fnancier,
philanthr0pist and archae0logist, John
Biddulph Martin, brings naturally to
mind two Of the most remarkable and
notorious women America ever gave
birth to-Mrs. Victoria Woodruff, now
the relict of the dead Englishman, and
Tennessee Clafin, now Lady Cook.
What a career they have led! To what
a remarkable height have they risen
in a foreign land from the one-time
| depths of Ludlow street Jail in America!
They are sisters, and of the two
Mrs. Martin is unquestionably the
brainiest, the other being more gifted
with merely physical charms.
They came to New York, if the mar
ratOr is not mistaken from Cincinnati,
where their purse was poor and their
ways peculiar. In the metropolis they
i started openly free love abode, over
which Colonel Blood, who was Mrs.
Woodhulls husband, presided. They
| felt that the world owed them a living
and they were determined to collect
the bill, and they did. Vic Woodruff
had a head for figures, and this, and
! perhaps something else, suggested the
| idea of herself and her sister, Tennie
! c. Clafiin-her correct name was Ten
nessee-Opening a so-caIled brokers
office on Wall street. They did not
parade about that busy thoroughfare
much, but mostly remained in the Office.
The novelty of the new enterprise
brought a large crowd about the office
door and windows every day, but no
customers. At least not many custO-
mers, and yet one who was better than
thousand others. That one was Com
modore Vanderbilt, who greatly ad
mired Victoria W0odhull's brains and
Tennie Claims piquant face. In con-
necti0n with the brokerage scheme the
! firm printed a publication called Wood
hull 6, Clafin's Weekly. 1t was this
sheet which precipiCated the Tilton-
Beecher trouble, and thus it's projectors
became part of the history of the most
remarkable clerical scandal known in
! the .,,sEuTy Of this or any other country
! The Weekly, while Ostensibly intended
! for the discussion Of financial affairs,
was really largely devoted to a public
! exposition Of Victoria WOOdhull's pc
Culiar ideas upon the subjects Of mar
riage and free love. There were some
! foolish enough to say that the sheet
was unfit for circulation, but however
| that may be, no effort was made to
! suppress it until the publication of the
I issue which contained a reference to
the difficulty between Henry Ward
| Beecher and Theodore TiltOn concern
! ing the latteI'S wife. In order, how
ever, not to magnify the matter, which
/ had not then assumed its subsequent.
! proportions, it was deemed inadvisabIe
to arrest the two women publishers for
! giving circulation to this alleged libel,
and so preteXt was made Of another
article in the same issue Of the Week
! ly containing the most frightful alllega-
tons Of iniquity against Luther c.
! Challis.
The object of Mr.. Beecher's friends
was the suppression of the paper, and
SO two indictments were found against
Woodruff and Claf1in by the United
States grand jury, charging them with
sending obscene matter through the
mails. The case came to trial before
Judge Blatchford- afterwards Supreme
Justice Blatchford-in the United
States Circuit Court in New York city,
and after the jury had been sworn
and the examination of one witness
simply begun, the defendants were &C
quilted by direction of the court. But
if ever there was a technical acquittal
that was. The dreadful obscenity of
the article complained of was beyond
question. AS the defendants of that
occasion later defied public criticism, it
may be we'll to give from an official
source the exact reason for that &C
| Quittal. The original act Of congress
making punishable the transmission Of
| obscene literature through the mails
failed in terms to include newspapers.
! Congress then passed a second act of
almost exactly the same phraseology
as the first, but including newspaper
by title, and that act was declared to
be in repeal Of the former ore. The
! indictment against Woodruff and Claflin
was found under the second act, but
| it afterwards found that the offense to
which the Indictment related had been
committed before the passage Of the
| repeating act. In the latter act was
a clause which directed that any Of
tense committed prior to it's passage
! should be punishable under the original
act. When the jury had been sworn
and the testimony of one witness begun
and a trial thus made, counsel for
| Woodruff and Clafin put before the
court the proposition that the repeating
act could not repeal part of the original
act and keep alive other portions; that
the original act could not be at once
dead and alive. That proposition the
court sustained and ordered an acquit-
tai.
But the Beecher people were not yet
! through with the fair broker publish
ers. They were indicted for crimina!
Iibel-stilI, however, for the publica-
ton CT the Challis article, which well
served the purpose Of a cloak-and
were tried before Judge Sutherland in
the New York General Sessions. The
trial, which aroused much public in
terest, lasted nine days. The pressure
brought to bear in the prosecution was
somewhat evidenced by the fact that
besides District Attorney Phelps, there
also appeared for the people Ex-Judge