Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-08-10
dren served as an additional bond be-
tween her and her husband.


tween her and her husband
The death of her father was followed
by the panic Of 1878. The vast for
tunes Of the Sprague family were not
thought to be in danger, and If The
members of the family had stood to-
gether it would not have been neces-
sary for any of them to go 10 the wall,
But the senator's wife had estranged
the others, and in the wreck that came
the senator was the only one that SUI
fered to the extent of losing all his pos
sessions. At that time the senator and
Mrs. Sprgue, although living in the
same house, never spoke to each other,
When everything was gone Mrs,
Sprague took her three daughters and
left the house, never to see her husband
again. Long before that there had
been talk of divorce, but the world
had known little of their troubles.
There was, however the incident in
which Roscoe Conkling figured. He
had been marked in his attentions 10
Mrs, Sprague and continued so until
one afternoon, at Canonchet, when the
husband chased him from the place
with Ratchet.
When Don Plat was publishing the
Sunday Capital in Washington he
printed an editorial (said to have been
written by Colonel A. G. BuelD in
which it was charged that Conkling
was called from the floor of the senate
by nod from Mrs. Sprague in the sen
ate gallery, and that the summoning oil
Conkling in this manner had much tc
do with the passing of the electoral
commission bill, which resulted in the
seating of Hayes in the whlte house
But nothing ever came of the mutua
charges of misconduct made by the
Spragues, and it was not until 1882 tina
divorce was granted to Mrs. SpraguC
on the ground of non-support
Meantime, she had been living on {
little estate, called Edgewood, in tn,
suburbs of Washington. This hat
been left to her by her father, and a
| that time it was of little value. Blu
the city began to grow out in that di
rection and when the time came to Gu
the land up into building lots, Mrs
| Sprague found herself in comfortabl,
| circumstances. Her natural extrava
gance, however led her to encumbe
the land by mortgage, and 1t wal
only by the personal intervention o
some of her friends, among them Lev
! ~ IL
saved to her, In doing this Mr.. Morton
was simply repaying an old debt, con
tracted in apeculiar way. Whilehe wa
minister at Paris it became necessar,
| for him to secure information of
| delicate but important nature. TIL,
case was such that ID was impossible
for him or his secretary to move in tn,
matter, and, mentioning his difficult,
one day to prominent American thel
visiting Paris that gentleman replied
"Why don't you ask Kate Chase t.
help you? She is now in Paris. and !
any one in the world can get what yo'
want, she Is the woman"
Mr.. Morton asked Mrs. Chase to din
ner and preached the subject. Thougl
assured that the TASK was one of i'm
portance to the United States, and on
which If accomplished would earn tn
| gratitude of all Americans, Mrs. Chas
smilingly declined to undertake 1t. A
| the same time she asked a great man,
questions concerning the matter an
displayed so much curiosity that Gov
! ernor Morton thought she was about t
accede to his request. She did not IL
so, however. and for some days tn
minister was at a loss to know how |,
proceed.
Suddenly there was placed in hi
hands, in an unsigned note, the yer.
information that he sought 1t wa
clear and satisfactory. Though the in
telligence came to him anonymously
Mr. Morton afterward learned that
was Mrs. Chase who helped him out o
his dilemma.
After his wife obtained divorce ex
! Governor Sprague married a southern
actress, whose sister subsequently be
came the wife of his son. William
! The young man committed suicide Il
Seattle in 1890.
Mrs. Sprague had wondrous red hair
a superb figure and a remarkable con
fidcpce in herself. There was a dasl
about her She was an hyperion
beauty with towering ambition, DC
caeionally she could be seen drivinl
through Washington streets in a shah
by little carriage, faded, made-up, bad
ly dressed in faded finery, but even he
nisfortunes could not take from her
haughtiness and that air Of distinction
| that was always hers.