The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-05

punt VI HeT pan, anu WHICH,
after passing from the cabinet. her
father went into the supreme court of
the nation, there to become it's chief
justice. she redoubled her efforts. She
employed every method known to the
science of politics to advance his cause.
An enormous fund was raised and a
systematic corruption of the newspa-
per correspondents at Washington was
attempted. The list prepared by this
clever, audacious woman, of men who
should receive 800 per week for advo-
eating the nomination of the chief JUS
tice. She once boosted to the writer
of this article that she had the receipts
of many men, whom she named. for
money accepted in this service. In
that list are the names of several per-
sons who stand very high in wealth and
political power to-day
But all the campaigning was for
naught All she could do was in vain,
and when, in 1878, her father died,
without her. hopes having being real
lied in the slightest degree, she gave
up and whatever power she had ever
had was at an end.
Her married life had never been hap
py. Her husband had established her
in palatial residence at Canonchet,
r. l., destined to be the scene of a
great sensation in later day. She was
extravagant in everything, and this
led to feud between her and the
members of her husbands family.
They warned him that she was lead
ing him on at too rapid a pace, and
when she heard of this she vowed a
lasting vengeance.
The first child born to her was a
son. but she never cared for him.
Whatever mothers love there was in
her heart was saved for the daughters
that came afterward. Not one Of the
children served as an additional bond
between her and her husband.
The death of her father was followed
by the panic of 1873 The vast for
tunes of the Sprague family were not
thought to be in danger, and if all the
members of the family had stood to-
gether it would not have been neces-
sary for any of them to go to the wall
| But the senator's wife had estranged
the others, and in the wreck that came
the senator was the only one that suf-
fered to the extent of losing all his
possessions. At that time the senator
and Mrs. Sprague, 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 hus-
| band 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 mark
| ed in his attentions to Mrs. Sprague
and continued so until one afternoon,
| at Canonchet when the husband chas-
ed him from the place with a Ratchet.
When Don Piatt was publishing the
| Sunday Capital in Washington he
| printed an editorial (said to have been
| written by Colonel A. c. Buell., now
| with the Cramps) in which it was
| charged that Conkling was called from
| the floor of The senate by a nod from
! Mrs. Sprague in the senate gallery,
and that the summoning of Conkling
| in this manner had much to do with
| the passing of the electoral commits
| sion bill. which resulted in the seating
! of Hayes in the white house.
But nothing ever came of the mu-
! tual charges of misconduct made by
| the Spragues, and it was not until
1882 that a divorce was granted to
Mrs. Sprague on the ground of nom
| support.
Meanwhile, she had been living on
little estate, called Edgewood, in the
| suburbs of Washington. This had been
left to her by her father, and at that
time it was of little value. But the
! city began to grow out in that direc-
| ton and when the time came to cut
the land up into building lots, Mrs.
Sprague found herself in comfortable
circumstances. Her natural extrava-
gance, however, led her to cucumber
the land by a mortgage, and it was
! only by the personal Intervention of
some of her friends, among them Levi
p. Morton of New York, that it was
} saved to her.