El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-03

der of the civil war-and let us not
forget that, If it should be that the
doors of Mexican Jail shall close upon
her-snd farther than this she seems
unable to tell much of
her early years. When about eight
she was apprenticed to Barnum, and
grew up In the atmosphere, moral and
mental, of the circus. What did she
do? It was not without pride, mingled ,
too, with q womanly shame, that she
answered me: Il was a contortionist,
held chairs with my teeth, and all that.
l danced and sang, and rode the horses
sometimes, but my best act was with
the gloves. l am q boxer, but am not
ashamed of it," Poor hunted creature!
So unkind have proven the men of the
press that she is afraid to say how
beauty has been the hand of fate upon
her. She handed me clipping from
q reputable New York paper which
was Washington dispatch so untrue,
so cruelty malicious, that only foreign
influence could have prompted it. No
wonder she despairinely said: eff l
die. 1t will be through the newspa-
pers."
From the circus she drifted to Chi
cago dance halls and variety SHOVE.
During the Worlds Fair young John
D. Rich, an lowan, who had run away
from home when a lad and had put in
some ten years ''seeing the world'to his
detriment, visited Chicago and saw the
comedy boxer in some theRter. He
had good looks and q daredevil
fortune to lay at her feet; she had
some money aud a heart, such as it
was, to offer him. Without the form
atty of priest or justice bands they
joined their checkered lives, and start
ed back to the southwest, where Rich
had already made one marital venture
and a record as good-hearted,
reckless fellow. At Las Cruces, New
Mexico, they concluded to respect the
custom of the country, called in an
orthodox minister, and were married.
That was in 1898, and their mating
proved stormy one. The wife was
jealous-not without cause; the hus-
band was careless and unloving. Be
bind their sodden lives (for those who
knew both we'll say that she drank as
heavily as he) is a foul trail of disease
which has robbed the woman of every
vestiee of good looks. Her wheat-gold
hair is thin and dry, her voice thick
andmuffied, her body weak and psin-rid-
den.
TRUE AND FAITHFUL WIFE.
The man, reared as a gentleman, of
honest. honorable blood, had spasms
i've hearthstone and cared for it. neatly.
There was no breath of scandal against
her as a true and loving wife: against
him there was many an ugly tale.
Alone in the world; friendless and de-
spised; with not one woman or man to
trust or believe in her; almost penni
less, ignorant, and unfortunate from
her birth, God needs must pity her.
Her jailer and the officers who have
been about her all these awful days
and nights have only kind words to
speak of her. Not one of these men
but believed in her guilt when she was
arrested; not one but now believes she
is an innocent woman.
There are no flowers in her cell, not
even u chair: no sign of sister woman's
ministrations, for border women are
not historical and border hearts be-
lieve in justice, and she has been ad-
judged guilty. The man was a moral
degenerate; the woman, the logical re-
suit of base surroundings and the re-
lentless irony of fate. He lies in an
hono-ed grave: she, broken mind and
body. sits in her cell awaiting the sum-
mons to a fate which may be death, or
worse-snd her father was q soldier of
the sixties.