The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-01-07
ECHO OF FAMOUS
 BADGER GAME.
w. A. E. Moore Restored to
 Citizens Rights
PAYNE MOORE'S HUSBAND

' | the latest turn of the wheel for Will | liam A. E. Moore, who was found guilty of a sensational badger game
 back in 1898 and was sent up the riv-
 CT for nineteen years by Recorder
 Golf, who was then presiding in Part
 III, of the Court of General Sessions. | This badger game in which Moore l figured with his young and pretty
 wife, Payne Strahan Moore, the daugh- | ter of Judge out on the Pacific | coast. gained national attention, but while Moore was serving his long "bft' l in Sing Sing he had powerful friends
 working for him. Now the news | comes that Moore has been restored l in full to all his rights of suffrage | and citizenship after being released about five years ago by Gov. Higgins It now appears, for the goss p and | delight of sporting and theatrical Broadway, that Moore has made good | in winning the respect and confidence
 of his business associates and leading | men of affairs in Philadelphia and that he is now at the age of 45 years fully established as a good and worthy citi-
 zen by Gov. Whites favor granted re- gently.
 But to one who is familiar with the
 career of Moore this bit of news does not bring any surprises. It seems that life never started right for the gay boulevarder of the American me- tropolis until he had got nearly the limit for badger game which fnvolv- ed Martin Mahon, the proprietor of the New Amsterdam Hotel, whom l Moore found in his apartments with
 his wife on the afternoon of Nov. 5, 1898. Assault charges. along with an indictment alleging extortion, follow ed the arrest of the husband, who is
 now as good in the eyes of the State as the best citizen.
 The fortunes of Moore, it appears, did not improve with the short years he spent with his wife. Broadway tradition has him down as a gay spender, limit man at the cards and | a follower of the racing game. He where his father was considered rich man whose fortune had been made in the Great Lakes traffic. Moore knew apparently when. how and where to spend his money and became we'll known among the fast set of the town. But the fact that Moore is now con- sidered a rich business man of Phila- delphia does not. argue so much, be- cause 1t is known that while the pr:s- oner was serving his long term up at Sing Sing, rich uncle, Capt. J. w.
 Moore of Cleveland, died, leaving an lion dollars and out of this estate
 the Sing Sing convict drew nearly $125,O00. But if this wndfall came to
 him in his cell up the river there also came papers in divorce case filed by Payne Strahan Moore, who had gone out to Sioux Falls, s. D. and entered petition for an absolute divorce al- leging abandonment, extreme cruelty and conviction of felony. The wo-
 man got her decree on May g, 1892, and also the right to resume her mai
 den name of Payne Strahan. So
 Moore got a fortune and lost wife
 who figured in the. badger game that
 brought him the stripes and the tin cup.
 But then Moore also got religion and his conduct while under conf1ne- ment is said to have been exemplary and kind wishes for their charge. The change at that time was most notice able, and it is just as we'll to repeat here that the strong character" which former Gov. Herrick of Oh o had vouchsafed for the Cleveland man at the trial appears to have been justified.
 Moore got his rich legacy in Jan uary of 1902, his wife got her decree of absolute divorce in the following May. She was attentive to her hus- band for at least two months and it was a voyage to London where the pretty Payne Moore joined the chorus
 
 Messenger Boy.' Her name did not appear in the cast, but her beauty at- tracted attention from the London chappies and her engagement was con- s'dered big hit.
 Just when Moore met Payne Stra- han first is hard to fix definitely; but it is recalled that Moore had been named as consul at Durban, South Af- rica, by President Grover Cleveland and that he was not reappeinted by President Mckinley A story that was spread here in New York at the to do with an adventure with Rus sian Count. Moore and Payne Strahan Moore. The Count let it be under stood that he was caught in the Moore apartments of a Paris hotel and that 1 he had been held up for 10000 francs l in cash and larger sum in the shape | of promissory notes. It is said that 1 about this time the adventure reached | the State Department in Washington | and that Moore never got nearer Dur l ban than Paris.
 It has been represented that this l Count Novak offered "gentleman's" | reparation on the field of honor but | it appears that such immateriaI repa-'l ration did not fit the Moore demands l
 The pair though, were married in | 1897, and the next year were establish i ed in comfortable apartments in the l 1iCtlOOiCs MduOh, "iiO pldySQ d. UlS part in this American scandal, had l plenty of money.
 Mahon declared under oath that he | had been led to the Moore apartments ! by Payne Moore, and that while he i was there in the afternoon of Nov. 5, | 1898, Moore the husband of the wo- | man, smashed the door leading from | the hall, hammered Mahon on the | head with the butt of revolver, took | $175 in cash, all the jewelry the ho- l tel keeper wore at the time and forc- 1 ed him to sign notes for amounts ag- gregating $5 900. It seems that Ma | hon was excited at the time and i there was evidence introduced at the 1 time of the trial to show that Mahon ! and Moore went down to the street 1 together and that Mahon not only &C., cepted a cigar but smoked it as the | gift of Moore.
 But that night when Mahon felt of | his head and saw that his eyes were discoloring he began to think of the | fuss in which he played a great part. | He called up Detectives Cuff and Mo l Naught of the Central Office and these | two sleuths paid visit to the Gren- | oble that n ght in what has been call | ed an effort to get back the notes. | It seems that Detective Cuff broke | into the Moore door and was beaten l up pretty badly by Moore, who told afterward that he did not know Cuff was 2 policeman. i
 The big story got out and there was work for the District Attorney. The first trial resulted in a jury disagree |
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