Evening star., 1932-04-24

distinguished American families. Sprague waS
. war Governor of Rhode Island and repre-
sented that State in the United States Senate
from 1868 to 1875. Salmon P. Chase was almost
a Washingtonian, having taught school here
at very early date and also studied law in
this city, where he admitted to the bar
before engaging in practice in Cincinnati Ohio
Before his appointment to the United States
Supreme Court he was twice elected to the
United States Senate and served one full term,
and served two terms as Governor Of Ohio,
and in 1861 became Secretary of the Treasury
in the cabinet OF President Lincoln, position
he resigned July l, 1864. and on December
of that year was appointed to succeed Chief
Justice Roger Brooke Taney, deceased.
Kate Chase Sprague, who lived with her
father in the large, plain brick building at the
northwest corner of Sixth and streets north
west, was regarded as a handsome, vivacious
woman, and an unusually good lobbyist, who
usually got what she went for. Her fathers
notable positions in Washington naturally
brought his attractive daughter into the lime
light, and thus she became acquainted with and
married Senator Sprague All went well for a
while until the Governors fortune began to
wane when the love on both sides decreased
accordingly.
THE Governor then sued for divorce, and his
lawyer put many allegations in the form
book 1t was, indeed, a bitter attack, couchcd
in legal parlance.
Just what sort of a divorce the Governor
obtained If any the writer does not recall,
but the matter at the time kept the people in
terested for quite awhile
OF course there have been other notable
cases tried in our local courts or in which
Washington people have taken a keen interest,
such the Pollard breach of promise case the
Safe Burglary case, the Barton-Sateldo homi-
rid tha ria1 0f Ann no ahrot tad
Beecher-Tilton case. tried in New York many
years ago, which for universal interest has
probably never been exceeded in this country,
and, Of course, ever so many others.
Ann Royal was one of Washingtons earliest
newspaper women and publishers, and because
she believed in calling spade q spade, and
did not refrain from paying her respects to the
man higher up when he was guilty Of some in
discretion, she acquired the enmity Of many
persons in political and social life.
Her life was q romance and even Lincoln
and Andrew Jackson did not undergo more pri-
vations than did she, before she settled down in
Washington IN 1881 and established her first
newspaper, Paul Pry. From this time on, her
life was no bed Of roses, regardless of what it
may have been before. As one author puts It,
Something had to be DONE" and this some
thing was to resurrect an old common law
which provided ducking for common scolds and
the like, and accordingly Ann Royal was
brought to trial before the celebrated Judge
Cranch, because she had expressed herself too
freely.
Mrs Royal was found guilty, but Judge
Cranch could not decide upon the type of duck
ing stool to be used in letting the defendant
down into the water. Perhaps he, himself,
looked upon the situation as being too ridicu-
lous. However, he determined upon fine, and
Mrs. Royal was assessed $40 and required
to keep the peace for one year. Evidently the
jury in the case was composed Of nearby Mary
land men, for Mrs. Royal, in writing Of the
case at the time said that the next time she
was tried she hoped they would summon IL
tomcats instead of Bladensburg men.