Year: 1878

Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines, having es-


tablished her claim to $50, 100000 worth
of property in Louisiana, is about to
enter upon proceeding to establish her
claim to 5000 or 1900 acres Of land in
Missouri She doesn't need the land;
there is only possibility that she will
ever secure it; but litigation is with
her matter Of habit, and this new step
would indicate that she cannot be con-
tented or happy without quarrel about
land and other property on her hands.


A business man who has been intense
ly active for thirty or forty years cannot
be easy in retirement He is lost with
out the care, worry and excitement in
cident to the management of business
complications, and more often than
otherwise such a man returns to the
work and worry of business life, and
falls, when he does fall, in working har-
ness. Much the same spirit must ami
mate Mrs. Gaines in her present action
to recover lands in Missouri. She has
been so long litigant that to be in the
midst Of litigation is, for her, as we have
said, the only chance for contentment
or happiness. Her talents and her en-
ergies have been for so. many years de-
voted to establishing her claims to prop
erty whose ownership was in dispute,
that she has an irresistible inclination
to continue in the business.


Myra Clark, when a beautiful young
woman of twenty-five made the discov-
cry that she was her fathers heir, and as
such, rightful owner Of valuable prop
erty in New Orleans. This was nearly
half century ago, and she entered at
once upon what proved to be work of
lifetime, and made her the most famous
litigant in the world. In 1S32.as Mrs.
Whitney, she took the first step to prove
the existence Of will making her the
heir Of Daniel Clarke She was just
twenty-four years in establishing the
fact that such will had been in exis-
tcnce, and in this time had buried her
first husband and married second and
buried him. Then her legitimacy was
denied and it took some years to estab-
lish the fact of her fathers marriage to
her mother This accomplished, she in
1856 filed in the Supreme Court Of the
United States bill in equity to recover
valuable property then in the possession
of the City of New Orleans. After a
struggle of eleven years the Court de-
cided the case in her favor. Many mi
nor suits followed, and last year she
gained the crowning victory that sub
stantially established her right to all the
property claimed.


Forty-seven years after she discovered
certain important papers IN an old trunk,
she stood before the world the personif-
cation of persistent and tireless energy,
having vindcated her father, defended
her mother, and established her own
claims. 1t was expected then that this
old lady of seventy three, having fought
so good fight. and having accomplished
so much, would be willing to rest on her
laurels.


But she was untitled for quite life.
Like the warrior of old, she sighed for
more worlds to conquer; like the retired
business men of to-day. she was uneasy
as fish out of water. Forty years por-
ing over old documents and dwelling on
the intricacies of disputed titles has so
bent her nature to the work that
investigation and disputation has become
necessary to hef existence. Inc deel-
sions of the courts last year having
left nothing in New Oaleans for her to
quarrel about, she gladly seizes the re-
mote possibilities in Missouri.


The picture of this old lady, of more
than the allotted threescore and ten years
Of human existence, entering upon such
a work is as striking as the now histor
ic tableau incident to her first appear
ance in court. The one marked the
dedication of high-spirited and cour-
ageous woman to the accomplishment
of what seemed hopeless undertaking.
The other shows that the habits of life
and thought, encouraged by the strug-
gle that ended after so long time in
success, have made for her a second
nature, with inclinations and longings as
strong as were the aspirations of her
young womanhood