Year: 1871

| The New York Tribune gives US the following
condensed sketch of "the story of Mrs. Fair"
concluding with some comments which will dis
pei many recent misgvings in the public mind,
as to the soundness of H. c., and the Tribune on
social relations and the marriage tie


| The lesson from the career of this woman
cannot be emphasized by minute details of her
crimes, hence the full record of the trial has
found no place in our columns. Her life, how
ever, is too strongly suggestive to be passed
without glance. She was born in Alabama
and, through poverty and neglect reached
womanhood without knowing the wholesome at
mosphere of home. The family removed to New
Orleans when Laura was sixteen, and here the
girl resolved to enter the world under new cir
cumstances. Bright in mind and exceedingly
comely in person, she soon found full invest
ment for her capital. She caught a rich hus-
band. She was eighteen and he was eighty.
His senile jealousy drove her to the remedy of
divorce; but while the action was pending the
dotard died of the delirium tremens and the ad-
ventures found herself the mistress of an ample
fortune. She married within a month, and in
less than three was the widow of suicide.
| With the semblauces of decent sorrow fresh upon
her, she took another husband, Col. Fair, and
the fortune of the first running low, she emf
grated with this one to Virginia City, Nevada,
whore she set up hostelry, styled the "Fair
House" The amiable Colonel made way for
some one else by blowing his brains out, and
| the incorrigible widow, sated with her matrimo-
nial ventures, essayed fame and fortune on the
San Francisco stage. Hers were the arts, how
ever, which do not show to full advantage on the
mimic scene, and her first appearance as Lazy
| TedzIe was also her last. One conquest she
made was the final cause of the present scandal
She captivated the susceptible heart of A. p.
Crittenden, an ex-Judge and an eminent lawyer.
Practcing all the arts of matchless cunning
she lure6 him from wife and home, robbing him
meantime Of all she could get With his money
she pensioned her mother comfortably aud re-
established herself in the Fair House in Virginia
City While still intriguing with Crttenden she
met some one else possessed of money, and
made herself his wife. Without indentity or ap-
parent purpose this fourth " husband " fits aim
lessy across the scene. 1t suited the whim Of
Jezebel to remove this Naboth that she might
make her way into q neighboring vineyard, so
she shot him. This, at any rate, was candid (;
but even Nevada Justice ffowned at it, and the
enchantress was brought to trial. She was de-
Tended by Crittenden so eloquently and ably,
that the Judge seemed to have forgotten the law
and the Jury the facts, for she was triumphantly
acquitted,


The favorite Of fortune and favored Of justice
supported her melancholy widowhood few
months, and in 1868 made q new marriage feast,
taking to her arms a man of doubtful morals but
undoubted wealth, who figures on the scene as


tSydner." She looked upon Sydners money,
as it was good; she looked upon Sydner and
thought that Crittenden was better. Tired of
the sanguinary method, she gave Sydner the
choice of divorce, and he, amiable man, fur
nished situation which, when brought into
court achieved legal separation within a
month.


Crittenden during these matrimonial transfg-
urations still maintained his fatuous devotion to
the adventures. He gave her something like
$40, 900 altogether. AT the time of the Sydner
episode he, however, seems to have realized the
part he was playing. He sent for his wife and
family, and meantime informed Mrs. Fair that
he could have nothing to do with her. She
flooded him with letters and denunciation She
threatened an exposure Of his relations with her.
Receiving no answers to these rawlings she
thrust herself upon him in his office and avowed
herself his wife. She dared him to cast her off.
The next day she shot him dead as he sat beside
his wife and children.


OF the infamies of the trial we have no pur-
pose to speak. The worn out plea of insanity
was put forth, but the jury were not impressed
with it. The woman faced her judge and jury
with matchless assurance in the very face of Mrs.
Crittenden, declaring herself her victims I" law
"advanced views of womanhood," " and some of
them she had put in practice. Perhaps sober
contemplation of this fearful case may convince
ladies of her way Of thinking that those fantastic
theories which strip woman of the proverbal at
tributes of the sex can have no other logical re-
condition of a monster. If the life of Laura
Fair, who now stands convicted of one of her
murders, is more horrible than the lives of 9TH
ers of her school, it is not because her princi-
Piles are any worse than those of the average
marriage reformers, but because she has been
more consistent and courageous in acting up to
their ultimate tendencies.


|


MAN with an enormously large mouth called
on dentist to have tooth drawn. After the
dentist had prepared his instrument, and was