Year: 1873




A strange female group was that which
rich case. when Lizzie Lloyd King, the wo-
man known as Kate Stoddard." was found
by the coroner's jury to be the murderess
of her quondam paramOur. New York, in
its busy round of life, is well used to scenes
that epitOnize the most grievous prob
lens Of humanity: but it is long
since it has seen so near it pic
ture like that wherein a calm. pale,
self-cOnfessed murderess met the tear-flled
gaze Of wOman-Miss Adelaide Palm
who had been the .famcee Of the murdered
man. Before that woman, widowed OF
her love, sat third female - Lucette
Myers-with cold, quick glancing eyes,
who been the rival of each of the others in
the passions. not the heart. Of the man
slain last March. A fourth woman
looked coldly. composedly On-the anna.
feur female detective who gave Lizzie Lloyd
KING up to the police. 1t would seem as
though the spiri: Of female honor had az
ranged the tableau III revenge tor the
wickedness that man had wrought. 1I
brings strikingly forward the evils OF
our society in a manner that will seize upon
all who should learn therefrOm. In the case
Of Fisk an exceptionally dramatic scene
was presented, with a fast woman N the
foreground. Happily. it was case that
can have but few repetitiOns. for the actors
were out OF the ordinary line OF men and


women. Bejeweled glare and coarse pas
sion, quarreling with an unfaithtul mis-.
tress and friend turned bloody minded
enemy made up that tragedy. In the case
of Walworth it was the curse of ILL
assorted marriage. breeding parricide.
that shocked the public eye. The
slaying of the Deputy United States
Marshal Stephenson in Jersey City on Fri.
day last by a desperate Russian sailor. was
uncomfortable malice and rufianism, strik.
ing desperately at all law in the rude, bar
barous way in which Russians essay IN their
own land how to temper their condition
with assassination. Kustner's murder, un.
thing more mysterious as an exciting cause:
it is the Outlawry of civilization fiercely
and bloodily at war with responsibility and
order. The Goodrich case surpasses all
these in one particular. that it IS realiza.
ton Of the dangers that lie in Che
path of w0manhOOd, poor and weil-tO-d0,
morally frail and serenely chaste. With
the murdered man removed it is emphati.
cally wOman's case, and our young women
of all stations will do better to learn from
the morals it points than from the Haunting
romances which they read. The murder
stories we have referred to are confined to
very limited classes. The Goodrich homicide
has lessons for we know not how many thou.
sands in the group Of cities on the bay Of
New York. 1t holds its head Of false
pretenses among the respectable classes
its feet are in the blackest mire Of the city's
immortality. Who will not pity the young
attianced who gave her heart to a man
whose decency was q sham! Who can say
what deeper tragedy that murder saved her
from had she been the wife of Charles Good
rich Who Can bend q glance which is
all harshness on the murderess, deceived
and cast of as she found herself, when
uncurbed passion famed the savage fires
of malgnlty to murder heat in her poisoned
heart! That with all the horror Of such
crime upon her head she could 'weave
wantOn spells anew" shows that too
much pity for her would be misplaced;
yet it indicates how all sense of fine
morality had been turned out of her soul
by the soaring life she had eagerly learned
to lead. Lucette Myers, another type of
the same social cankering, wanted. perhaps,
only occasion to have stood in the fearful
position Of Lizzie King. 1t is sorrowful
story, and begets thousand queries that
it would be hard to answer. We may pro-
pound one of them: How many Lizzie
Kings and Lucette Myers are standing on
the verge of the same precipice, with
Charles Goodrich tempting them, pushing
over the atfrighting verge; how many Ade-
laide Palms are laying up a store of love
that will turn to ashes in their heart when
they have learned the truth too late!