The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1898, Page 20

o 0 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1898. OOOOOOOOO0000000000000000000000000000090000000000000 [ (-] [ o / o [ < o [ [} o : HAD SEVEN HUSBANDS. : o < o d [ ] ° g MRS. B. D. SMITH POSITIVELY ASSERTS THAT MARRIAGE IS NOT A FAILURE. g o QQ‘T}QOGOCQ “0@900000900QQOQ9099900000000000000000000 S o sw of the T ccessors. When den, too. We did, only a day, you UST e Gk Rane in this way six know, but I reckon she had an intima- rk ‘Mountains became his wife, she tlon of what was coming.” ne town of Hu- nts off and remarked = “Yes, Brother Smith,” she replied, S “you was real nervous for a few davs Sty ille most & yours off this way and I kind of thought you was com- i is t ing_arqund. talked of & nat ot s s fon Neff is reported . ‘Brofher Smith” she went_ on, ne of Mrs. B. D. St ith, \\h‘_‘ TNArries and energe vy “would rather be addressed as a min- eventh husband, a man of o e if you dc and ister than as colonel. He has an army Monday, thereby breaking 1 records and bringing to {he most unique careers { is country. Mrs. S “handsome. The a at present liv- tty little cottage oW ned aged mother. "I have often thought” said Mrs. dusted & comfortable <« of dust, and drew it caller, hat I could <t that old, old proverb, failure? I would mo; t that it is not a failur e had seven husbands and buried five of them. One ran away with an- other woman; the other. Brother Smith, he is out will be hc n a moment; attending to the cow now. Yes, v life has been a series of ave nad much lding her hands I 3 vely out over the ha * straightening up more determinedls never give up. uarely in the face d to make the fu- always done it. I look the present d trust to the Lo ture brighter. He h “Tell you something about my 1 Well, there is not much to tell, but I'll try. Iam a little confused about dates. You see, I had so many husbands and s s happened that I can so- many hardly be very exact “I have known Brother Smith—you see I call him brother from force of habit 1 my life. He was and is my pastor. How long was he engaged to me? Vi bless your soul, one day We knew each other all our life 11 my life, I mean, He game over to see me Sunday night and talked it up. We were married on Tuesday. “My husband were all en- e, and 1 now s sixteen or eighteen And th all love me. ‘Whenever they are ma d I give them a wedding dinner and set them up in There are three sets of y come to see hey always me have—let step-children and, Mr. Vice, Mr. months. eighteen months, but three weeks. M our years and was en- were engage Crozier I knew gaged .to him but two months. Mr. Dougherty I knew a week. “Neft I knew nine months, but’ we sparked only three months. We lived together only three months.” “Why, daughter,” broke in her old mother, who came in softly and be- came an interested listener, “you lived with him six months, dgar, I remember quite well.” “l1 guess you're right, mother,” re- plied the bride as she stopped to think. Then suddenl “Yes, it was six months. apologetically, “I have had so man it's awful hard to keep things straight. I was happy with every one, t00,"” she went on in a low tone. a far-away look stealing over her ma- tronly features. “Even with Neff. I never had a cross word, or the slight- est quarrel with any of my husbands, they all loved me. You see I was hard to please. Some people look nice, but they don’t wear well, and I like the wearing kind. “Yes. I've had a good many offers, but I always know what I'm doing. and when I make up my mind, I don't belleve in delay. I just go ahead and get the thing over with. You see Neff turnkd out bad, but it sn't my fault. I made him a good wife. It has always been said in the com- munity that Neff disappeared, and has never been heard of. As the story goes, Mrs. Smith preserves the nuptial garments of her departed spouses, and You see,” forthwith disappeared. “Do I remember how my husbands looked? Indeed I do. I have their pic- tures too. “When I married Mr. Dougherty he had met my mother but once, and I introduced him to her as my husband. She said she supposed it was all right. and that she wasn't at all surprised.” According to the stories in town Mrs. Smith had her fortune told by a wan- dering_gypsy at Brighton, Mo., s ago. Part of the revelation was that she was to have seven husbands. that the seventh would survive her, and that two of the seven would break into the penitentiary. When asked about this, Mrs. Smith said: “It’s only partly true. I had my for- tune told, as they say, by cards, and the gypsy sai§ I'd have seven hus- bands, and that the seventh would outlive me. I try to make them forget it, but they won’t. I don’t want my husbands to die. I nursed Crozier 16 months and Dougherty 15 months, but they .died anyhow. But here is my new husband now. I was just telling the gentleman,” she said, turning to a tall, austere looking old man. who entered, “that I don’t like my husbands to die.” The colonel looked thoughtful a mo- ment, and said: “No, I don't think she does, but they do it, anyhow. She marries real sud- 1864, she married William de Priest. They had two children, both boys, Al- len and Albert, and after six years .f married life De Priest died of spinal trouble. _Her next husband was Francis Mil- ligan, and she married him January 13, 1870. They had two children, a boy and a girl, both living. Milligan died of typhoid fever October 27, 1883. She became Mrs. James Neff April 3, 1886, and, as told, he disappeared months later. She secured a divorce in 1887 at Bolivar, Mo.. and the same day married Jacob Crozier. A peculiar fact about her marriage to Neff was that she was at the same time ‘engaged to marry a man named Doyle, who lives near Humansville. She set the day, April 3, and made up her mind to marry whoever came first. Neff was' the lucky man, and just as the minister, her vresent husbana, pro- nounced them man and wife, Doyle rushed up, breathless, with the license in his hand. Neff laughed aloud and T L s TF.DE NO. > PRIE 0000000000000 000000000000000DO0O0O0000CLO000000000000 THIS MA o o o o b Q o o o o HARLES WOODRUFF of Chi- cago is a man who has made marriage a trade. Within the last thirteen years he has mar- ried fifty women, an average of four a year. With every one he got some money, and in this is the secret of his wholesale ventures in matrimony N HAD FIFTY WIVES. CHARLES WOODRUFF OF CHICAGO ASSERTS THAT MARRIAGE IS A TRADE. 000000C0000000000000000000000C0C0000000C0CO000CO00000000 vator of an office building on Main street, Buffalo, when a woman, over- come by the movement of the car, fainted and fell against him. This was Mrs. S. A. Sample, a widow. with five children. Woodruff was gay looking and urbane in speech. He captivated Mrs. Sample even while he held her on the way down in the elevator. He went I MRS. SMITH AND HER SEVEN HUSBANDS. record though. He'll tell you about it while I get supper.” Mrs. Allie Anne Bridges, the mother of this remarkable woman, is 78 years old, four years younger than her latest son-in-law. She has had three daugh- ters and ten sons in law. Mrs. Smith was born in Caldwell County, November 12, 1843, and raised in Harrison County. At the age of 15 years she married George H. Vice, De- cember 25, 1858. They lived together five years, when he was killed while on picket guard as the first sergeant of M Troop, First Arkansas Cavalry. They had one child, now Mrs. Sam ‘White, also living with her second hus- band, and who has several children— two of them married. In less than a year, on October ‘10, Mrs. Neff smiled as she s just five minutes too late She has been sorry ever since she didn’t take Doyle. He is living in St. Clair County now, is wealthy, and has got over his disappointment. One child, a girl, was the result of her union with Crozier, but she died m in- fancy. Crozier died Uctober 14, 1892, of consumption. Mrs. Crozier took her sixth matrimo- nial step October 5, 1894, when she mar- ried G. W. Dougherty. He died Janu- ary 13, 1897. \ All her husbands were farmers and fairly wealthy. Besides marrying her to Neff, her present husband officiated at the fu- neral of Crozier and Dougherty and baptized several of her children. the id: 000000050000000000000000000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 0000000000000 RS. SAMUEL P. SWART- WOOD of Mountain Top, near Wilkesbarre, Pa., is the mother of twenty-four children. This statement may seem in- credible, but it has been fully verified by many people who visited Mrs. Swart- wood’'s home. Five of the children are dead. But Mrs. Swartwood's dinner horn can still summon to the table nineteen children, her husband, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law and two grandchild- ren. To be mother of twenty-four children i no small achlevement, and Mrs. Swartwood is proud of it. “My child- ren,” she said, “are my greatest bless- ing.” Mrs. Swartwood is now forty years old, pleasant-faced and genial, rotund and jolly, with a great capacity for laughter and a happy disposition, which shows that frequent motherhood has not damaged her temper. “My children have all been good children,” she said, “and I have no trouble with any of them; and though I have always”—this with a modest dittle laugh—"“had a baby—and some- times two—to look after, they never seemed to be the trouble and worry that some babies are. My last ifttle one is sick now, but it {s not a serfous sick- 7 HERE IS A WOMAN WHO HAS BORNE - TWENTY-FOUR CHILDREN AND SHE WISHES THERE WERE MORE. ness, and she will be all right soon, I hope.” Mrs. Swartwood was married when she was fourteen years old and when her husband was twenty, and two of her daughters have followed her ex- ample in making an early marriage, both being wedded when they were nineteen. But while one has been mar- ried three years and the other two, each has but one child. Mr. Swartwood is forty-seven years old and well preserved. He weighs about 225 pounds while his wife weighs 150. He is an engineer on the Central Railroad. He likes nothing better than to chat about his numerous fahily, and is almost as proud of them as he is of his wife. As for himself, he is very modest. “‘She is the best little wife in the world,” he said. *“I married her when she was only fourteen, but we had known each other since we were child- ren, and she was duite a big girl then. ‘We grow big up here on the top of the mountain,” he said, surveying his ample girth. Mrs. Swartwood’s first child was born fourteen months after her marriage, and there have been but five years since during which the household has failed to be blessed with a babe. These years were 1874, 1883, 1887, 1888 and 1896. But two of them were in succession, and in the succeeding year twins were born. Of all the twenty-four children there were but two sets’of twins, and L these were born in 1889 and 1893. each set of twins is dead. When the mother was asked the birthdays of her children she recited them as one of them afterward recited the lines he had spoken at school the week before and with just as much fluency. Mrs. Swartwood talked freely about her married life. “I was married when I was fourteen,” she sald. “Pretty early? Yes, but I wanted to get mar- ried, and I loved Sam. We have been very happy, and I wouldn’t change my life for any rich lady’s. Look at these children! Ain't they riches enough and every one living at home except the two girls that got married? “It's nice for father and me to have them all here, but it crowds us up pretty well. You see we haven't got a big house and every bit of space in it is used. Look at that table, now!"” and she led the way indoors. It was nearly 6 o'clock. ‘‘Look at that table!" It was a table to look at! Of gener- ous width and Very long, it bore plates and knives and forks for twenty people. At Intervals were great piles of bread, and three large dishes of pickles, while from the kitchen, from the large pots, came savory smells. “We’ve got four big chickens stewed for to-night, with hot biscuits, too; but you'd be surprised to see how they'll g0. They'll have to fill up on potatoes and bread. “It keeps me and the girls pretty One of OO00000000000 C000C0CO00C00000CO0000000000000000000000000C000000C0C00000000000000000CO busy working looking after the -eating and washing for our big family, but we get along all right. Father makes about $70 a month and the boys bring in about $90, and, while we are getting along, we've nothing to spare. “We've given them all as good a schooling as they can get around here, and school’s a good place for them be- cause it gets them out of the way, teaches them something and keeps them out of mischief. “What do I think of married life? Well—well, I ought to know; that’s so. Who is it said married life was one long, sweet dream? Grover Cleveland, wasn't it? Well, I agree with him. It has been to me. I think every woman should get married. I don't know much about what they call the new woman, but if the new woman is one who don't intend to get married then I don't be- lieve in her. What's as happy as javing children to love you and you loving them? “I've heard about some of those mar- ried women who do not wawnt to have any children. I once read a story about a society woman who wouldn’t have any because they’d make her miss some parties, “Well, I haven't any use for that kind of woman, and I don’t see how any man could love one of them. I think if a married woman does not have a child she doesn't fulfill & woman's mission on earth; she does not live as thy Creator intended she should. 2 Now Woodruff is in prison at Buffalo, N. Y. He married once too often. Brigham Young, the high priest of Mormonism, with all his facilities for plural marriage, had only twenty-six wivess he was a tenderfoot in compari- son with Woodruff. There probably was never a more successful winner of women than this man; probubly no man who ever had a more delicate, more subtlé affection of manner. To meet a woman and marry her in an hour is. his record for facility; to woo and marry half a hundred women is his record of success. When he was middle-aged and at- tractive, dressing as he height of fashion, it was his diversion to captivate a woman, young or old, to tell her that he loved her as he had never loved another, and to marry her in a few hours, or perchance in a few days, only to desert her. Mr. Woodruff is a student and a philosopher of love, and this is the statement he makes of the secret “Woman’s weakness, not any accom- plishment or appearance of mine, is the cause of my success in winning hearts. Women are frail things at best. “Take women when they get to be 40, and almost anybody can win them. They want to be won. Under 30 it is harder to win them, but still it can be done if a person is patient. “Tell them they are good-looking, of course; any schoolboy knows that is the first rudiment of success with women. “There is another factor which I can- not deseribe. It might be called man's ensemble. It is his make-up, his ap- pearance, his manner, his way of talk- ing his way of looking'—a man's eyes, you know, are what work havoc with women if they are used right. You can- not acquire these personalities. They are born in a man. & “Women differ some, too. For in- stance, a simpleness of manner might impress one, while another might be captivated by a mysterious, self-know- ing air. First, you want to study the woman. I remember but one whom I could not understand. I can usually read them at a glance. This one of whom I Speak baffled me, though. No, I didn’t marry her. ““The man that married her was up to date. She wanted me to make a million oathbound promises, and I wouldn't do that for any one. I might make a few, but not many. One has to make enough when he’s married. I have made a study of emotions in women and of their tastes and likings, because I found interest in the pursuit.” ‘Woodruff pushed his numerous court- ships with vigorous alacrity. It seldom took him over two days after he had met a woman for the first time to close up the marriage bargain and lead her to the altar. It was in 1889 that Wood- ruff achieved his especial notoriety, One day he was descending in the ele- i N did in the ¥ out with her, won her completely, and married her. The entire proceeding had occupied just an hour. He desert- ed her two days later. Mrs. Sample is now living in Ayer, Mass., under her old name. Mr. Woodruff married, so far as de- #ectives have been able to learn, five women in Buffalo. It is believed, how- ever, that he figured in at least a dozen weddings there. His greatest ‘success took place while he was stationed at the United States Hotel advertising for young women to go on the stage. In answer to his advertisement a young woman named Rowell called at his rooms and was so pleased with him that she took him to the home of her aunt, Miss Schmintzins, and introduced him to her. In two days Woodruff and Miss Schmintzins were married. After leaving Buffalo in 1890 or 1891 Woodruff traveled all over the coun- try, returning to Buffalo every few CHARLES WOODRUFF of Chicago, Who Has Married fAccording to © o0Q0O0OQQ0O0Q0 months for a day’s visit. He spent much of his time in St. Louis, whers, the police say, he has more wives thaa he has in Buffalo. He also has wives in Chicago. Pittsburg, New York, Los Angeles, City of Mexico, Kansas City, Boston and Philadelphia. In each of these places, judging from the letters he has in his trunk, he won numerous hearts and made some wives. He posed as a professor of massage treatment in New York, professor of elocution in St. Louis, and as a mining engineer 'in Mexico and California. In 1896 Woodruff went to Buifalo, stayed two weeks, and married a wo- man named Loretta Dart, of whom he had never before heard. He and she were married at Fort Erie. Woodruff deserted her a few days after the cere- mony and the woman went to live h her parents, who are wgullhy farmers near Hambw h, N. She lives there now. About three months ago Woodruff went to Buffalo and put up at a Pearl street boarding-house. One day he met Rowina Scott on the street. Mrs. Scott spoke to him, but Woodruff did not answer. He evidently did not know her as one of his wives. Mrs. Scott met him a second time, and when this time he did not deign to recognize her-she was indignant. She went to the police. Detectives were detailed on the case and two days later they ar- rested Woodruff. Among the other wives of Woodruff are: Mabel Lane, a soubrette, married in April, 1886; Mrs. Branster, May, 1887; Alice Newberry, February, 1888; Annie Last Home Given to the Bride. January, 1890; Miss Kent, . 1890; Mrs. Caroline Woodruff, January, 1898. Woodruff was trying to deny the charges which have been made against him one day last week, when the prison guard announced that a lady wished to see him—a Tady from New York. “I guess you may show her up,” said the prisoner, “I don’t know any- rom New York.” v woman of 40—she said after- ward her name was Mrs. Jasper— walked into the room. “Now, Charley Woodruff,” she said, as she fixed her eves on the man, “I hope you can remember me long enough to give me back my ring. Placidly Woodruff gazed upon the In- dignant caller. “My good woman,” he said, sooth- ingly, “I don’t know you. = I can’t re- member having met you before.” “I am the woman you married.” re vou sure about that?” queried Woodruff, sweetly. “I never would have known you.” —_————————— A German farmer residing near Spo- kane has achieved quite a reputation as an unconscious wit, and this anec- dote is good enough to be entitled to a place in classic story: The German and his assistant were hard at work digging potatoes, and while engaged in this laborious indus- try their two dogs disported about the premises, racing about furiously as dogs will in a playful mood. The as- sistant watched them for a minute, then ventured the sociological observa- tion: , I believe dogs enjoy themselves more than men.” *“Vy, of course,” quoth the farmer, in a tone that implied a settled belief in the soundness of this view of the ques- tion, “but ve can’t all be dogs.”"—The Dilettante, Fifty Times the Records. i