The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, July 23, 1887. LONDON’S LATEST SENSATION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 18, 23 July 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday , July 23, 1887. LONDON’S LATEST SENSATION.

Be just and tear not; Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country’,, Thy God s, and truth’s.

WhaT is known throughout England as the "Langworthy Marriage Case, or a Millionaire’, shame " has just terminated, resulting in Mrs Langworthy obtaining £l2OO a year for life, or £27,000 cash down, and her child £5OO a year for life. The award, although large, is nothing as compared with the wealth of the husband, against whom the order was made. A series of articles, written in chapters, and taking the form of a romantic story, in the Pall Mall Gazette, a journal which has ever been the champion of the downtrodden poor, was the medium through which public interest was at first aroused in the case. At first the yivid tale depicted by that paper of the trials and sufferings inflicted upon a woman at the hands of a husband was considered as a romance more fit to be described in a novel, but when the truth of the story was forced upon the public of England, incredulity that wrongs such as those inflicted upon Mrs Langworthy could remain unredressed gave way to a determination that steps should at once be taken to vindicate her claims, and, at the suggestion of the Pall Mall Gazette, subscriptions were raised to enable her to take her case to the Law Courts. It was by this means that the ill-used wife was ultimately enabled to obtain the verdict to which she was so justly entitled. The facts of the case as disclosed to the public are of such a nature as to excite the utmost horror and indignation. Although the proceedings have been hanging on for |he past two years, the details are scarcely known in the colony, and a resume of the case will be read with interest intermingled with feelings of the deepest indignation, interest from the way in which the unfortunate and persecuted wife struggled to regain her character and means by which she could support herself and child ; indignation at the barbarous persecution and cruelty she sustained at the hands of her husband. The case will long be remembered as disclosing a state of things incredible to the ordinary mind. That a man moving in, and received into, the best of English society, a man of immense wealth, and of good family, should decoy a young woman of high attainments and also of good family into a snare by which he could ruin her fair fame, only to fling her oft

when her health required the tenderest affection and sympathy/of a husband, was too monstrous for belief, and what wonder then was it that her story was discredited at its first production. One could imagine that such things could emanate from the mind of a novelist,but that they were the hard real truths of It fe was beyond conception. The disbelievers were, however, only too soon convinced of their error for the record of the Law Courts will at once convince the most unbelieving mind, Mr Langworthy, before his marriage with the lady he so shamefully treated, was a widower, 35 years of age, his first wife being the daughter of the Earl of Limerick, His mother, who moves in the most fashionable circles, has her seat at Grey Park, Maidenhead. Langworthy is at present domiciled in the Argentine Republic, but at the time he met Miss Long (his second wife) was in England. He is possessed of considerable means, having inherited /ioo,ooo from his nephew and /] 50,000 from his father. These sums, however, are but trifles compared to the amount said to be awaiting him at the death of h<s mother and aunt. He owned a steam yacht which cost him £l9OOO, —a floating’palace—and was a prominent member of the leading Clubs of England. Mr Muihill, in his handbook of the River Plate, gives a glowing account of the magnificent domain known as the Langworthy Grant. It covers thirty-two leagues in the north of Torcas. On this he has planted a colony of 250 families, each colonist being provided with a brick house. The colony also boasts of a town hall, a church, a schoolhouse, a sugar factory, a saw mill, and a tramway, the outlay being estimated at not less than This,{however, is only one of his estates. He has 70,000 acres at Curumulan, and there are other estates, He owns 1,000 horses. 2,000 cows, and 10,000 sheep. Miss Long is a lady of birth and education, and is twenty-seven years of age. She passed many high examinations, which, in her after life, stood her in great need, and while earning her own livelihood (caused through her father losing the best part of his fortune) she met the wretch who was afterwards destined to cause her so much shame, sorrow, and trouble. Mrs Langworthy would not countenance a marriage between her son and Miss Long, but, nevertheless, he continued to pay his addresses to his fiancee. Ultimately Miss Long was prevailed upon to accompany, with a chaperone, Mr Langworthy to France, where by crafty subterfuge, he got her to consent to marry him, and an empty marriage ceremony (arranged by Mr Langworthy) was gone through. Miss Long, now in her belief Mrs Langworthy, shortly afterwards became dubious about her marriage, and insisted on the ceremony being again performed, this time in England. By subtle scheming Mr Langworthy got his wife to consent to the re-union in Belgium, where the second marriage was performed. The pair, accompanied by Mrs Langwortby’s sister, then left for South America via Lisbon. Up to the time of their stay in Portugal nothing of a serious nature happened to break the tranquility of their wedded life, the husband being apparently devoted to his wife, and the wife reciprocating. It was here, however, that the husband’s manner absolutely changed, and from the tender loving husband he became a tyrant, for he feared that his marriage would become known, and that his mother would disinherit him. From this time out he persisted in a systematic course of cruelty. It was a terrible time for the poor wife, who, while on the voyage, was kept with, out food for twenty-seven hours at a stretch. Morphia and mercury were administered her until she was completely prostrated. Remonstrating with her husband at his treatment he added insult to brutality by making her fear the fact that she was not legally married. This eventually proved to be correct. Mr Langworthy, being a barrister, knew perfectly well that the ceremony performed in Belgium had not been in accordance with the forms of a foreign country, and this knowlege, together with the fact that he had destroyed the marriage certificate, seemed to him to be sufficient to extinguish any claims his wife might have upon him. Imagine the feelings of a woman under such circumstances. The torture she endured, the agony of mind she suffered, was sufficient to drive any ordinary woman out of her mind—evidently what the husband intended to do. Mr Langworthy then added the last brutal deed to his already over full catalogue—a merciful one as it turned out. He cast his wife off altogether, and sent her back to England sick and emaciated, and utterly unprovided for. The vessel in which he took out her passage and that of her sister was a broken down cargo boat, which took thirty-three days to make the voyage.

Th- re is no need to go through the miserable and lying means resorted to by Mr Langworthy to cause delay in the law’s course. It is sufficient to state he caused fal-e affidavits to be made by his solicitors (a leading firm in London) to prevent his wife from obtaining justice, He denied ever having gone through a marriage ceremony with her, and that he ever considered her his wife, his object being to cripple his wife from carrying on proceedings by exhausting her purse. The fact that Mr Langworthy found in a leading firm of solicitors a ready tool by which he could carry out his object is severely commented on by the Pall Mall Gazette, which says it is the duty of a solicitor to retire from a case as soon as he becomes aware that his client is trying to avert a just and righteous claim. It was only after conclusive evidence was produced as to the marriage that the sponge was thrown up, and the plea of “We admit everything save the legality of the marriage” was put forward. A peculiar feature in the proceedings came to light during the hearing of the case. It appears that Mrs Langworthy was at one time governess to her husband’s first wife, but of this she was not aware till after her marriage. The award of the Court should prove a warning to men of Langworthy’s stamp, men who, by their position and wealth appear to consider that they can commit outrage upon society with impunity.