The Warner Sun

Bismarck, Jan. 14.—Judge Mackey, Mrs. Witherbee and servant arrived in Bismarck Sunday, Oct. 16, and registered as follows: "T. J. Mackey, Chester, S. C.; Mrs. M. A. Witherbee and servant, New York." They did not introduce themselves in Bismarck as husband and wife, but as uncle and niece, the Judge stating that he came to Dakota for his niece's health. Regular boarders at the Sheridan House were displaced so that his request that they should have a suite of rooms with a door opening between could be complied with. The Judge gave as reason for this request that his niece was in poor health and that she might be taken seriously ill at any moment. This statement and the apparent sincerity and good faith of both parties threw off all suspicion that the proprietor might have had, and the happy pair enjoyed undisturbed privacy while at the hotel. But they soon tired of the confinement of the hotel and rented one of the largest and handsomest residences in the city. The Judge is a loquacious man. His strangely uneven anecdotes of the war were entertaining, and within a week he had become acquainted with every man of prominence in the city. His personal experience as an officer in the rebel army made him doubly entertaining, and as he never lost an opportunity to flatter the Union soldiers and belittle the Confederate leaders, he won numerous friends among the intense northerners.

Mrs. Witherbee was no less entertaining to the ladies. Her display of diamonds and silverware was a matter of much gossip among the fashionable women of the city. No brilliant social event was considered complete without her presence. The first suspicion was aroused by the fact that the Judge paid no bills. All checks and drafts were signed by Mrs. Witherbee. The Judge accounted for this by a very eloquent oration on the financial question, stating that his bank account was in Memphis and that Memphis drafts were not available in Bismarck. Mrs. Witherbee's voice won her fame, and the lovers of music went into ecstasies when she sang. She was not only admitted into the homes of the best families, but was invited to sing in the church. At her first appearance in a Bismarck choir, with the rector on one side and the most devout members of the church on the other, she warbled her sweetest and captured the congregation. She has also sung several times in the Presbyterian choir, and before the appearance of the expose the people were congratulating themselves upon the addition of so talented a lady to their society. Women who have been prominent in all social reforms in the city were her nearest friends, and the social lights vied with each other for her favor. Many brilliant parties and luncheons were given at the Mackey mansion, and Christmas night the reception at the home of the judicial uncle and musical niece made all other attempts at welcome pale into insignificance. That evening she was dressed like a queen and was surrounded by the ambitious social leaders of the city. A few admirers dropped from the ranks several weeks ago when Jane Murdock, the housekeeper who accompanied them from the east, left and sued for her wages. The judge refused to pay her on the ground that she had broken dishes and wasted provisions in excess of her wages. Jane is a plain-spoken Scotch girl, and while looking for work told some racy stories concerning the uncle and niece. She said that they lived as man and wife, and that after the judge engaged her, he desired that she should tell the people that she came from the south and had been with them for two years. This she refused to do, as she first met them in St. Paul, while they were en route to Bismarck. The judge and Mrs. Witherbee had so completely won many of the social people that they refused to believe the girl and denounced her as a slanderer.

attached. This caused some comment, which was soon followed by the sensation caused by the article exposing the conduct of the pair before their arrival in Bismarck. The day before its publication here the judge engaged rooms at the hotel, giving as his reason that keeping house without good help was too much trouble. To say that the article struck society like a cyclone is drawing it very mild. Many of the quickly made friends of Mrs. Witherbee denounced the report as the malicious work of her husband, from whom she is seeking a divorce. This is the theory advanced by Mrs. Witherbee and the judge. It is said that since the publication of the first expose the judge has been inquiring about the price of railroad tickets for the east.