The Charleston Daily News

The Chicago Sprague, who has just been made $100,000 poorer, by reason of unfulfilled matrimonial pledges, seems to have taken matters very philosophically, strolling about the place and into the court room as if he were an entirely disinterested party. It is said that Sprague was a tolerably handsome fellow a few years ago, and when he won the heart of Miss Amanda he dressed well, dyed his hair and whiskers, and wore a brilliant set of teeth. He is described by a former acquaintance of his as having been rather an entertaining conversationalist, endowed with a good memory, and having a happy faculty of adopting the experience of other men and making them his own. But when he ceased to sue Amanda and she commenced to sue him, he took himself to pieces. At the suggestion of his counsel, previous to his appearance as defendant, he grubbed out his front hair, laid aside his teeth, wore shabby clothes, and encouraged a more generous color in his nose. He sowed pimples and devoted himself to the cultivation of what he calls "erysipelas," meaning erysipelas. He bestowed his attention on side issues, encouraged blindness in his eyes, and endeavored to manufacture out of his former self an object which, in the eyes of a juror, could never have inspired a spark of passion in the bosom of a schoolmistress. The little locket, however, which she seems to have kept night and day next to her heart, was freely exhibited in the court room, and the contrast between the counterfeit presentment of the gallant of former days and the withered-looking individual who had been presented in the flesh, was as striking as that pointed out by Hamlet between Hamlet's father and Hamlet's father's brother. Perhaps this may help to explain the mystery of how he wooed and won.