Vermont Phœnix

A Desperate Woman.

Readers of newspapers have doubtless noticed, within the year past, occasional allusions to a woman in the Western country, who complained of terrible wrongs she had suffered at the hands of a man formerly resident in this city, and threatened some dreadful retribution. The last notice of her stated that she had left Lafayette, Indiana, in masculine attire and armed, and had made her way to some town in the interior of Ohio.

Last Saturday morning, while the Great Western was lying at Mackinaw, it was whispered round that one of the passengers, who seemed a trim boy of some sixteen or eighteen years, was in fact a woman. Captain Walker invited the youth and one of the principal citizens of Mackinaw into his office, and there being questioned, the suspicious passenger declared himself a woman, and gave her reasons for assuming the dress she wore. She said she was married, as she supposed, a few years ago, in this city, to a man whose name our informant was unable to give; that after living with him some years and having two or three children, her husband told her the marriage was all a sham; that he had another lawful wife, and had contemptuously cast off her and her children.

Under these circumstances, she had sworn to have revenge or justice. She had ascertained that the man who had thus deeply wronged her was living at Mackinaw, and she had come there to obtain a recognition of her rights, or vengeance in default. Upon which she exhibited two loaded pistols which she carried about her person. After some farther conversation, she gave up the pistols, and a messenger was despatched to the husband with an intimation that a passenger on board the Western wished to see him. He soon came on board, and the two parties met face to face.

The woman upbraided him with all the wrongs he had inflicted upon her, and demanded reparation for herself and children by a legal marriage, at the same time, with all the recklessness of a woman goaded to desperation, threatening his life with the most vehement asseverations if he failed to do her justice.

At this point the door opened, and the man, who had cowered before her, shot out like lightning and escaped to the shore. She soon followed after, ascertained his place of business, and sought another interview. As she approached, the man doubtlessly supposing she had come to fulfill her threats, and that he must defend his life, raised a pistol and fired. The ball struck near her feet. She never blenched, but drawing a pistol in turn from her vest, took deliberate aim at him, then lowered the weapon, saying as she turned on her heel, 'no, you poor contemptible wretch, it would disgrace even a woman to slay you!' The affair of course, made a great noise on the island, but what was the issue we are unable to state. The boat swung off soon after the events we have detailed, leaving both parties ashore.

—[Buffalo Com. Adv.