A Show Manger’s Faithless Wife—Her Paramour Dumped into the Mississippi, and the Guilty Woman Landed in the Woods.

A "summer snap" manager has been moving up the Mississippi from St. Louis for the last fortnight, exhibiting at various landing places on his way Northward. His domestic experiences on the trip led to a very dramatic scene just below Cairo, last week, in which the full strength of the company participated. The manager's wife, a comely and vivacious woman, considerably younger than her lord in years, had given cause for gossip in the show troupe by her evident partiality for the society of the treasurer of the show. There was no effort by either to conceal their liking for each other, and with reckless disregard of appearances, they were found frequently closeted together in different state rooms, with the door-key turned to shut out intruders. The manager was slow to suspicion, and when suspicion was no longer impossible to others, he remained in doubt. Representations by various members of the company as to improprieties of conduct they had witnessed did not convince him. "The broken pitcher goes to the well once too often," the Spaniards say, and the guilty wife and her paramour, regardless of warnings and their own knowledge that they were under surveillance, made the most of all their opportunities for intercourse. The patient husband of the guilty woman at last "got on to the racket dead." A Mississippi steamer is too narrow a field for a liaison to remain long and undiscovered. The wife and the treasurer were found in a position which left no room for doubt of their criminality, and the wrath of the wronged husband knew no bounds. Ordering the steamer headed for a lonely waste of forest on the Missouri shore, he summoned the show troupe together, told them plainly and with tears running freely down his cheeks, the story of his wrongs and the convincing character of the evidence lie had obtained. He ordered the band to play a dirge, and as the boat run her nose into shore, he put out the gang-plank and made the guilty woman go ashore across it. At the same time he pitched her paramour over the steamer's side into the river. "Now set her out into the channel," said the manager to the pilot.

Illustrated Police News, July 12, 1890.

Mrs. Bested seized by two men while giving a séance at Hartford, Conn.

The Spiritualists, of Hartford, Ct., are excited over the exposure of Mrs. Eugene Beste, the well-known illuminated materializing medium. She has bewildered the people of culture Boston, where she had crowded seances for two years, and she has also given successful exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia and Washington. She went to Hartford at the invitation of leading Spiritualists, and a séance was given on Saturday, attended by a select few. An incredulous lady determined to test the genuineness of the visionary forms at the next exhibition and laid carful plans. She obtained the consent of Mrs. House, at whose home the medium was a guest, and two stout men were secreted in the kitchen, while the invited twenty, at $1 apiece, were forming three circles in the adjoining room. Mrs. Beste chatted with the spectators until 8:30, when the room was darkened. Two chairs had been placed against the kitchen door by the medium and a wire put in front of the inner circle. This the lady said, would have an electric effect. The medium the retired to the cabinet, formed by curtains inclosing a bay window.

A deathlike silence pervaded the room when a tall figure appeared and advanced a few steps and sang in deep bass. The next figure was Daisy, a child three feet tall, who talked in a sweet voice. Then came Apollonius, of Tiana, and illuminated Oriental figure who wore luminous robes and was expected to dissolve before the eyes of the spectators. The sight was beautiful. Stars sparked and a blue fire enveloped the figure. Suddenly the kitchen door flew open, and two men rushing in seized the supposed Apollonius, who uttered a piercing scream and called for help. Lights were procured, the scented gauze was torn off the figure and Mrs. Beste stood before the excited twenty. She displayed a fine form arrayed in corset, a short chemise and blue stockings. She was allowed to dress, after which she made a confession which was put into the shape of a sworn affidavit by a lawyer present and signed by Mrs. Beste.

She said her robes were soaked in a solution of phosphorus and spattered with illuminated paint, which produced the luminous effect. They were concealed under her dress when she entered the cabinet. Tall figures were made by raising the arms over the head and small figures by kneeling down. She said all the Boston mediums were frauds and that she had deceived thousands, though in constant fear of exposure. After refunding the $20, which was given to the two men who caught her, she was allowed to depart. She left the city on the Washington Express. In her affidavit, she swears never to give another exhibition. This is witnessed by W. O. Burr, of the Times, and other well-known gentlemen. The medium had great vocal powers, which she used to advantage. The leading Spiritualists say they are pleased at the discovery of fraud where it exists.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, October 24, 1885.