in the United States
Circuit Court, and cause them either to modify the terms of the decree
not yet entered, or deter them from its enforcement, is a matter of
uncertainty. He was of the ultra State's-rights school and had great
faith in the power of the courts of a State when arrayed against those
of the United States. He had always denied the jurisdiction of the
latter in the case of Sarah Althea, both as to the subject-matter and
as to the parties. He refused to see any difference between a suit for
a divorce and a suit to cancel a forged paper, which, if allowed to
pass as genuine, would entitle its holder to another's property. He
persisted in denying that Sharon had been a citizen of Nevada during
his lifetime, and ignored the determination of this question by the
Circuit Court.

But if Judge Terry had counted on the fears of the United States
judges of California he had reckoned too boldly, for on the 15th
of January, 1886, eight days after his marriage, the decree of the
Circuit Court was formally entered. This decree adjudged the
alleged marriage contract of August 25, 1880, false, counterfeited,
fabricated, and fraudulent, and ordered that it be surrendered to
be cancelled and annulled, and be kept in the custody of the clerk,
subject to the further order of the court; and Sarah Althea Hill
and her representatives were perpetually enjoined from alleging the
genuineness or the validity of the instrument, or making use of it in
any way to support her claims as wife of the complainant.

The execution of this decree would, of course, put an end to Sarah
Althea's claim, the hope of maintaining which was supposed to have
been the motive of the marriage. To defeat its execution then became
the sole object of Terry's life. This he hoped to do by antagonizing
it with a favorable decision of the Supreme Court of the State, on
the appeals pending therein. It has heretofore been stated that the
case against Sharon in the Superior Court was removed from the
calendar on the 14th day of November, 1885, because of the
defendant's death on the previous day. The 11th of February following,
upon proper application, the court ordered the substitution of
Frederick W. Sharon as executor and sole defendant in the suit in
the place of William Sharon, deceased. The motion for a new trial was
argued on the 28th of the following May, and held under advisement
until the 4th of the following October, when it was denied. From this
orde