is decision from the bench in the
presence of a crowded court-room; a decision which she
well knew, before the going down of another sun, would be
telegraphed to the remotest corners of the civilized world, to
be printed and reprinted with sensational head-lines in every
newspaper, and talked over by every scandal-monger on the face
of the earth; was it any wonder--not that it was right--but
was it any wonder that this high-spirited, educated woman,
sprung from as respectable a family as any in the great State
of Missouri, proud of her ancestry, and prizing her good name
above everything on this earth, when she heard herself thus
adjudged in one breath to be guilty of forgery, perjury, and
unchastity, and thus degraded from the exalted position of
wife--to which the Supreme Court of her State had said she was
entitled--down to that of a paid harlot; was it any wonder, I
say, that like an enraged tigress she sprang to her feet, and
in words of indignation sought to defend her wounded honor?"

Mr. Montgomery did not speak truly when he said that on this occasion
such a decision was announced from the bench. The decision was
announced on the 24th of December, 1885, nearly three years before.
The only decision announced on this occasion was that the case did not
die with the plaintiff therein--William Sharon--but that the executor
of his estate had the right to act--had a right to be substituted for
the deceased, and to have the decree executed just as it would have
been if Mr. Sharon had lived. It was amazing effrontery and disregard
of the truth on the part of Mr. Montgomery to make such a statement as
he did to the Supreme Court, when the record, lying open before them,
virtually contradicted what he was saying.

Towards the close of the decision Justice Field did make reference
to Mrs. Terry's testimony in the Superior Court. He said that in
the argument some stress had been laid upon the fact that in a
State court, where the judge had decided in Mrs. Terry's favor, the
witnesses had been examined in open court, where their bearing could
be observed by the judge; while in the federal court the testimony had
been taken before an examiner, and the court had not the advantage
of hearing and seeing the witnesses. In reply to this Justice Field
called attention to the fact that Judge Sullivan, while rendering his
decision in favor of Mrs. Terry, had accused he