Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1886 — THE STORY OF SEDGWICK. [ARTICLE]

THE STORY OF SEDGWICK.

Hi* Disgraceful Escapade at the Mexican Capital The Alleged True Story Told in Detail. The Half Has Net Been Told—His Debauch at the Jockey Club and the Hotel Iturbide.

The Orgie at a Disreputable House—Effort* of the Envoy and His Friends to Suppress the Truth. V So many conflicting statement* have been made concerning the recent escapade of Envoy Sedgwick at the City of Mexico that it has been difficult to arrive at the exact facts in the case. An El Paso letter to the Galveston News —good Democratic author-ity-gives the following as the true story of the disgraceful affair: The News' correspondent conversed with a number of persons, strangers to each other, who had just arrived from the City of Mexico. They say that the half has not been told in the Sedgwick scandal. They are all respectable and trustworthy men, whose names can be given" when necessary. The stories they tell agree substantially, and one will do for a sample. The News' informant was an eyewitness to part of the occurrence related, while he is Intimately acquainted with other respectable persons who witnessed other parts of it. The whole City of Mexico is talking about it, he said, and the Americans feel the national disgrace keenly. There Is no question whatever that the main points of the story against Sedgwick are true. It is a matter of public knowledge, and the American Consul has officially reported it to Secretary Bayard. "What were the circumstances as you understood them?” asked the reporter. The reply was - "I stopned at the Iturbide Hotel, the same at which Mr. Sedgwick staid. The first I knew of my own knowledge was Saturday morning about 6 o'clock, when Mr. Sedg-wick-same in, accompanied by some Mexican dudes, after his night of revel. is, as I understand, a matter of common knowledge that almost as soon as Mr. Sedgwick arrived in the city he became intimate with the Jockey Club, composed of wealthy but rather fast young men. These fast young men invited him to an entertainment at the club house Friday evening. He went. As said before, it was 6 o’clock in the morning when he returned to the hotel, and then he did not remain, as you will see. My informants say that in the early part of the evening there was a great cordiality shown Mr. Sedgwick, who repeatedly expressed his friendship for the Mexicans and his desire for peace and good-will between the two Republics. As the evening flew on the wine flew faster, and one party became uproarious and the other maudlin. Mr. Sedgwick's protestations of friendship became more ardent. He reads Spanish, but does not speak it well, and was unable to understand what they were saying about him. “When the Mexicans saw that he was drunk they began to guy him and take advantage of his ignorance of the language. There were no ladies present “At this time they began to drink toasts, Sedgwick drinking with them. Of course, they made up the most vile, indecent, and obscene toasts they could think of, applying them to Sedgwick personally, and to the United States Government and to the American people. Sedgwick was either too full or too ignorant of the language to know what the toasts were, so they mode him drink to the shame of himself and his country. Amid the roars of boisterous laughter they applied to him and his countrymen the vilest epithets, and then slapped him on the back approvingly when he drank them with gustol They kept this up till morning. “There is part of the published story tnat is not true. They did not festoon him with flowers and put a placard on his back. They did put a flower in his hat; that soon fell out. “As to what happened at the Iturbide Hotel: It was there that 1 became an eye-witness. The other things I have related as they are commonly reported and believed in Mexico. You know the It&bide is built like a hollow square, with a large courtyard in the center. Mr. and Mrs. D , of Chihuahua, who were stopping there, saw what happened. Sedgwick and a party of Mexicans came in at 6 o’clock Saturday morning to the central court, all very drunk and uproarious. Among them they began dancing in imitation of the cancan. Sedgwick/wanted to go to bed, but the others would not let him, They proposed to go to a noted disreputable resort of Americans known as the Four Minnies. Mr. Sedgwick appeared to understand only that it was something about women, and was off with them in a moment. They went to Minnie’s, and were ushered into a room with some of the abandoned women of the house. It is alleged that while Sedgwick was reclining on the sofa with two of them he suddenly fell forward on the floor in a dead stupor. The Mexicans pulled his legs out straight and turned him over on his back. Two of them then mounted his body, and flapping their arms for wings, emitted the triumphant crow of a rooster. Turning to the girls, all of whom were American, they said: ‘See what fine representatives your Government sends here to investigate the Mexicans. Here is a fair sample of your countrymen.’ “After this the proprietors of the house took possession of his watch and money for safe keeping, and had him carried to a room alone and locked in. At half-past ten on Saturday morning two American gentlemen who had heard of the affair went to Minnie’s in a closed carriage to take him away He would not go with them. It is alleged that through the crack of the door he made this reply to their, entreaties : ‘ You go to h—l ; I know what lam about. I can take care of myself, and you will take care of me, won’t you, girls?’ He did, it is averred, not leave Minnie s until two o’clock that day, and remained in his room at the Iturbido.until Sunday. “Sunday the American Consul, Geo. Porch, accompanied by two well-known American citizens, asked him what he was. going to do about it. Mr. Sedgwick, it is alleged, expressed contrition ; said he had only a faint recollection of what had happened, ana asked to be informed of the particulars. They were related to him, and it is alleged that he begged the Consul ana the other gentlemen to keep the matter quiet and not let it become public. “One of them replied - ’lt has become public already, and, more than that, I fear it will get into the papers up North.’ “ 'My God I’ Sedgwick is alleged to have re--plied,’’has it come to that ? ’ “He then begged the three gentlemen to use their best endeavors t o hush the scandal up, and they promised to do so, Sedgwick promising, it is claimed, to have nothing more to do with the members of the Jockey Club, against which he bad been warned when he first came to the city; but that very evening he dined with some members of the club, and they, it is said, urged him to deny the whole thing and they would back him in it, while money or other pressure would make the proprietor of the hotel do the same. “Monday morning, and this I saw myself,” said the News’ informant, “he was walking on the street arm in arm with two of the same men who had got him into trouble. That afternoon a meeting of the American residents was called to consider what was best to do. I was present at this meeting. General Frisbe, a highly honored American resident, was the chairman. I was obliged to leave before the end of the meeting, but while 1 was there the ConsulGeneral said: ‘Gentlemen, I want to read you a telegram which I sent to-day to Secretary Bayard. I sent it on my own responsibility as Consul, but if you approve it, so much the better.’ He then read, as nearly as I can remember, as follows: “ ‘City of Mexico, Aug. 30. “ "T. F. Bayard, Secretary of State, Washington, "D. C.: “ The special representative of the United States, Mr. Sedgwick, has disgraced himself and his country, bringing shame to the face of every American in this city. The American citizens here ask his immediate recall. It is sufficient to say that he waa found' drunk in houses of assignation.’ “ ‘Porch, Consul. “Why,” said the News’ informant, “some of these old resident Americans in the City of Mexico couldn’t speak of it without their eyes filling and their voices faltering, they felt so bad about the national disgrace.”