PASSION AND OTHER SINS. PART ONE

 

“Love without passion is dreary; passion without love is horrific.”

Lord Byron

I begin by reminding you of one of the lesser known legends of the goddess Psyche. I say lesser known legend because, there were so many myths and legends about Psyche, and really, few people who survive high school would feel any empathy for a cut-throat cold-blooded narcissistic "pretty girl" like Psyche.  

Which brings me to the perfect living example of the lady, a walking earthquake of passion and self-centered delusion named Sarah Althea Hill.

Miss Hill was known to friends and enemies as Althea. To describe her as normal, even for Gold Rush San Francisco, would be an insult to the abnormal. In the summer of 1880, when she was in her late twenties, she was a “rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed beauty of the Golden West,” and as loony as a bat in radar factory.  And yet she was about to come within a hair's breath of controlling one of the biggest fortunes in America, and was about to entertain, frighten and divert an entire nation for a decade. 

There had been men in Althea's life before our story beings, in particular Lawyer Reuben H. Lloyd.

Quickly Reuben discovered the lady had attached herself to him like a barnacle, and attempted to break up with her. Althea responded on 10 May, 1880, by showing up at his office to dramatically drink poison.  The police rushed the heroine to a hospital where they pumped her stomach.  So, the lady was thus  unencumbered when she met by happenstance or connivance the sixty year old United States Senator William Tang Sharon.

Sharon (above) was a dirty old man, one of the richest dirty old men in California, and the taxes he actually paid made up 2% of the entire budget of the city of San Francisco. William Sharon was also a widower with three grown children. He was also a Senator representing Nevada, with one of the worst legislative records in history. Says an historian, "He was seated at only five sessions and recorded on less than 1% of all roll calls".  But above all else he was greedy and cruel. Besides which, he actually lived in San Francisco's Palace Hotel (which he owned), and traveled to either Washington or Nevada only occasionally.

It is  also important to note that what drew the Senator and Althea together was clearly not love. It was passion. He had a passion for young women. She had a passion for money. At his suggestion they signed a pair of contracts. Or so she said.

“Passion…is violence to which you get hooked by pleasure.”
Isabelle Adjani

“In the city and county of San Francisco…on the twenty-fifth day of August, A.D.1880, I, Sarah Althea Hill….do here, in the presence of Almighty God, take Senator William Sharon, of the state of Nevada, to be my lawful and wedded husband…I agree not to make known the contents of this paper or its existence for two years…” And “…I, Senator William Sharon, of the state of Nevada…take Sarah Althea Hill…. to be my lawful and wedded wife…”  Of course, no ceremony took place, and no license was ever issued. However money did change hands. And in capitalistic nations that fits the definition of a contract. It was, in effect, a pre-nup without the nup.

The closest Sharon got to writing his own vows was the note he wrote to Mr. Thorn, who was the manager of the Grand Hotel (above left), just across the street from his own residence in his own hotel, the Palace, (above right).  It read, "Miss Hill (is) a particular friend of mine, and a lady of unblemished character and of good family. Give her the best, and as cheap as you can.” It seems the Senator had agreed to provide Althea with a suite at the Grand Hotel, which was connected via a convenient second story 72 foot long bridge to the more opulent Palace Hotel. This provided a covered approach for a late night "booty call". 

He also agreed to provide to her a monthly payment of $500,  from which she furnished the rooms. In other words, if it was a real marriage, it was a marriage of convenience. And it was convenient for the Senator for just about a year.

“Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion, avarice…”
Cyril Connolly

As late as 3 October 1881, Senator Sharon was still referring in his notes to Althea as “My Dear Wife”. However, shortly thereafter Senator Sharon offered her $7,500 in cash if she would sign a paper using the name “Miss Hill”.  In early December she did so and the very next day Mr. Thorn was informed by the Senator that the lady would be checking out.

What followed were desperate letters from Althea. “"My Dear Mr. Sharon… I cannot see how you can have any one treat me so—I, who have always been so good and kind to you—the carpet is all taken up in my hall —the door (the front door to her rooms) is taken off and away…"  And still she refused to take the hint. "Ah, Senator, dear Senator, do not treat me so —whilst every one else is so happy for Christmas, don't try to make mine miserable…" And then there entered a note of anger. "Now, Mr. Sharon, you are wronging me; so help me God, you are wronging me…”

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
George Hegel

By the end of December, Althea was gone from the Grand and the Senator had moved on to other young women, although he occasionally still spent “time” with her.  But Althea was not finished with Senator Sharon either. 

She engaged the services of a big (6') blustery, bowie knife-wielding lawyer, a hot headed ex-justice of the California Supreme Court named David Smith Terry (above).  Like Sharon, this would be cupid was sixty when he met Althea, but unlike Sharon, Terry was just as prone to passionate outbursts as the lady.  And in September of 1883, under his guidance, Althea had a public outburst, in the local press, and then had the Senator arrested for adultery.  Sharon sued, charging Althea with attempted blackmail, and alleging that the marriage contract was a fraud. Althea counter sued the Senator in state court, as for a divorce, and, of course, for alimony.

The divorce trial entertained the citizens of San Francisco over the summer of 1884, with salacious details of how “the other half” lived, including tales of Althea watching Sharon in bed another woman. 

In September Judge Jeremiah Sullivan ruled that what Althea and Senator Sharon shared was a common law marriage, and awarded Althea half of the Senator's vast estate, as well as alimony of $2,500 a month. Althea simply purred at the decision. “I feel just like a young kitten that has been brought into the house and set before the fire.” The Senator immediately appealed 

And then on Friday, 13 November, 1885, Senator Sharon appealed to an even higher court; he died (above, his grave).  

And not very long after his death, Althea miraculously found a new will, in which the late Senator left every thing he owned to her.  However it left nothing to his three children.  And thus the curtain fell on Act One of our romantic comedy.

“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature – that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”
Sue Grafton

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