riage with her,
or any marriage between them; that said contract or joint declaration
of marriage be decreed and adjudged false, fraudulent, forged, and
counterfeited, and ordered to be delivered up and cancelled and
annulled, and that she be enjoined from setting up any claims or
pretensions of marriage thereby. Sharon was a citizen of Nevada, while
Miss Hill was a citizen of California.[1]

Before the time expired in which Miss Hill was required to answer the
complaint of Mr. Sharon in the United States Circuit Court, but not
until after the federal jurisdiction had attached in that court, she
brought suit against him, November 1st, in a state Superior Court,
in the city and county of San Francisco, to establish their alleged
marriage and then obtain a decree, and a division of the property
stated to have been acquired since such marriage. In her complaint she
alleged that on the 25th day of August, 1880, they became, by mutual
agreement, husband and wife, and thereafter commenced living together
as husband and wife; that on that day they had jointly made a
declaration of marriage in writing, signed by each, substantially in
form as required by the Civil Code of California, and until the month
of November, 1881, had lived together as husband and wife; that
since then the defendant had been guilty of sundry violations of the
marriage contract. The complaint also alleged that when the parties
intermarried the defendant did not have in money or property more than
five millions of dollars, with an income not exceeding thirty thousand
dollars a month, but that since their intermarriage they had by their
prudent management of mines, fortunate speculations, manipulations of
the stock market, and other business enterprises, accumulated in money
and property more than ten millions of dollars, and that now he had in
his possession money and property of the value at least of fifteen
millions of dollars, from which he received an income of over one
hundred thousand dollars a month. The complaint concluded with a
prayer that the alleged marriage with the defendant might be declared
legal and valid, and that she might be divorced from him, and that an
account be taken of the common property, and that the same be equally
divided between them.

The campaign was thus fully inaugurated, which for more than six years
disgraced the State with its violence and uncleanness, and finally
ended in bloodshed. The leading combatants were equa