The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-08-08
.Rx,raordinary Divorce suit-The
Parties Each over Eighty Years OIL
Age. N H- a..


An Extraordinary Divorce sul'-Ihe
Parties Each over Eighty Years Oh
Age. ~ err
A divorce case extraordinary came be-
fore a Paris court last week. Thereports
in the legal journals tantalize the scan
dial loving public by merely giving inc
initials of the parties names NJ ana
Madame B.; but it is stated that the
gentleman is noble and all his life lived
in grand style. NJ Boileau, counsel Tor
the wife, who demanded separation
mensa ct tkoro, said that the peculiarly OF
the case was that both parties were
eighty years old, and that they had not
seen each other for forty years. DE,
however. urged that the wifes long sui
fering. which he attributed to her deli
cate sensibility which shrank from
nnblic declaration of her griefs, was no
legal bar to the redress she now sought,
and which a sense of duty to her children
compelled her to ask for IN the hope OF
saving from the hands of a hoary de-
bauchee some remnants Of large for
time. The advocate then proceeded 10
set forth several cases OF adultery, ana
among them one in 1928 with Madame
j, celebrated opera dancer OF the
day. :
N. Delpon, counsel for the octogenari-
an husband, did not deny any of the
facts imputed to him, but carried the
war straight into the enemy's country.
He undertook to show that whatever
peccadilloes the husband might have
been guilty of the wife stood precluded
from all right of, complaint. Since she,
now like her spouse, on the brink OF the
tomb, had not patience to wait for the
inevitable and eternal separation which
must soon come; since she forgot the
respect which gray hairs were entitled
to, even although their past history con-
tanned much to be regretted, the husband
was constrained to disclose a secret
which he had intended to have let perish
with him. He had married his wife,
Mile N, in 1914. She did not belong
to family of equal rank with his own,
and brought him only small fortune;
but she was extremely beautiful, well
educated. graceful and attractive. He
introduced her into the most fashionable
Partisan society at that disSolute pc.
riod-18l5 and 16lG-when the best
French families sought forgetfulness of
national humiliation in a perpetual
round Of pleasure. Madame de B
became a femme la mode and was sur
rounded by admirers On July 5, 1916,
NJ. de B, coming home unexpect-
eddy to his family mansion, found for.
eign officer belonging to the Army Of
Occupation at his wife's feet. He at
once challenged him to mortal combat.
They fought with swords, without sec.
onds, in the garden behind the house.
The olilCeT WIS 5ovvrOAy '~~>-A-2----ai
dc B, after sending him home III a
carriage, went back TO his wife's room
land told her that she must leave him
forever, but that out Of consideration Tor
their two families lie was willing TO
make no public scandal If she would
confess her fault in writing aud promise
never to modest him.
She thereupon signed 4 paper in the
following words: Il declare that my
husband has the greatest reason to COM
plain If me, and that what | have done
would justify him in demanding judi
cial separation. l further declare that
it is only out of kindness that he has
not applied to u court Of Law Paris,
July > 1916. l.. N"
That a woman who had signed such
paper should now appear as plain5ihin a
divorce court against husband whom
she had not seen for half Centary, and
whom she would not know by sight If
she were IL meet him in the street, was
an iupUdeut joke such as had never
been played Oft upon court OF Justice.
The court here stopped the defend
ants counsel, saying that he had stated
quite enough, and the lady's sn't was
dismissed with costs.