Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1869-11-25
ACAST.OrF WIFE IN COURT.

| JOHN H. OGDEN,
No. Il CEDAR street, New York
ACAST.OFF WIFE IN COURT.
p.u,shed, and Declared Dead, We,
| Clainsing AlAmony.
From the New York Sun, Nov. 3.
| A most remarkable case Of abandonment
ia soon to be tried in the Supreme Court o.
this city. 1t involves curious question
of law-whether q woman who has lived
sixteen years az the wife Of a Spanish Mer.
chant is entitled to alimony after he has
| deserted her. The facts in this matri
monial litigation embrace bitter accuse
ton of inAdelity, n confession extorted un.
| der pain of death, aud the publication Of
an account OF the burial Of tho banlshed
woman On Saturday night, Mr.: Durand.
the merchant who is accused OF this aston
| ishing catalogue of crime, was arrested IN
this CITY 1t the suit of Mary Durand, who
asserts that she is legally his wife, and that
he has deserted her. She 10 still young
and beautiful. Mr.. Durand is commits.
sion merchant, and has An Office at q
Broadway. We take the wife's story from,
her affidavit, a. follows:
Mary Dnrand, wife without the banns.
| WAS born in France, where her parents still
reside. She arrived in this city sixteen
years ago, and soon afterward became &C.
quairted with MI. Durand. The acquain-
lance ripened into love, and they lived to-
gether as man and wife without the cere-
mony of marriage. Mary, however, often
lead her to the hymenial alter, and tho
alment was postponed indefinitely. They
vnnva1 IL, roonnokoh1n ooosat~, Mv on1
Mrs. Durand, and not breath of Islander
was whispered. The unmarried couple
have had a family of five children. but only
one--a boy of twelve ears, survives, and
lie 10 with his father.
The couple lived in sumptuous style in a
mansion up town, and then again in hand
some apartments at 40 West Sixtee4th-st..
and at 81 Clinton place. They had hand
some family of children. and they buried
them. Mrs. Durand says that she has done
nothing unbecoming wife during the
twelve years OF her .cohabitation with Du-
rand, and she believes she ia his lawful wife.
In July last Durand suddenly became angry
and jealous OF his spouss. He charged
that she had had improper intimacy with
mutual friend. who had visited the house.
He accompanied tho charge with threats Of
personal injury, and vehemently proclaimed
that She WAS not his wife. One of the
children was then in Neufchatel, Switzer-
' Early in August las., jDunnd announced
his decision. He told Mary that she must
70 TO France, never to return to this coun-
try. He further informed her that the two
could not live In the same land, and that
tho Atlshtjc' should separate them forever.
Durand threatened to kill her in case she
should refuse to quit the country, and he
added that he would cast her upon the
streets but for the love he bore her child.
The fepudiated wife protestst3 that she was
innocent, but Durand wes determined. +
Then Durand demanded that the poor
she had been untrue to her duty toward
him, but she refused, and emphatloally de-
MED that she had ever been guilty of any
offence. Durand, however, insisted. On
the 31st of July last he called on his wife at
81 Clinton place, and in the presence OF
Miss Emily Ward he repeated his demand
that she should sign confession that she
was virtually harlot, on pain of death.
She still refused, and he left in q passion.
AT 4 o'clock on thssnext morning, while
tho other inmates Of the house were sleep
ing. he dragged Mary from her bed, and
exhibiting written paper, ordered her to
siRn il. Again she refused, and protested
her innocence, but he presented q revolver
and threatened to take her life if she would
not comply with his request. Then, under
such oompulsion, she signed the paper, and
confessed to acts which she-never commit
ted. The husband noised the story of
adultery abroad, and exhibited the proof in
the paper she had signed.
On tho 7th of August Mrs. Durand in
pursuance of her sentence Of Punishment,
embarked on the steamer Vile de Paris for
France. Durand promised to supply her
with money, but he insisted that the sep
aration from him and the child should be
final. He had previously circulated re-
port that she had gone to Europe, for the
benefit Of her health.
Mrs. Durand reached France in safety,
and told her story to her indignant parents
She had scarcely passed q month in her
new home, when she received copies of
contained tho following announcement in
the death columns
A''Died at Gensvs, at 10A. ~, Aug. %,
Mary, wife of J. Durand."
l., Mrs. Durand says that her husband
wore weed on his hat in her memory,
and told the story of her demise to all his
acquaintances. After this he wrote letters
to her parents, informing them that she
was an abandoned woman, and accusing
her Of shameful crimes. He also made
known the fact that Mary was not his wife,
and that after having lived with her for
many years he had separated from her for
ever.
When Marys pvrents heard the trumped-
up story of her dishonor, their anger knew
no bounds. She confessed that she was
not Durand's married wife. She told her
whole history to Ter mother. Durand still
continued to send across the Atlantic the
poisonous tale of her intidelity, and at last
she WAS obliged to fly from her parental
roof, and return to this city. In extreme
poverty, without influential friends, she
avers that Durand has boasted that he will
drive her, by the exhibition of the extorted
confession Of her imaginary guilt, to life
Of prostitution.
Nary adds in hsr a&adavit that Durand is
reported TO be worth at least $780, ZOO, but
that he does not hold the money in his
own name. He arrived In this city many
years ago from New Glanada. South Amer
ica. The order for his arrest was granted
BY Judge Jones, and his bail was fixed at
S20. 900 He 10 In the county jail. Mr.. E.
D. Mccarthy 10 Mays counsel, and Messrs.
Brown, Hall l. Vanderpool have been en-.
gagged BY the defendant.
wv.m,>, p.~r,,r. -Tha fotlov;co v..t-