Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-27
A MISER.

One Who Lives i'm the Cellar of His Own
House-His Wife Complains of Ill-Treat-
ferings.
Brooklyn Eagle.
Mrs. Martha Allen, of LA North Ell
lott Place, came to Justice Riley this
morning, and applied for a warrant for
the arrest OF her husband, Isaac S. AL
len. She complained that he wilfully,
maliciously and inhumanly ill-treated
and misused her, In compelling her to
sleep In damp cellar, and neglecting
to provide her with food necessary for
her sustenance, she being an invalid
and unable to help herself.
Mrs. Allen is ffty-nine years of age
She is much shaken by disease and
privation, and In her countenance is
compressed mass Of woe. She is
shabbily attired, almost to mendicancy,
For years she has suffered from rheu-
matism, which has been aggravated by
neglect, and recently she had severe
attack of pneumonia. Ter husband is
a miser. Penurious himself, he has
compelled his wife to share his habits,
and has dragged her down to melan-
choly feebleness.
He is ladder manufacturer by the
WaIlabout bridge, owns the house Ill
which he lives, several other houses,
and has very respectable sum in the
bank. Her story to the judge was this:
She married him about five years ago,
and has two children, both of whom are
buried. He was sixty-six at the time of
the marriage, and she fifty three. He
is now seventy one, but wears his age
we'll, is unfaggingly industrious in his
business, and his whole soul is bound
up in his work and the profits which
accrue from it. She says he does the
work of three men. He employs no man
and does everything. Many time she
Ing and got breakfast for him and
started him off to work He
would not return until long after
laboring hours. By this means he has
become possessed of competence.
About four years ago the spirit of avar-
ice seized him, and he turned about to
find means to increase his store. They
were living quite comfortably in their
house, which was three story brick,
when be proposed that they should rent
the floors to tenants, and for themselves
have an apartment fitted up in the eel
E lar. The wife strove against this, urg-
ing that the damp would kill her.
1'as site as good as you have been used
to-" was his reply IF you don't like
it I'll turn you out and you can shift
for yourself. -
's6 81 was afraid he would do it, Judge"
said the woman. ssbecause he once
turned his. frstswife out of doors, and I
had to submit t whatever he pleased. %
8 'sWhere did he live with his first
wife?'' TIT e SIS M
issIn Massachusetts, I think in Dart
mouth. Well, he got tenants in the
house, and a pace partitioned off in the
cellar, and had bed putin, and L have
lived with him there for four years. I
have begged him to let me live up stairs,
as couldn't live long In the cellar, but
every time he has threatened to turn me
out if ] wasn't satisfied, and was COM
PEELED to keep quiet. He got to be a
perfect miser." -
'@Did you have enough to eat?''
Hardly enough, and not the kind I
required. About year ago [ couldn't
stand it any longer; SO I took one of his
bank books of the Williamsburg Saw
<ings Bank, signed his name to a. check
auu UI0V pI, OcO. ht ulu uOt uuO LII
ont till last Januury, when he went to
deposit some money in the bank
He made me put that in the
bank. Afterward drew 81 900 from
the bank, and 1 was going to take
that money and leave him, but I didn't
do it. He has commenced suit against
the bank for that money, which is going
to come In court pretty soon. Since
last May he has let me live on the first
floor. I bought little stove yesterday
to keep me warm. Last night when he
came home and saw the stove he got
very angry, and said I shouldn't have
it, and he picked up the stove and car
ried it to the wood house, where he
locked it up
ssAnd you wish to have him arrested?"
ssNo, Judge, I don't want any harm
to come to him. All I want is ray stove
back"
sThat will be the best way to get it
back" said the Judge.
1t appears that when the wife was at
tackled with pneumonia, she asked her
husbend to send for doctor, which he
refused to do. She then sent for ply
sician, who paid her two visits and pre-
scribed for her. Her husband would
not give the money to pay for the pre-
scriptions, and when some of the neigh
bors spoke to him of his heartlessness,
he said: s'She can get well enough
without any medicine"