Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-05
A Curious Domestic History.
THE ACCOMMODATING CHARACTER OF THE PENN
sYLvANIA DIVORCE LAWS

THE ACCOMMODATING CHARACTER OF THE PENN
sYLvANIA DIVORCE LAWS.
The trial of Henry Stevens and Christian
kindtner for arson in the Mexican County.
Pa, Court, just concluded, developed one Of
the most extraordinary stories of complicated
domestic ties on record. Henry Stevens in
1866 was the mate Of an Atlantic steamer. On
voyage to this country in the fall of that year
he fell in love with young German girl. a
steerage passenger, whose name was Pauline
Baumann. The girl reciprocated the officers
affection, and on landing in New York they
were married. The bride was on her way 70
join relatives in Bradford. Pa, then an un-
known lumber village. Stevens quit the service
OF the steamship company and Joined his for
tunes with those of his bride.
Not long afterward the Bradford region be-
gan TO attract the attention of oil operators
and Stevens and his wife opened boarding
house. They were still keeping boarders in
1873, when dashing German named Christian
kindtner became an inmate of the house He
fell in love with his landlady. She was induced
by him to believe that she was not happy with
her husband, and she obtained divorce from
Stevens. The latter seems to have regarded
this proceeding with remarkable complacence,
Tor he did not leave the house. Mrs. Stevens
married kindtner but on the wedding night
for some reason deserted him and returned to
the guardianship of her first husband In a
short time she procured divorce from Kindt-
ner and remarked Stevens. Kindtner did not
let the sudden ending of his honeymoon and
the utter reputation and legal separation OF
his bride worry him apparently, Tor he con-
tinued to board with the Steyenses
Last winter Henry Reagan, a well-to-do land
scape gardener, of Bradford, advertised for a
wife. His advertisement was read by Mrs.
Hannah Young, a comedy middle-aged widow Of
Indianapolis. She replied to it, and the result
was that she came to Bradford and married
Gardener keggan. The Widow Young had
seventeen-year-old son named Robert. He was
a good-looking boy, large for his age. The
neighbors. Mrs. Stevens, although nearly fifty
years OF age, fell in love with the boy Robert
Young. Her charms at the same time infatu-
ated Robert. Again Mrs. Stevens had resort 10
the divorce court, and, as the divorce laws Of
Pennsylvania accommodate themselves to cir
cumstances, she was speedily released from the
bonds that had made her for the second
time Henry Stevens wife. She then
married Robert Young and established
her youthful spouse as the head of
her boarding house. Stevens accepted the
situation with commendable stoicism, and took
his place with Kindtner, the other dethroned
husband, as boarder in the house. Things
ran on smoothly until last summer, when Mrs.
Young took her boy-husband and her effects
and with his mother and stepfather removed
to another part OF the city. where the combi-
nation opened public house known as Dargle
Park. This left ex-Husbands Stevens and
kindtner out in the cold, and they protested
loudly, but without avail. few weeks ago
the Dargle Park House, together with all the
buildings connected with il, was destroyed by
fire. The fire was plainly of incendiary origin,
and Mrs. Young, charging her late husbands,
Stevens and kindtner, with having fired the
building, had them arrested They were in
dicted and their trial came off at the last term
OF court The evidence against them was in
sufficient to convict them, but during the trial
this curious domestic history was made public