The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-20
AGREED TO LIVE APART
J. NJ. Wards Domestic Troubles End
in Ills Separation from His Wife.

J. NJ. Wards Dom este Troubles End
IN BIS Separation from His Wife.
The announcement that John ". Ward
the famous base ball PLAYER. who married
Helen Dauvray in 1887, had agreed TO a
legal separation from MS wife, and that she
will return to the stage, has causei a
sensation in Savannah, as it has in New
York and elsewhere where Ward is known.
Ward was in Savannah three weeks ago
with his team, aud whils here he mads
many warm friends. When the separation
was announced il the New York papers
neither Mr.. or Mrs. Ward would deny OF
confirm the report. As in their for mer
troubles, the cause for the final separation
was believed TO be Mrs Wards determine
ton TO return TO the stage. For some time
after her union with Ward the famous act
| ress apparently lost all her old inclination
for histrOnic triumphs. She lived entirely
for her husband, and was pleased with his
| success on the base ball field She
began soon, however, to talk in a vague
way of her possible return to the stage
Ward would not hear of this, and finally,
when his wife's desire for her old profession
came gradually to overbalance her 1--we for
| her husband, several st 9rmy scenes ara said
| to have taken place. At last the shortstop
laid down the ultimatun, aud he announced
1t in public that Mrs. Ward must choose be
tween himself and the stage. Either she
must abandon all idea of acting or she must
abandon him.
| In an open letter Mrs Ward said on Fri
day: at is true that Mr.. Ward and l are
living apart. 1t Is true that I am going
back to the stage; but that our separation
| Is caused by my uncomfortable desire to re-
| turn to the stage is absolutely false. | do
love my art, but / love my husband more,
and the stage has never in the pastor at the
present moment, possessed for me charms
as attractive as those OF a happy home.
go back to the stage because am separated
| from my husband. | am not separated
from my husband because l want to go
back to the stage; there is a vast difference
between the two. l have never broken
promise made to my husband; have never
done anything as a wife that an honest
| woman would disclaim."
Mrs. Wards friends are more specific
| than she is in referring to the true cause for
her action in parting from her husband.
| They say she lett him because of his cruel
treatment To prove this they cite num-
Der Of occurrences that, they say, can be
proved by outside parties. Among other
| things, they say that Ward was not as kind
aud attentive as Mrs. Ward had right to
expect.
! When the famous base ball player and
the actress were married in the fall of 1857
the whole country was interested in the
wedding. A more romantic wooing had
never been written, and both the groom and
the bride held high places in the hearts of
| the American public.
Mrs. Wards appearance at the Lyceum
for year and a half brought her into
prominence. Her interest in base ball
attracted a great deal of attention. She
| rarely missed a match, and her figure
was as familiar to the habtues of the
| polo grounds as that of tha players them
| selves. Ward was opposed from the very
| first to the return of his wife to the stage
| Mrs. Ward rarely saw her old friends, the
| newspaper people, except when she met
them casually at the polo grounds or on
Broadway Once when a dramatic critic
for one of the papers asked her whether
she never sighed for her old love, she
promptly replied:
mo. The stage seems TO have lost all at
traction for me. L think of it sometimes,
but never with any longing to return to it,"
| Gradually, however, her sentiments
seemed to undergo a change. Her admira-
ton for her husband was apparently as
| great as ever, but the stage was beginning
to assert a strong attraction again, and one
| day she appeared in an interview with the
remark that she frequently thought of the
old stage life, and often longed to return
| to it.
The new phase of the case, in which it is
stated that the stage is not the real cause
Of the separation, is causing greater talk
still. Ward seems to be broke up on ac-
count of the affair.
OF the two people, the base ball player is
undoubtedly undergoing the greatest suf-
fering over the separation. His distress
has been SO apparent that his friends,
1 though they didn't know the cause of it, be-
came convinced that he had received some
| great blow. His cheeks were sunken and
hollow, and his actions were entirely with
| out their usual briskness Thursday he did
not show up at all in the early part of the
game that the Brooklyn Brotherhood club
| played with the Crescents in New York.
After the second inning he appeared on the
| field and took his accustomed place at short.
But his fielding was not brilliant. and from
| all appearances it was evident that his play
| ing was severe task to himself.