Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-16
NAUGHTY PARNELL.
His COhabitatiOn With His
Friends Wife.
The Famous O'Shea Divorce Suit
On Trial.
Sensational Evidence Submitted by
the Plaintiff.
The Defendants Allow the Case to Go
by Default and Parnell Must
Pay the Costs.
Associated Press Dispatches.

Associated Press Dispatches.
LONDON, Nov. 15.-The trial of the
O'Shea divorce case was opened before a
special jury this morning. Parnell, the
correspondent, was not represented by
counsel. O'Shea was the only prominent
figure present.
Coward briefly opened the case for the
petitioner. He said, as he understood
the case, the respondent denied that she
committed adultery, as did also the CO.
respondent. The respondent further
alleged that the petitioner connived at
her adultery and wilfully separated him
self from her.
Lockwood, counsel for Mrs. O'Shea,
stated that he did not intend to cross
examine any of the witnesses in behalf
of Mrs. O'Shea, nor take any part in the
proceedings.
Clarke, of the counsel for Captain
O'Sha, said Lockwood's announcement
seriously altered the position. now that
neither Parnell nor Mrs, O'Shea would
take part in the case. 1t was
therefore undefended. That con-
tinuous acts of adultery had
been committed by the respondent and
correspondent, would be placed beyond
doubt. A witness would prove that
while the respondent was visiting In
Bedford square she was visited by Par
nell, who went under the name of
Smith. At another house he visited her
as Stewart. On one occasion he had
escaped by the balcony to avoid O'Ihea.
The respondent and Parnell were actu-
ally together at Eastbourne and Brock
ley. Parnell could not face the evil
dence. He allowed judgment to go by
default, because he dared not GO into
the witness box. He did not wonder at
ParnelPs refusal to answer the charges
of faithlessness and falsehood, and be-
trayal of the friendship of a man who
trusted him. O'Shea stood for parlia-
ment in 1880. He was then introduced
to Parnell, who dined with him and
Mrs. O,Shea, Mrs. Steele being one of
the party. Nothing excited O'Shea's
tied the respondent. His annoyance
over Parnell's approaches to his wife led
O'Shea to send challenge. Mrs. Steele
saw Parnell, who assured her that there
was no ground for jealous suspicious.
= The petition for divorce, he said. was
filed in December last. Parnell then
put in simple denial. Mrs. O'Shea
made a denial, and counter charges
against her husband, alleging that he
had committed adultery with a number
of persons, including her own sister,
Mrs. Steele. She also charged him with
cruelty and having cOnnived at her adul-
terry for series of years. Her plea al
most amounted to a confession of adul-
terry. The husband would be able abso-
lutely to disprove everything possible
suggested against him. He could show
that the charge of connivance was
groundless; that when O'Shea first
heard of the intimacy, he challenged
Parnell to duel, which was averted
through Mrs. Steele. Afterwards the al
fectionate relations between O'Shea and
his wife were continued. Parnell was
again invited to Ethan in 1882. After
Parnell was released from Kilmain-
ham Jail he renewed his visits to
Eltham he almost habitually slept
there. Parnell used to drive from
parliamentsto Ethan and Mrs. O'Shea
would go down stairs to meet him.
O'Shea wrote his wife, demonstrating
against the visits. Furious scenes oc-
Cured between them. On one occasion
he found portmanteau belonging to
Parnell at his house; he carried it off,
throwing it out of the railroad station.
Continuing his speech, Sir Edward
Clarke described all the places and the
different hours where Parnell and Mrs.
OShea had met, and the various stories
about them. He said O'Shea wrote his
wife concerning these stories, and re-
ceived specific denial. For nineteen
weeks, in 1886, they occupied house
together in st. Johns road, Eastbourne.
Later they occupied another house in
Eastbourne. This occurred before No
vember, 1886, after the respondents
promise to her husband that a new
course would be adopted. Later a gen.
tleman, calling himself Fox, went to the
office of house agent and engaged a
house on Trevillon street, Brockley. He
afterwards changed his name to Pres
ton. This man was Parnell. Mrs.
OShea frequently called herself the sis
ter of the occupant. The next house
was taken by Mrs. O'shea in Regents
park, she giving as references Mr.. Pres
ton, of Brockley and Mr.. Parnell, '.two
gentlemen in one," said Sir Edward.
These facts proved that the pair con-
cealed their intimacy to the last, and
cleared O'Shea of the charge of conniv-
ance. Respondent and Parnell used this
house together from 1857 until 1889.
All this, said Sir Edwin, would be
proved in the evidence, and would
liberate Captain O'Shea from marriage
that he now looked upon as shameless
bondage.
Captain O'Shea was then called to the
stand. His testimony was corroborative
in detail of the points touched upon by
Sir Edward Clarke in his opening adj
dress. He said, among other things,
that while he was candidate for Gal
way, he heard statements about Parnell
and Mrs. O'Shea. He demonstrated
with his wife, but she said her acquaint-
ance with Parnell was for political pur-
poses. She told him she knew Parnell
had been secretly married. When para
graphs appeared in the papers about
Parnell's visits to Ethan, O'Shea wrote
to his wife expressing annoyance at the
circumstance. There was talk about
taking criminal proceedings against the
newspapers, but, as it was Thought it
would only make the scandal worse, the
idea was abandoned Alterward he saw
g paragraph to the effect that