The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-22
SHE Was HIS CHILD Wife.
CURIOUS STORY TOLD BY A YOUNG
GIRL IN JUDGE COFFEY'S
COURT.
LAURA MELLIN SAYS DR.. JAMES
MARRIED HER BY CONTRACT
LAST JANUARY.

1t was once more case of Decem Der and
May, if the story told yesterday by Laura
Mellin in Judge Coffey's court be true.
She was a girl of IL, winning, bright and
captivating, he was man of 70, his hair
whitening and his steps bent toward the
grave, and yet she says he married her.
No one knows that DR.. Charles A. James
was married to any one. His first wife has
been dead for many years, and when he
died ON January 81 last his brothers and
his niece believed that only themselves had
any claim upon the forty or fifty thousand
dollars which he left, and it was as much
surprise to his relatives as to his init
mate friends when the fair-haired girl
boldly announced before Judge Coffey that
she had welded the old man on January 6,
Just a few days before he died.
The story told by the girl was not very
detailed. She was questioned closely by
the lawyers who represent the relatives of
DR.. James, but Judge Coffey decided that
until the case came up regularly for trial.
The estate is now in the hands of the Pub
lie Administrator and is in process of set
Element. The child widow did not contest
any of the proceedings, nor did she object
to the petition of the Public Administrator
lOG 1StJtIS III NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. over Tile 6S-
tate. She simply came to tell her story
and to publicly proclaim her right to the
estate.
She came to this city from the East
about two years ago, she said. She was
the daughter of DR.. Mullin, an itinerant
vende of patent medicines. a Jew months
ago her parents and herself took rooms in
DR.. James house at 925 Howard street,
and soon were on the best of terms with
the proprietor. To the girl he paid marked
attention, and finally, on January last,
while the two sat alone together, he pro-
posed marriage to her, and regardless of
his age and her youth she consented. He
thereby binding themselves together for
life, and then he took the document and
locked it in his desk. She has never seen
the contract since, but she is sure it can be
found, and with that document as proof of
the verify of her claim she demands half
of her deceased husband S estate.
Her story is viewed in different ways.
Her attorney, w. III. H. Hart, is sure it is
authentic and that she will be allowed her
widows share. Not SO, however, with the
relatives and their attorneys, McHassett
and eX-J udge Hudson. Hudson says her
story is gauZy one, and he does not think
1t Will stand the test of crosS-eXamination.
He called on James few days before his
death, he said, and the girl was then intro
duced to him by the name of Miss Mellin.
Nothing the old man said at the time
could in any way be construed TO mean
that he intended to marry her. He also
says that she spoke of herself just before
the old mans death as engaged to him,
and after he died Hudson had heard that
she had expressed sorrow, because had he
lived they were to have been married. He
does not think the contract exists, and
does not believe the story told by the girl
will be established as the truth.