The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-25


The trial of a very peculiar divorce
suit. the testimony In which promise to
be of an extraordinary character, was be-
gun this morning before Vice Chancel-
lor Pitney. 1t was tina of William p.
Smith of No. 100 Grant avenue, a de-
signer of wall paper, against his wife,
Minnie, to whom he was married by the
Rev. Cornelius Brett. D. D., of Bergen
Reformed Church. in November, 1884.
There are two children Of the marriage,
Minnie and Theodore Wandell Smith.
Mr.. Smiths wife is a daughter of Theo-
dore Wandell. a detective in the Equit-
able Life Insurance Building, New York
City, and a queer fact in connection with
Mr.. WandelI is that his wife is suing him
for divorce because of his desertion, and
his son-in-law is suing his daughter for
a similar reason, desertion, and both
mother and son-in-law assert that Theo-
dore Wandell took his daughter from her
husband, and that they are now
living i'm the same house in
Rutherford, N. j.. The s~on-in-law
even goes further and accuses his
father-in-law of alternating his wife's af-
fections.
This morning at the trial all the parties
were in court. Wandell sat beside his
daughter and her LADY. frsen'." Mr..
Smith sat with Miss Title Knobloch, a
former servant. in the rear seats, and a
nice little duel between the women took
place, the weapons being scornful glances.
The complaining husband was examin-
ed by his counsel, Mr.. Robert Carey,
with whom was Mr.. W.. H. Speer. He
told a curious story;Athat his father-in-
law, Wandell, deserted his wife when
his daughter, Minnie, now c-omplainant's
wife, was only two years old. Minnie
grew up and married Mr.. Smith, and
one day met her father in the Equitable
Building. She introduced him to her hus-
band. Wandell called at the Smiths
quently came to board at the same house.
Mr.. Carey was extracting answers from
the husband as to the relationship OF
the father and daughter when Lawyer
Lawrence, for Mrs. Smith n her IA
Their, objected to it as irrelevant. The
Vice Chancellor couldn't see the rele-
vancy of the testimony, but Mr.. Carey
said
Il want to show you, sir, the growing
relationship between father and daughter,
relationship the most extraordinary and
peculiar l have ever heard of. We will
show that this relationship was the
cause of the desertion." The questions
were permitted.
Mr.. Smith, continuing. said that dur
ing the summer of 1898 his wife went to
Greenwood Lake to stay, and her father
paid for her board up there and went tc
stay there frequently. He, Mr.. Smith,
stayed in Jersey City, working at his pro-
fession. During that year Mrs. Smith
said it was no use keeping house any
longer, and went away with her father,
who stored the furniture. She and her
father lived at a boarding house in TWEEN
ty-second street, New York. and once he,
Smith, called to see his wife, but he was
not invited in the house. About this
time, he said, he received letters from
his wife about the children. These epis-
ties were addressed Dear. Willie"; then
the Dear was cut off. Before the
father, Wandell, came into the household
the letters were addressed Darling hus-
band and other endearing terms. Mr..
Smith also complained that his wife
wouldn't go out with him after her father
came to live in the house. They, Wan
dell and Mrs. Smith. had their meals
together and she spent a great deal of
time in her fathers room.
An adjournment was taken at this
point.