The San Francisco call., 1896-07-03
ALMA JOSSLYN
AS HIS WIFE,
DR.. Marten Will Appeal to
the Board of Health
for Help.
LOVE LETTERS SHOWN.
The Doctor Says the Girl Was
Intimidated Into Repudiat.
ing Him.
LOGAN CALLS MARTEN CRAZY.
Miss Josslyn Still Confined and Ex.
cluded Particularly From
Reporters.
LOGAN CALLS MARTEN CRAZY.

The JossIyn- Marten case has taken q
new turn. In life or song or story, ''the
course of true love never did run
smoothly"
Where yesterday threats to kill were
uppermost to-day real tears and sighs re-
place them.
When the alarm bell of his Office door
sounded yesterday afternoon a German
physician. his hair newly combed back
from his forehead, appeared suddenly
through side door. He was DR.. Arthur
Marten, who is out on bail on charge of
threatening to kill Alma Josslyn, the deli
cate young woman be has lived with three
years and who has borne him two babies.
Whoever has seen Sol Smith Russell in
"The Poor Relation" and the ''shabby gen.
teel, F" will see picture OF the DR.. Marten
of to-day. But it was not always so with
the doctor. A few years ago he wore dia-
monds almost as large as a thumb nail,
even to the extent of having one in his
collar button. When arrested last Wednes-
day afternoon he had 80 cents in his pos
session.
When the caller from THE CALL intro
duced himself the doctors eyes at once
filled with tears, and the first thing he said
was:
"0h, my heart is brokenl 1 am a
ruined mani God help the mother of my
two bsbesr'
Then the physician impuls1vely pulled
himself together, and in a few moments
was calm. The scene and the action were
dramatic, but he did not seem to have
purposely made them so. His emotion was
genuine or be is subtler actor than Sol
Smith Russell ever was.
The new turn the case has taken
is this: DR.. Marten declared his iuten-
ton of taking the case of Miss .Josslvn
Immediately before the Board of Health.
He claims that the young woman was not
completely treated il her recent confne-
ment, that she is suffering from puerpal
mania, and is being imposed upon and in
timidated by his enemies and hers, for its
effect on the suit now pending of Miss
Josslyn against George Staacke for $50, 900
damages for seduction.
In order to expose his affection for Miss
Josslyn, and her love for him, the doctor
showed several letters she had recently
written him, and several be had written
her, which he had taken from the pillow
of her couch the last time he visited her
at 1922 Mission street. These letters
breathed love in every paragraph. They
were not model letters, according to liter
ary rules, but the expression was there,
and plenty of it, and 'slove understands"
The pet names that each applies to the
other in the letters is "Pummie." This the
doctor cOnfidingly explained is on abbre-
Walton OF that yellow, solid and succulent
vegetable, the pumpkin. 1t means, Anna
you are my pumpkin and 1 am yours"
Don Juan might have envied the fervor OF
these epistles.
DR.. Marten, in telling his story. said:
''The last letter received from Alma was
dated June 2l. AS you see it is replete
with affection, though my soul detects
change in its tone which you cannot see
1t speaks about putting the babes in an
orphan asylum as though | knew all about
1T, but L have never mentioned orphan
asylum to her on any of my visits. l love
those children and her. She bore them
for me. | will defend and protect them
all with the last drop of my blood" and
saying this the doctor significantly tapped
his wrist.
al have learned" he continued. "that
soon after my wife"
DR.. Marten evidently did not mean to
use the word wife. He recovered himself
quickly and resumed
II found out that not long after Alma
went to the house OF Mrs. Small, at 1922
Mission street, a woman took board and
lodging there. She was a sort of Spiritual
ist. Pummie mentions her in one of her
letters to me. These letters came by
messenger boy, or by DIR. Loran, who at
tended her confinement for me. Now.
this woman boarder has, taking advantage
of Pummie's weak physical and nervous
condition, intimidated her and turned her
against me. do not know who sent this
woman there. The result is that have
not been able to see her for two weeks
and she has brought a suit against me in
another womans name for threatening to
kin her. Why l would kill myself before
| would harm hair of her head Wby,
during the years that we have lived
together we have not had even q cross
look.
81 took her up and befriended her when
others had cast her out. Later, we became
more intimate. Ny time and most of my
money has since gone to the defense of
her honor, and l am in that fight to stay.
If at this time l should say l am her hus-
band, it might be legal error in consid-