The San Francisco call., 1897-07-26
One of the Charges Pre-
ferred Against John
German.
inhuman Cruelty Complained
of in the Woman'S Suit
for Divorce.
Declares That Her Husband Once
Tried to Pour Burning Oil
Over Her.

SAN RAFAEL, CAL, July 25.-If all
the allegations made in the complaint
filed by Mrs. Matte German OF Mill Val
ley against her husband. John German,
yesterday, are true, it was one OF his
pleasant pastimes to pick up knives and
throw them at his wife. Mrs. German
says in her appeal for divorce that while
they were living in Mill Valley as man
and wife in February of this year German
picked up the knives lying on the dinner
table at which they were sitting and COM
menced to throw them at her face. The
human target objected to this procedure
and, so she swears, her husband assaulted
her with carvingknife and threatened
to ''carve her to pieces"
Another act of cruelty that she accuses
her husband of occurred during the month
of January, 1897, while she lay upon her
bed sick with fever. She told her husband
of the fever and he Immediately obta inc d
a bucketfuI of cold water and going to the
side of the bed, threw it over her, soaking
her garments and the bed and, as she
claims, greatly aggravating the fever.
Apparently her husband did not love
her as lie should tor she alleges that on
one occasion while they were living in
San Francisco and German was in a state
OF exhilaration incident to holiday indul-
gence he hauled the lady out of bed by
the feet and just to have a little fun and
amusement ragged her all over the room,
and as a fitting finale he seized her by the
hair and beat her head against the floor.
AT other times he made a punching bag
of her face and with his clinched fist
struck her violently.
Then again, so she asserts in her COM
pIaint, German stood before her viciously
sharpening razor and menacingly stat
ing 10 her:
''This is for you"
These things and the frequent slappings
received she believes were cruel, bur she
sets forth other acts of inhuman treat
ment that rival the thrilling accounts
found in he yellow covered literature of
the slums.
Probably German is familiar with the
story of Ali Baba and the forty thieves
told in the Arabian Nights, and desired to
test the efficacy of turning burning oil on
his wife, for Mrs. German swears that
while she was sleeping soundiv, her hus-
band came to the side of her bed and
awoke her. He was standing over her
reclining figure. holding aloft q lighted
coal-oil lamp and wildly exclaiming:
This | will pour over you"
He kept turning the lamp until tho oil
was about to be ignited by the flame. She
jun ped from her couch and ran.
She alleges that he had large mum Der
of vulgar and obscene epithets which he
applied to her. Then again he choked
her into insensibility, attempted TO kill
her with hatchet, stamped on her and
com mitted other acts that loving hus-
band should not be guilty OF. The acts
mplained of, cover a period extending
over almost their entire married life.
The marriage took place in San Fran
cisco on June Is, 1891, and they had been
welded about one year when German, she
alleges took a notion 10 kick her out of
bed. In January, 1892 he seized her by
the throat with both hands and choked
her until she fell to the floor almost life
less from strangulation.
Matters went from bad to worse, and in
the month of May the defendant was
seized with parOxysm of rage directed
against the plaintiff without any cause
whatever other than the ebullition of his
own ungovernable temper, and there
upon ne assaulted her with chair, which
he threw at her. He then took a stick
and 'horribly and numerically, as Mrs
German describes it, "beat, bruised and
wounded her." Many times he vowed he
would kill her, and so Mrs. German fled
TO the home OF her mother for protection.
There she is now.
Without the means OF paying her attor-
ney and without method of support for
herself and her boy Percival, years old,
the only issue of the unhappy marriage,
she has appealed to Superior Judge Ange-
lotti to compel German to appear before
the court on August and show cause why
he should not pay $3.50 as attorneys fee
and $75 month alimony pending the di-
vorce. In her affidavit she alleges that
Germans salary is 500 month; that he
is connected with a big grocery irm in
San Francisco and that she believes be
intends 10 dispose of his property iD Mill
Valley so that he may defeat her motion
for alimony. In order 10 prevent this she
had procured from Judge Angelotti tenn.
porary restraining order, forbidding him
to sell his properly.