, 1898-07-06
F0URHUNDREDL0 LOST A MOTHERS STORY
MRS. SCHAFFER PRESENTS HER
SIDE OF THE CASE TO
A REPORTER.
Says That Joel J.. Hurt, Her Former
Husband, Was Cruel, and Only
Wants the Custody Of Their
Daughters Because Their Mother
Shows an Affection for Them.

Joel J. Hurt, millionaire cattleman of
the northwest, accuses the wife who
has borne him six children of the I'M
condonable offense against her mar
aminer. He declares, consequently.
that she is not a fit guardian for their
daughters.
DO l look like a woman" said the
mother, now Mrs. Schaffer, yesterday,
tell me, do l look like a woman who
would live for twenty-one years a
faithful wife, only to become, after all
these years, the kind of creature he
says I ann"
Mrs. Schaffer told her story yester-
day, sitting in the cool parlor of the
Chabot home in Oakland, where she
and her children are staying pending
the laws decision as t which, mother
or father, shall have possession Of the
three little girls. She spoke with the
simplicity Of ar unsophisticated ma
ture. At times she wept for a moment
or stopped talking till she could regain
her composure. She has no pose. Her
big eyes and her tiny figure and her
distress like that of a timid animal
which has tried flight and then fight in
vain, and now covers at bay.
II can't give up the children" she
.ntI Inr arI hnr
small, hard, thin hands. HE has three
boys. He has no right to the girls, and
he shall not have them. He don't care
for them. He always walked owe them
as if they were so many kittens lying
in his path. He never kissed them
goodbye when he left home; ne eve
brought them a toy; he ever noticed
them unless strangers were there and
he wanted to pretend an affection the
children knew he didn't feel. He only
wants them because l want them. He
always hated everything l cared for.
He'd wiring the neck of a chicken If I
made a pet of it or kill a dog l liked.
%, he's so cruel! You can't imagine.
You'd believe it if you heard him say
I wish | could live for a hundred years
and have people to torment all the
years | lived
Il was like other women I didn't
want folks to know. But the girls who
life mine was. But l stood it all-for
the children. I'd have killed him or
myself long ago If it hadn't been for
them.
That boy MILAN that he killed.
call him a boy because he was just like
Fred. my eldest son, to me. He was
only a few years older han Fred. Hurt
killed him not because l had been un-
true to him, but because MILAN knew
Of an intrigue with my own servant.
He's a great, cruel, passionate bully!
And a coward, o K. He admitted to the
Judge in Cheyenne that he was afraid
Of me, and he weighs nearly 200
pounds. I'm not afraid of him,
though. l can handle a revolver as we'll
as he can.
"One thing Hurt bases his hope OF
getting the children on Is what he says
about Mr.. Schaffer. He says he has
been a convict. That's true; but it isn't
true unless you know the rest Of it.
Long before l knew Schaffer, he bought
some sheep that had been stolen. He
didn't know they'd been stolen. They
were offered to him openly. But he
was arrested and went to prison. When
the governor that belonged to the ring
went out of office the new governor
pardoned Schaffer. and Hurts name
was signed to an application for Schaf-
fer's pardon"