The Anaconda standard., 1899-07-30
SEARCHED LONG FOR HUSBAND
New Jersey Woman Hunts Fifteen Years
for Her Spouse.

After searching fifteen years for her
husband, who deserted her two months
after leading her to the altar, Mrs.
Patrick j. Prial found him a few days
ago living a hermits life in a hut on
the outskirts of Newark, N. J. Her
search. which she pursued diligently,
covered the entire United States, pic
lures, circulars and letters of descrip-
ton of the missing man having been
sent to the police authorities all over
the country.
No trace of him was ever found. He
disappeared completely, and by mis-
friends was soon forgotten as one dead.
His wife. however, clung to the be-
lief that he was alive, and it remained
for her to do what the police had failed
to do-finally locate the man who had
married and deserted her.
There was no happy reconciliation
when the long-lost husband was found.
In all these years Mrs. Prial, urged by
the belief that her husband was alive,
pursued her search solely to establish
his existence and divorce him.
She secured the decree on the ground
of desertion.
Sixteen years ago Patrick j. Prial
was a talented artist Young, hand
some, with engaging manners and
fluent tongue, he soon won the affec-
tion of a young and pretty girl en-
ployed in William Dungee'S photo
graph studio in New York Flattered
by his attentions, the young woman
accepted an offer of marriage, and on
| March 3, 1888, Prial made her his wife.
The ceremony was performed by Rev.
| DIR. ]. M. Worrall, pastor of the
Thirteenth Street Presbyterian church.
| A fat was furnished and the happy
| couple settled down to happy welded
| life. Nearly two months passed. Then
| Prial became taciturn and morose and
was absent frequently.
Finally his actions began to alarm
| the young wife. He refused to answer
| questions and answered strangely. One
night in May Mrs. Prial found him
| strolling along Fifth avenue with an
| other woman. AS they approached
| she noticed the woman put her hand
| on Prial's shoulder and on the third
| finger gittered her own ring.
| Mrs. Prial awaited her husbands s
home coming for an explanation, but
| he did not return. For year he was
| gone when he was arrested by Judge
| Roger Pryor of the court of common
pleas for non-support. He was COM
mitted to prison. but released a few
days later after paying the amount
Another warrant was issued shortly
| afterward on the same charge, but
Prial had disappeared.
Every effort was made to find h m,
without avail. The matter was placed
in the hands of the police both in New
York and in the other large cities. For
while the search was actively pushed,
but nothing could be learned as to his
whereabouts. Finally, after years of
search. in which his wife took an act
i've part, the police concluded he was
dead Mrs. Prial refused to accept this
belief and came to the conclusion that
her husband was somewhere in the
neighborhood of New York city.
Among the lawyers retained in the
case was former Judge John l.. Johnson
of Newark. For a long time he kept
watching for a man answering the de-
scription given him of Prial. The vigil
was in vain until one day the name of
Prial flashed upon him and this name
had figured in the famous divorce case
of Murray VS.. Murray, which caused a
sensation in the fashionable Orange in
1891.
Mr.. johnson remembered that an
artist named Prial was one of several
correspondents. and that the decree
had been granted on testimony damag-
ing to Prial. He began the search anew
and learned that for the last fifteen
years Prial had been living the life of
a recluse in the Orange mountains,
near South Orange.
The matter was intrusted to Con-
stable Louis H. Smith, who found that