The representative., 1900-12-06
MARY &. LEASE ASKS
FOR A DIVORCE
Nominal Head of the House Says He Is
Tired of Being LampOOned ON Ac-
count of a Wife Who Deserts Her
Home for the Political Field.
Especial to the Times-Herald.)

Especial to the es-Herald)
WICHITA, Kan, Nov. 27.-Mrs Mary
Ellen Lease will this week file suit in the
district court of Wichita, asking that
divorce be granted her from her hus-
band, Charles Lease. She will charge
incombatibility and failure to provide.
Mr.. Lease says he will not contest the
suit. 1t will probably be flled here to-
morrow. as the papers are now said to De
in the hands of the attorneys here.
For the last three years Mr.. and Mrs.
Lease have not lived together. During
the seven years prior to that she was in
politics and was at home little of the
time. Three years ago she wanted her
husband to go to New York and live,
but he refused and is said to have object
ed to her going She went anyway and
took her three children with her. They
are there now, but Lease has been send
ing them money to live on.
Mrs. Lease is making very little
money now out of her lectures. This
summer when Mrs. Lease changed her
politics he scored her in an interview.
He said today that he was getting tired
of being referred to as the husband of
Mrs. Lease" He said that she was 4
very bright woman, SO far as learning
went, but that she was no kind of q
wife for him. She will not ask for the
restitution of her maiden name They
have been married 27 years.
Mrs. Lease has been for many years
prior to her removal to New York a
resident of Wichita. She became inter-
ested in politics and social reform while
On a visit to Great Britain soon after
her graduation from the convent school
at Allegheny, N. Y, and from the Young
Ladies' seminary at Ceres, in the same
state. She is native of Pennsylvania
After her marriage to Mr.. Lease in 1873
and her removal to Wichita, she was
carried to the front by the political rev.
olution in Kansas. She had already be-
come proficient in the practice of law,
and at once attracted attention as a lead
er of the Populist party
She made national reputation by
her intensely bitter opposition to the
candidacy of the late John J. Ingals for
the United States senate, and later by
the campaigning she did in the South
for General Weaver, the Populist candi-
date for president. She has held a
number of Offices of trust among them
president of the board Of trustees of the
state charitable institutions.
Mrs. Lease is a most eloquent and
magnetic public speaker, and seldom
fails to win the entire sympathy of her
audiences. She has the courage of her
convictions, which often carry her to
extreme lengths against those whom her
judgment opposes. Her following would
be probably much larger than 1t is were
1t not for her radical views.
Mr.. Lease is one of the solid, substan
tial citizens of the town, and is by no
means the mere satellite of his brilliant
wife, as those who do not know him
imagine. Owing to his progressive
spouse he has often been lampooned as
an effeminate man, but he has been
broad enough to smile at these miscon-
ceptions of his character Mr.. and Mrs
Lease have been married q years and
have three children, all of whom but one
are of age.