The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-29
TALE OF AN UNHAPPY LIFE.
MIR. AND MRS. w. c. wADE's LEGAL
BATTLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN.

Spicy and SRlacious Testimony.
The Husband Charged With Being
Drunkard, n Wife Beater and IA
Thief; the wife With Worse, if 1t
BE POssibIe-The story of an I'm
happy Marriage Told in GIaring
Detail.
The homely saw, to the effect that 1t is
not good form to conduct in public. the
necessary operations looking to the cleans
ing of the family linen, received a blow
in the face, or rather a succession of
blows, in the course of a trial in the
Superior Court yesterday.
The hearing was under a writ of ha-
beas corpus, sworn out by Mrs. Pauline
Wade, against her husbands parents,
Mr.. and Mrs. r. j. Wade, for the pos
session of her children, Robert j. Wade,
Jr., and Lillian Heard Wade. The hear
ing consumed all of the day and the evil
dence gravitated between what was mere
ly spicy and salacious, and what was alb
solutey revolving. Beyond these limits
it never for a moment wandered. In the
giving of the evidence on the part of the
complainant the husband was charged
with being a drunkard, an ider, a wife
beater and thief. The witnesses for the
respondents swore that the wife INDUCED
too freely in strong drink, that she was
maliciously and constitutionally untruth-
full, and that among the marriage vows
she had consistently and repeatedly vio-
lated, and these included about all in the
service, was that one usually held up for
to their strict observance.
The scene in the court room had in 1t
the elements of pathos, the little children,
a boy of six and a little girl of four, be-
ing the objects of every spectators sym
patty. Whatever the truth of the charges
and counter charges made in the case may
be, it was evident that the children cared
for their mother, the little girl climbing
on more than one occasion into her lap
and covering the mothers face with fond
and lingering kisses The woman sobbed
and there were tears in more than one eye
to which these jewels of charity and COM
passion are but casual and infrequent Wis
itors.
The wife, the complainant in the case,
was placed on the stand at the morning
session, to testify in her own behalf. Ac-
cording to her story her married life has
been very unhappy one and there is no
reason 10 doubt that this is true.
She said that ever since her marriage to
William c. Wade her life had been rem
dered miserable by his cruelty, his un-
reasoning and unreasonable jealousy, his
proneness to drink and to become drunk,
his failure to provide her with the COM
mOnest necessaries of life and his GRIM
inal conduct. She gave illustrations of
each of these shortcomings on the part Of
her husband
The couple have moved several times and
to several different places in the state
since their marriage. The wife's story fol-
lowed their wanderings, and there was no
one of these homes they had attempted to
erect but was provided with the particu-
lar instance of cruelty and wrong. 1t APP
peared from her statement that Wade was
only passably endurable when he was So
Der and that when he was drunk which
was often, he was capable of almost any
atrocity.
on several occasions he had threatened
her life, on one occasion marking out
dead line on the floor, which she was to
cross only on pain of being stabbed to
death. On another he had come to the
home in Gainesville on a stormy night,
when outside the lurid lightning and the
fierce downpour of rain had made life
almost impossible, when exposed to the
fury of the elements, and insisted on TAX
lliE tne CnliuTen LOT q walk. lie nad dC-
companied his demand on this occasion
with wild threats of personal violence to
his wife in case she did not render prompt
and willing obedience. He had never pro-
Vided for her, she said. For much of the
time since her marriage she had been de-
pendent upon the charity of her relations,
while her husband had permitted her to
shift for herself and try to look after the
children in the best way she could
For a time Wade held a position with
a mercantile house in Atlanta, that he
had lost because of his embezzlement Of
money. She had obtained for him a po-
stion with Walter Richardson, her broth
er-in-law, at Gainesville. and there he
had persisted in his practice of abstract
ing money from his employers till. In
the first instance his family had made up
the amount of his defalcation and the
prosecution had been dropped; in the sec
ond he had not been prosecuted at all be-
cause OF her relationship to the victim.
In potn he had acknowledged himself
guilty.
Finally TIE couple separated and Wade
came to the home of his parents on Will
mington Island, while she ran a board
inc house n Atlanta. He had written
her to come 10 him and she had gone.
on his promise that he would not mis-
trea, her and would stop drinking to ex-
cess Then followed other details of the
couples unhappy life together. The be-
ginning of the present year found them
at Soultric. where Wade had obtained a
position The children remained with
their grandparents at Wilmington.
The cross examination did not serve ma
terially to weaken the compliments tes-
timony though she confessed to taking
occasionally more or less whisky. 1t APP
peared that she only INDUCED in the slim
ulant, however, when ii was prescribed
for her or she was feeling unwen.
The cross examination did serve, how
ever to bring out in greater detail the
scene that preceded the separation of the
parties. The husband had read to Mrs
Wade a letter that he claimed had come
to the postoifice addressed to her, and
had then sworn TO take the life Of various
persons, including herself. She knew moth
ing of the letter or its writer, she said
but believed that 1t had been written by
her husband, sent on to Atlanta and post
ed there, merely for the purpose Of max
ing trouble with her.
Here the witness made a damaging
statement. the force OF which, apparent
ly, she did not realize at the time. She
r,t.l 1.