The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-24

NEW YORK, July 23.-"This case is
| unique in two respects. First. that
there have been gotten together, by
chance, in the world-wise city of New
York, twelve men apparently as inno-
cent and as credulous as the men who
composed the jury, and, second, that
| the plaintiff, with a story so improba-
| BILE, SO inconsistent and so unconvinc-
ing, with the affirmative evidence
against her contention so overwhelm-
ing in its character, could have sue
| ceeded by her attractive personality and
| rare dramatic ability in inducing any
twelve men to render a verdict that
she had ever been married to the de-
PENDANT.
1.-THE story of a common-law mar
| rlage at Fort Lee, N. j., the ceremonial
marriage before a bogus justice of the
| peace in summer house in the rear
of saloon, without a witness, and
the marriage certificate then received,
but subsequently lost, and to the ex-
istence of which no other person testi-
fed, might well form an appropriate
plot for comic opera. 1t has no
place in the realm of reality"
With these words, perhaps the most
remarkable ever issued by judge on
the bench, Supreme Court Justice
y
the verdict of jury that Carlotta
Keyes Hermann had ever been mar
| ried to George Hermann.
Plot for Comic Opera
Incidentally he struck the keynote of
the entire tangled and complicated af-
fair when he alluded to it as the plot
for a comic opera. George Hermann,
the defendant, who has half million
dollar interest in the lumber business
built up by his father, has had three
wives in eight years, and only last
February entered upon his last matri-
monial contract, the young woman in
| this case being Florence Crosby who
won fame through her appearance in
stage entanglements of New York and
| through much and varied litigation
Carlotta Keyes, a young woman from
Yonkers, has figured largely in the af-
fairs of Mr.. Hermann since the day
when he first met her in 1898, and on
whose account his first wife, Lima
Krueder Hermann, procured a divorce
from him in March, 1901. He separat-
1902, and thereafter she sued him twice
for legal separation and the estab-
lishment of their marriage.
The first trial resulted in disagree
| ment. The second, which was con-
cluded last May, established the mar
| r1age of Miss KeYeS to Hermann and
| left Mr.. Hermann under the cloud of
having committed bigamy in marrying
Florence Crosby. 1t also left Mrs.
Florence Crosby Hermann in an I'M
comfortable frame of mind and her
dramatic act in fainting in the court
room in Brooklyn when the verdict
was rendered led to the revelation of
the fact, concealed until that time, that
she was the wife of Mr.. Hermann.
Appeal Taken
An appeal was taken from, the YER
dict of the jury, however, and Justice
Smith yesterday concluded the 1itiga-
,, ton by deciding the case himself The
erect of his decision is not to grant q
new trial, but to end absolutely the
litigation in favor of Mr. Hermann,
with the right in the plaintiff only to
appeal.
According to Justice Smith, Carlotta
keyes Hermann won her case before
Brooklyn jury solely by reason of her
personal attractiveness and without
anything of merit in her case In this
incident Justice Smith finds occasion
to question the possibility of expecting
exact justice where the plaintiff is a
beautiful woman and the Jury twelve
credulous and innocent men, Justice
Smith said:
THE result Of the trial of this case
strik1ngly illustrates the wisdom of the
recent legislative regulation of non
ceremonial marriages in the state of
New York, and also the futility of ex-
pectlng verdict in matrimonial ac-
lions against a woman where the ele-
ment of sympathy is involved, no mat
ter what the merits n the