Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-29
MORE TANGLES.
Complication in Mrs. Clcmence Cowlcs
Dodg e. Morse Case.

New York, April 28.-A much inter-
rupted matrimonial voyage has been
that of Clemence COwles, as she was
known when maiden, but who has
since been Mrs. Charles S. Dodge AMI
Mrs Charles w. Morse, her husband in
the latter case being we'll known in
business circles as the head of the ice
trust.
Instead of getting back on a smooth
sea, Tuesday, as she hoped to do, she
is put in the position of being able to
call neither man her husband. Her
choice now would be Morse, but legally
she cannot claim him, because Judge
Davis. in the supreme court. Tuesday
refused to annul the annulment of her
most recent marriage.
Mrs. Clcmence Cowles Dodge Morse
is now in Paris, whence Morse has just
returned. and where it is not admitted
he visited the woman, who has been
strenuously seeking to regain Lis name.
Dodge is down in Texas, which he per-
sistently refuses to leave, and may be
unable to do so even if he wanted to,
because reports from the various places
that he visits speak of him as living so
rapid life that he is likely to die.
1t Is quite certain that Mr.. and Mrs.
Dodge Morse have been living together
in Paris and are confidently awaiting
the outcome of the legal complications
in this city. that Mr.. Morse is anxious
to rchabil'tate Mrs. Dodge Morse as his
wife and that the only obstacle has
been the peculiar legal proceedings that
have envcloped the case.
a person connected with the case
from the outset. when asked as to the
effect of Judge Davis decision, said:
AS soon as Mr.. Morse was advised
that the Dodge decree of divorce had
been improperly secured, he promptly
applied to have it reinstated. as was his
duty to his wife and to the court. That
application was granted after the TAX
ing of testimony. although Mrs. Dodge
Morse was not then in the country, and
the court granting the order knew she
had not been personally served with
papers.
THE vacating Of the judgment which
annulIed the marriage between Mr.. and
Mrs. Morse was then regarded only as
a matter of form. and is still so regard
ed. 1t is so manifestly in the interest
of Mrs. Dodge-Mo that this shall be
regarded as a foregone conclusion. 1t
Is merely n question of the time needed
to communicate with her. Mrs. Dodge
Morse will now eb invited to give her
formal consent to vaCate the Judgment
and thus remove the last obstacle in
the way of a formal reinstatement of
their relations"
Mrs. Dodge Morse got her absolute
divorce from Dodge in the supreme
court here in 1898. On June IS, -901 she
married Morse. I'm the Fifth avenue
Presbyterian church, the bride being
given away by Mayor Robert Van
Wyck Some two years later Dodge sue
Ceeded in having the decree which Mrs.
Dodge Morse obtained against him va
while married to Morse, again became
the wife of Dodge. Mrs. Dodge Morse
then obtained judgment annulling her
marriage to Morse on the ground that
she, though innocent of the wrong, was
still the wife of Dodge.
Subsequently letters purporting to
have been written by Dodge retaining
Mortimer A. Kruger as his counsel to
represent him at the trial of his wife's
suit were said to have been discovered.
A suit was then brought to have the
decree annulling Mrs. Dodge-M orse's
divorce from Dodge vacated. A ref
cree decided that Dodge had retained
counsel and Justice Traux reinstated
the divorce.