The San Francisco call., 1904-12-14
LONG DISTANCE
DIVORCE SUIT
Husband Is in Panama and
Wife in Australia While
Their Attorneys Try Case
DISPOSITIONS ARE READ
Doctor and Chorus Girl Do
Not Tell the Same Story.
Troubles of a Contractor

A seafaring medico on board g.
steamer at Panama, and a chorus girl
helping to amuse the public in Aus
tralia are the widely separated par
ties to q divorce suit, the trial of
which was begun yesterday before
Judge Kerrigan. Their absence may
detract from visual interest in the
case, but their lawyers are affording
ample entertainment for the ear in
the way of spicy dispositions.
The plaintiff is DR.. w. 3. Estes, q
ship physician who formerly practiced
medicine and dentistry in this city.
His wife was Myrtle Scott, who trod
the boards at Fischers and went with
the Kolb-Dill troupe to the antipodes.
He charged her with cruelty. She
entered denials, set up a recrfminatory
defense, and filed a cross-complaint
accusing him of mistreatment Her
cross complaint was withdrawn by
Attorney Martin Stevens at the open
ing of the trial yesterday, but he will
fight the case to the end.
Attorney Roy Hudson read Estes
deposition in which the allegations of
his complaint were elaborated into de-
tails. They were married November
l, 1902. Some months afterward they
III
and lived together for brief periods.
In October, 1903, when she was living
at the Winchester, she telephoned him
en- invitation to accompany her on a
yachting trip. The yacht was to leave
early in the morning. Shortly after
that midnight she summoned two men,
had him bound and handcuffed and
taken in an ambulance to Mrs. Atkin-
sons sanitartum on Suffer street.
There he was placed behind bars. The
night following she had him removed,
as a dangerous case, to the California
Hospital, where he was soon given his
liberty. He says she took this method
of blocking the divorce case which he
had filed. On another occasion she
locked him in room at Keswick, in
Shasta County, because, he says, he
would not give her a patent medicine
which he had compounded.
INJURED HIS PRACTICE.
He declared that she spent the
whole of her time in his office and
injured his practice by making derog-
atory remarks about him to his pa
tients. He charged her with wrong
fully accusing him of immortality and
said that she would visit the officers
of the battleship New York, dine with
them and accept presents from them.
OF three men paying her attentions he
said one was a naval officer. one a
newspaper man, and the third a hard
ware dealer. He denied her specific
charges of cruelty and said he did not
live with her after the divorce suit
was filed.
Estes mother, Mrs. Rebecca Estes,
disclosed the fact that he is in Pan
anna and, under cross examination, a
letter from her to him was read advis-
ing him to stay away and get a
H;unroA
F. c.. Hawes, night clerk at the
Winchester, testified as to the circum-
stances of Estes being handcuffed and
removed in an ambulance.
Attorney Stevens began the reading
of the wife's deposition and may con-
clude it to-day. She says that Estes
had the morphine habit and was under
the influence of the drug when she had
him sent to the sanitarium for his own
good. She was afraid he would take
an overdose. She told of an incident in
his office regarding q woman named
Mrs. Tighe, with whom the doctor was
said to be very friendly. There was a
scene and Mrs. Tighe is reported to
have said: 'I have a good notion to
smash your face into jelly; you are
only a low chorus girl" Estes was
abusive, she said, and once threatened
to cut her throat. After he began his
suit he would visit her rooms, take her
! to dinners and the theater and try to
| induce her to withdraw her defense.
He is said to have dragged her by the
arm to his attorney to- get her to sign
papers for dismissal of her opposition,
but she declined to sign. Mrs. Estes
denies the accusations regarding the
naval officers and others and she gives
many interesting details Of her excit-
ing encounters with her husband.
T'EIIyV CIrEI TOCIvTTUD
Louis N. Vazina and his wife Lau-
rita decided yesterday to go to court
! for relief. His complaint for divorce
charging cruelty, was filed first by