The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-24
| WOMAN'S BEAUTY
| HYPNOT|zFS JURY
Judge Is Disguised at CreduIi.
ty of Jurors and Sets
Aside Their Verdict

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-
/ bic, 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
riage at Fort Lee, N. j., the ceremonial
marriage before a bogus justice of the
| peace in summer house in the rear
| of saloon, without 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 a 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
Smith, in Brooklyn, yesterday set aside
the verdict of a 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 comic opera. George Hermann,
the defendant, who has half million
| dollar interest in the lumber business
1 T. L a So L.,
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, 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-
ed from Carlotta Keyes in January,
! 1892, and thereafter she sued him twice
| for legal separation and the estab-
lishment of their marriage.
The first trial resulted in a disagree
ment. The second, which was con-
| cluded last May, established the mar
| rage 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 un-
| 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 litiga-
, ton by deciding the case himself The
| erect Of his decision is not to grant a
! 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
| str1kingly 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 &C
tlons against woman where the ele-
ment of sympathy Is involved, no mat
ter What the merits of the caseD