The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-04
LuDIcRoUs CAUSES OF DIVORCE.
Judges Have to listen to Strange
Pleas OF Marital Abuse.

Judges Have to listen to Strange
Pleas Of Marital Abuse.
Suppose your husband compelled
you to milk COW, and the COW impo-
litely kicked you, would you thereup-
on sue for divorce?
Or, If your life partner didn't kiss
would such negligence, to your mind,
he sufficient cause for separation?
On the other hand, If you happened
accidentally, to plant your cold feet
In the middle of your husbands back
while he was wooing slumber after a
hard days work, and he promptly
kicked you out of bed, should you re-
gard that as cruelty necessitating an
appeal to the courts?
Such are some of the novel reasons
given recently by women in seeking
the severance of their marriage ties.
But they are not alone. Men, 1t APP
pears, are equally irritable regarding
such matters.
petittoning clergyman asserts
that his wife continually made faces
| at him while he was in the pulpit,
therefore he did not want to live with
her any more. A dentist doesn't like
his wife's habit of pulling his hair.
| Another thinks the thirty-one high
balls that tickled the palate of her
spouse in one night were too much of
good thing"--and so the roll of
marital discomfort goes.
Making the assertion that she had
been kicked out of the matrimonial
estate by COW, Mrs. Callie l.. Hunt,
! of Des MOines, Iowa, asked the court
to legalize the cows act and free her
from Frank L. Hunt.
Other than being marked Exhibit
A." the COW does not figure in the
case. It is acknowledged by both
sides that the COW has no personal
animosity toward Mrs. Hunt, and kick
ed only when, one morning, she OBJ
jected to having her nominations dis
| turbed by the milkmaid.
Mrs. Hunt asserted that her hus-
band was cruel in compelling her to
milk the COW. Nevertheless, she did
so in meek and contrite spirit, until
the COW kicked her out OF the stall.
Then she left home. Decision in the
case now rests with the Judge.
The unkissed wife, who SO bitterly
objects to remaining in the same class
with young Gladstone Dowie, is Mrs.
Violette LANCE, of Chicago Hank to
the dread tale she unfOldS:
"On the very day after our mar
riage Alfred passed me in the hall and
didn't kiss me. said it was a nice
evening, and waited for him to kiss
me, but he didn't" This sad state of
affairs and the unappreciativeness of
the husband finally landed the couple
IN the divorce court
Testimony that her cold feet had
been too largely responsible in arous-
ing outbursts of anger and cruelty
on the part of her husband did not de-
ter Mrs. Josephine Russell of Chicago,
who is said to be wealthy in her own
right, from prosecuting divorce pro-
ceedings against Michael Russell.
With considerable warmth, Mrs.
Russell defended the temperature of
her pedal extremities. They were
made cold, she gravely swore, by
walking on chilly floor. Just be-
cause I went to bed one night with
cold feet" she repeated, Michael
struck me-"
did he strike you on any other &C.
casion?" inquired the court.
Yes, he did," replied Mrs. Russell,
with vehemence.
Gold feet again." inquired the
judge.
The Woman Won.
Gold feet" laconically responded
the witness. Mrs. Russell, however,
recited other instances of cruel treat
ment on the part of her husband, and
in the end secured her decree.
AS peculiar, perhaps, was the plea
of the Rev. James E. Hafner, of An
derson. Ind. who asserated that his
wife Inundated him professionally.
On some occasions, he stated, she
would sit in church while he was
preaching and make faces at him,
thus disturbing him greatly while he
was trying to lead sinners from the
paths of destruction.
But his was not all. According to
his complaint, she marked his Bible
after he had selected passages to read
in connection with his sermon, or to
be quoted in its delivery, and he had
thus been greatly confused and often
put to disadvantage.
1t was at Reading, Pa, that an al
legged hair pulling trotted out a family
skeleton. DR.. Joseph j. Johnson, a
dentist, applied for divorce from EN-
ma r. johnson, and the sequel to an
Asbury Park, N. j., romance was re-
vealed.
There, within the sound of the
bounding pillows, the young dentist
met and won the lady, a supposed
wealthy widow, some years his SEN
ior." They were married in July, 1901.
According to the husbands testi-
mony, their married life was not as
happy as it should hive been. Still,
he does not know why his wife should
have inflicted various indignities upon
him, as he charges she did; why she
she should have pulled his hair in Wig
orous fashion, endangering his life
and almost driving him mad with con-
slant threats"
1t was Judge McEwen, of the Chi
cago bench. who decided that thirty
one highballs enjoyed at one sitting
by wife entitled Phillip Henri, Jr.,
to legal separation.
Mr.. Henri and other witnesses testi-
fled that when the thirty-first ami
versary of Mrs. Henrls birth arrived,
the event was honOred by a reception
at the Henri home. During the festiv-
tiles, it was asserted, Mrs. Henri de-
clared that she would drink thirty
one highballs--One for each year of
her life.
The result was, it was stated. that
she had to be assisted" to bed, and
later her husband began divorce pro-
ceedings
This revelation. perhaps, is Offset by
the declaration OF Mrs. Henry Mack
ey, of Buffalo. who, in her suit for d.
vorce. testified that her husband had
enjoyed 1903 "jags'' in eight years.