Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-19
BABY HEARS PARENTS
QUARREL IN COURT
Cutters of MOnrOvia Wash Domestic Linen in
Property Dispute-Females Try to
Blackmail Husband

While her mother and father sat at
the long lawyers table Of the court
room and proceeded to maligu one an
other; while the attorneys talked and
talked until their thoats were sore
and their minds were dizzy with reH-
soning, and while the Judge froWned
sternly down from the bench, little
Marion Cutter the four-year-old baby
girl of Edwin Is endall Cutter and May
Dabney Cutter of Monrovia, sat on one
of the rear benches of the court room
yesterday and swung her tiny feet dis
sonsolately against the railing.
She was such a tiny little girl, just
a bit of baby sunshine all smiles ana
happiness and with the one great de-
sire in her little heart to love and be
loved by just anyone in general, but
by her mother and father in particu-
lar, and there she sat, a ptiful droop-
ing little figure. while the cruel, hard
facts of the case between the warning
man. and wife were presented to the
court in all their bare and coarse plain
ness
Fate Bullets Child
But the baby was used to such
things. For as her mother had testi-
| fed, her father never did have any
particular love for the little one and
| because of the mothers duties her
care for the child had been for the
most part Indifferent.
So little Marion sat there, her tiny
dimpled chin resting on one chubby
hand, her little rosebud Of a mouth
| puckered i'm perplexity and big blue
| eyes gazing wonderingly at the court
and its officials while she shook her
| golden, towsled hair and thought with
all the mysterious reasoning of the
| baby mind.
Back at Monrovia, in the big coun-
| try home, it had been all sunshine for
baby. True, quarrels and quarrels had
occurred there, yet there was nothing
like this. No such glances of anger
and hate from the eyes of the wife
meeting similar ones from the hus-
band. There had been hasty words
and trouble, but the baby was at a
loss to understand what was wrong
with this sneering papa and this
| naughty mamma, and she strolled
disconsoately around to one of the
low court room windows.
No Reconciliation Likely
1t was in department nine of the SUI
perior court, one of the highest points
of the building, and the child rested
her head on her tired little arms anc
looked out in the drizzling rain anC
the damp, dismal landscape. 1t was .
|
| both father and mother in one for
from the evidence brought out it was
plain that a reconciliation could never
| take place and the baby will probably
grow up under the care of other rel
atives.
And the baby scratched the toe oi
one dainty little shoe against the
heel of the other and unused of the lit
tie fat pony that awaited his little mis-.
tn tl,n saS.tt
and dreamy smile came to the face
of the baby. The judge looking dowr
from the bench, passed by for the mo-
ment the bitter words coming from
the father on the witness stand anC
as he looked al the youngster, he
seemed to forget the selfishness of the
parents and his smile was tender as
he looked longingly toward the tiny
figure.
Poor baby, it was only the first o.
a long line of sorrows, too heavy tC
be borne by such tiny shoulders ant
the dreariness of the day was in keep
ing with the spirit of the youngster.
In Court and Out
The case was that of Edwin Kendall
Cutter of Monrovia against his wife
May Dabney Cutter. For months tn,
marital infelicities of the couple have
been given a thorough airing in al
newspapers of the southwest and there
has been two divorce suits filed by
the wife and both withdrawn by her
1t has been the history of the loca
courts how the warning man and wifi;
followed one another, accused one an
other of the breaches of the marriag,
contract and how at last they separ
ated, the husband taking residence IL
Los Angeles while his wife was takel
care of by a nurse, and the baby, tn,
only bright spot in the long gloom.
story tof the unfortunate marriage
roamed about the big country house
unnoticed and unloved.
The suit yesterday, however, was fol
the recovery of a deed to $155,00 wortl
OF property, which formerly belonged
to Cutter. From inheritance from his
father, Cutter came into an estate o.
$155OO0 short time after his marriage
to Miss May Dabney. The young cou
pie were from Washington, ID. c., wher
Cutter had been a professor of litera
ture in Columbia university. The mar
riage was thought a good match by thu
many friends of both families. Th'
woman was educated and beautiful
.