Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-13
MRS, GIBSON
| WINS DIVORCE
Prompt Sequel to Suit Filed in
Chicago Yesterday.
GIVEN CUSTODY OF CHILD
The Hearing Lasted But Eleven
Minutes.
NO SENSATIONAL FEATURES
Entire Contents Of Bill Not Made
Public-Allegations Of Cruelty.
Big Settlement Rumor.
The Hearing Lasted But Eleven
Minutes.
} SENSATIONAL FEATURES


Special Dispatch TO The Star.
CHICAGO. Ill. July 13.-Mrs. Preston
Gibson. stepdaughter of Thomas Nelson
Page of Washington, D. c., wife of the
author, club and society man. and polo
expert and herself whip of national repu-
tation, was given an absolute divorce by
Judge Honore this morning. She was given
the custody of her child, Henry Field Glib
SON The hearing lasted but eleven min
utes, and was devoid of sensational fea-
lures What the cause of the separation
was has not become public property. Per-
slstcnt reports have il that she settled
half million dollars on her husband to
acquiesce in the legal separation and for
not making the threatened bitter legal fight
for the possession of their son, who is a
granddaughter of the late Marshall Field.
and heir to a considerable fortune when lie
becomes of age
Mrs. Gibson filed her petition for divorce
late yesterday. In her bill she alleges ''ex-
treme and repeated" cruelty.
An effort was made to obtain a secret
hearing of it last evening, but no judge
could be found.
While the contents of the bill for divorce
were not made public as a whole, Mrs. Glib
son mentioned two instances of violent
| usage at the hands of her husband, and
averred that she had been subjected to
humiliating displays of temper dating from
| time soon after their marriage.
Struck and Choked Vito.
Specifically the bill charged that while in
fits of passion the defendant often struck
and choked his wife.
The completion of the legal preparations
for the hearing OF the most interesting d.
vorce trial which Chicago society has had
to discuss for some time was attended by
much suppressed excitement In the Office of
the court clerk and in the chambers OF va
rous Chicago judges.
Mrs. Gibson is said still to cherish. re-
gard for her husband. She even tried to
call him up on the telephone today, and
I drove to the Onwentsia Club in the hope OF
, seeing him to bid him goodbye. In an in
terview Mrs. Gibson is reported as having
said:
TT is true that tried to reach my hus-
band over the telephone at the Onwentsia
Club today, and then went there to
him. l still regard him with the greatest
esteem
Yesterdays Conference.
A long conference at the Chicago Club,
yesterday afternoon, in which Gibson and
his valet, well Thomas Nelson Page,
his wife's stepfather and her attorney,
Judge J. NJ. Dickinson, took part. is be-
lieved to have ended satisfactorily to the
clubman. for he took an early train back
to Lake Forest, and was playing lawn ten
mis- at the Onwentsia Club, while the bill in
which his wife charges him with extreme
and repeated cruelty was being fled in the
circuit court together with his answer, for
mally denying the allegations.
GtbsonS original demand, II Is alleged,
was 100000. but ii was stated yesterday
that they had grown 50 far that the filing
OF the papers had to be withheld while his
increased demands were debated at the
conference. He is reported to have threat
ned not merely to contest the custody of
their ee-year-oid son, Henry Field Glib
son. but to drag into court certain matters
concerning the family and the social life In
which he and his wife have figured, and OF
which society has had fragments
Gibson's Demands Acceded To.
While Mrs Gibson had planned TO plead
for her freedom merely on grounds of ex-
treme and repeated cruelty, he insisted that
unless the financial settlement which he
deemed proper would be forthcoming, he
would contest the charges, and then go into
court with counter allegations of startling
character. But, apparently, he secured all
he wanted, for atthe close of the conference
the original papers were hurried to the cir
cut clerks office, together with his answer,
and Mrs. Gibson's replication to il.
Mrs. gibson did not petition for the Gus
tody of the child, nor for alimony. The lat
ter omission is accepted proof that no
amony would be asked. The omission with
respect to the child, however is explained by
the fact that the statutes direct that the
judge, in every divorce case, enter decree
concerning the custody of the child, and
Mrs. Gibson relied upon this and the prom
Use of no contest from Gibson to keep the
care of her little one. In view of the lat
ters tender age il would have been exceed
ingly unusual for the court to take ii from
its mother, and in this instance there was
no danger of it being done.