Omaha daily bee., 1908-06-11
PRATT CASE WILL END TODAY
Sensational Divorce Trial Closes witt
Spicy Argument.
SERVANTS TESTIFY FOR COLONEL
Cook and HOusemaid Say He Always
Treated Mrs. Pratt lawful Kind"
Was Very Clean in
Habits.

The end Of the Pratt divorce case was in
sight Yesterday afternoon when court ad-
journed for the day. All the evidence was
completed shortly after 8 o'clock and Judge
Vinsonhaler. for Mrs. Pratt, and II. w.
Magee, tor Colonel Pratt, had made tn cir
arguments to the court. Today General
Gown, for the defendant, and II. C. Bronze,
for Mrs. Pratt. will close the
and the case will be submitted to thu court.
Colonel Pratt did not go on the stand. and
this fact materially shortened the trial.
The cross-examination of Mrs. Cox, the
former servant in the Pratt home, de-
veloped the fact that the champagne din
ner given by Mrs. Pratt in the absence of
Colonel Pratt was given by Jerome Magee.
grandson of Colonel Pratt, for Sir Horace
Plunkett, Mrs. Cox did not remember the
fact that the titled Irishman was there,
but she fixed the time because a waiter
from the Omaha club. who assisted, dropped
q bottle of champagne on the toe Of one
Of the women who was helping in the
kitchen.
Judge Vinsonhaler opened the case with
a brief argument on the law involved. He
was followed by H.. w. Magee, Colonel
Pratt's son-in-law. who began his address
by referring to a trip he had made 10 Ne
braska forty years ago. He said he had
INDUCED in a buffalo hunt on the western
plains and the party had killed 1000 buffalo
one afternoon.
And now to think, he contirued, forty
years later l am here to try a dirty divorce
suit"
Mr.. Magee declared the colonel's farm at
Bennington was really the bone Of conten-
ton in the suit and he referred to Colonel
Pratt as an exemplificatlon of the adage,
ere is no fool like an old fool
THE colonel" he said, has grown old,
bent, toothless and decrepit, and when in
1903 he married this plaintiff 1t was a great
surprise to his friends. But 1t was a
greater surprise when she went on the
stand and brazenly said she married the
old man for his wealth and for what his
wealth would bring"
Servants Favor Colonel.
Servants in the Pratt home gave evidence
in favor of Colonel Pratt Wednesday morn
Ing in the divorce hearing before Judge
Kennedy. They were Tilda Bergstrom, the
cook, and Mrs. Sophie Anderson Cox. who
was second girl before Mrs. Pratt broke
up housekeeping. Both were called to show
that amicable relations existed between
Colonel and Mrs. Pratt and that Colonel
Pratt treated Mrs. Pratt and the children
kindly and 10 refute the evidence of Mrs.
Pratt as to the colonel's actions.
Miss Bergstrom said Colonel Pratt al
ways spoke kindly to Mrs. Pratt and the
children. When Mrs. Pratt's boys came
home during the summer OF 1906 she said
Colonel Pratt shook hands with them and
said;
Hello, boys, I'm very glad to see you"
She said she never heard him swear
| Mrs. Pratt, she said. sometimes, was very
nice to the colonel and sometimes she was
{ very short and cool toward him. She said
the colonel provided plenty of everything
for the home. While the colonel took q
drink now and then. she said. she never
E saw him under the influence of liquor.
I did you ever see the colonel running
a around the house In his night clothes?'
. General Gown asked.
= 'Only once when he came downstairs
e about 6 o'clock one morning to get the
= paper. He went right back upstairs"
a Colonel Neat and Clean.
: She said he was very neat and clean Al
= the table and in his room. II was brought
out in her evidence that a man had called
| on the servants to get them TO bring sui
: against Colonel Pratt for the wages du'
: them, but they refused, saying they wer'
I sure they could get the money from thu
. colonel's office. Miss Bergstrom said Mrs
1 Pratt began packing the colonel's clotheI
, early in January. The suit was not nleC
I until March.
e Mrs. Cox. who was Miss Sophie Ander'
son when she worked at the Pratt home
said both Mrs. Pratt and the colonel wer'
very kline to the servants. She said Colone
Pratt treated Mrs. Pratt awful kind anC
seemed 70 be very fond OF her. She SAID
J she never heard the colonel swear no
sneak a crosa word 70 Mrs. Pratt.