Perth Amboy evening news., 1908-05-20
PLATT ON THE
WINESS TSTAND
Mae C. Wood Testified That o.
ficiaIs Forced Her TO Give Up
Love Messages.
WERE SENT HER BY PLATT
'ecial by United Press Wire:


New York, May 20:-Senator
Platt, accompanied by two nurses,
appeared In court today and took
the stand in the suit of Mae @. Wood,
who is suing him for divorce. He
tottered down the aisle and was as
sisted to his seat in the witness chair.
He had to remove his overcoat. He
denied the allegations against him
and said he never proposed marriage
to Miss Wood
The woman who charges that Sena
tor Platt married her in 1901 and who
now is suing Plat for divorce appears
like shrewd woman, and at no time
did John B. Stanchfeld, attorney for
Platt, find her unable to offer plausi-
BILE explanation for apparently mex
plicable circumstances.
Got Money From HummeI.
She testified that after she was lock-
ed In Hummel's Office and gave up
Platt's love letters she received $500
from Hummel She blurted out that
she could have obtained $4,000 for
them, but that she knew "the crowd"
and wouldn't take the money. 1t was
testified also that while Secretary Loeb
apparently was working In harmony
with Plat in the effort to get the let
ters she had been told that the plan Of
the government officials was to double
cross" the Senator and to turn the let
ters over to Loeb.
The plaintiff denied she had employ
ed Hummel as her attorney in the case,
and when letters were shown to her
which she had written to Hummel and
In. which she referred to him as her
counsel she said she was trying to
"lkid'' the lawyer into telling her who
was behind the alleged conspiracy of
which she said she was the victim.
When the witness was asked whether
it wasn't true that Platt's hand trem-
bled whenever he wrote anything, she
said 1t was so except when he was
filed with dope" Afterward, how
! ever, she qualified this statement by
saying that by dope" she meant med
icine which the senator took. She adj
mitted also that in the marriage GER
tifcate which she offered in evidence
she had written the words New
York." which the supposed clergyman
who married her and Platt had neglect
ed to write.
Her Own Letters introduced.
Letters from her to Plat were intro
duced to show that no marriage cere-
mony ever had been performed In
one letter. written subsequently to the
alleged marriage she addressed Plat
as "My dear SENATOR" and she pleaded
with him to obtain for her a position
as teacher In the Philippine Islands
In another letter she asked the senator
to use his influence to obtain position
In the postofice for friend. Both let
tiers were signed Mae G. Wood AS
for the suit for breach Of promise be
gun against Platt, she said it was with
out her authority, and she maintained
that, although she had been advised
many times to begin the breach OF
promise action, she had refused to dc
SO steadfastly.
!. After she had left the stand Senator
|, Platt's lawyer, John b. Stanchheld
: moved to dismiss the case on the
!, ErOuHu lndI neE beStluOhy hiu AohSt
to establish a marriage with Platt.
'Motion denied" said the judge
This means that Senator Platt mus
put in defense.
District Attorney Jerome sat beside
i Justice O'Gorman part of the time
The district attorney did not explain
why he was present at the trial, but +
was believed he had come to hear the
charges that the marriage certificate
and a letter alleged to have been writ
ten by Platt were forgerles.