The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-31
ANGRY HUSBANDS
GIVE SOCIETY MAN
TAR TREATMENT
f. E. Bliss, Jr., Gets a Stiff Coat
ing for Practising His Hyp-
+ motto Arts.
WASHINGTON AGOG OVER
SCANDAL IN HIGH LIFE
Victim, a Man of Wealth and
Prominence, Discovered in
WOman's Embrace.
Especial to the Evening start


WASHINGTON. July 31.-Instead Of
going to New York today to be mar
ried. r. r. Bliss, jr., a wealthy and
socially prominent member of the firm
of Bliss. Albrecht & Co., paper rulers.
appeared in police court covered from
head to foot with a coat of tar. He
was a sorry looking spectacle.
With him were three other prominent
men, who have Jared Washington by
admitting that they applied the punish
ment to Bliss. who has posed as an
amateur hypnotist, n who. they say,
has violated the sanctity of more than
n of their homes by exercising his
arts on their wives.
A tran was set for Bliss, and he
was caught in the home of Charles
Marthinson, 62 years old, at 1917 Kenyon
street, in the act Of embracing Mrs.
Marthinson. He was then severely
beaten by the three men and the coat
Of tar applied. Mr.. Marthinson, who
is a wealthy lumber manufacturer. with
extensive interests in the South, was
assisted by Henry G.. Cole, a wealthy
neighbor of the Marthinsons, and by
James l.. White, so years old, another
neighbor. who recently cleaned up $l'-
600, 900 In the stock market.
BIiss's Admission.
Bliss admitted, when captured, that
he had been in the habit of calling fire.
ouently on Mrs. Marthinson n Mrs.
Cole without their husbands knowl-
edge .r
Mrs. Marthinson and Bliss had been
seen frequently together at theatres
and other places, and when Marthinson
taxed her with it she declared that
she had been under Bliss's hypnotic in
fiuence, thai he communicated with her
by telepathy and hat she coul no
resist him when he was near.
Mr.. Marthinson happened to be in
the house yesterday when Bliss called
Mrs. Marthinson on the telephone. BY
her husbands instructions she told him
to call that night at s o'clock and to
come In by the basement door so that
no one would see him.
Then Marthinson consulted Cole n
White and they got a large bucket OF
tar and heated Il In the basement and
waited.
Saw the Embrace.
Wh6n Bliss arrived III o CioSN lily
saw him embrace Mrs. Marthinson and
heard him ask II anyone else was In the
house. When told they, were alone he
made certain proposals. which caused
the three men to leap out upon him.
He was beaten numerically ana
every stitch of clothing torn from his
body. Then he was covered with the
heated tar, while he begged In vain for
mercy. The tar was rubbed into his
face and ears, some of it trickling into
his eyes, so that he was partially
blinded. When there was a coating of
from a quarter to half an inch of tar
all over him Bliss was released and
kicked out.
Bliss ran across town in m effort to
find a physician, and when he had
found one an effort was made to pull
the tar off his face. AS his also pulled
the skin off, the doctor permitted 1t to
remain on, saying that the only way 1t
could be gotten off was to let 1t wear
off. This will require months.
In court today Bliss declared that he
was to have been married to a young
woman in New York today, and that he
had called at the Marthinson home to
get the wedding ring, which he had
left there with Mrs. Marthinson.
M~arthinson. Cole and White, who
were arrested and released on $500 bail,
signed a statement which was made
public, defending their remarkable
action.