Omaha daily bee., 1909-06-18
MRS. COULD IN TIPSY STATE
Broker Testifes to Her Condition on
Yachting Trip.
HAD BREAKFAST WITH ACTOR
Hotel Waiter Tells of Serving Meals
for Woman and Dustin Farnum
in Her Room-DIore Serv-
ants Testimony.

NEW YORK, June 1.-THE spotlight of
the cross-examiner continued to oscillate
today in the trial of Mrs Howard Gould's
suit for separation, fromf the estate at
Castle Gould to the St Regis hotel; from
the farm at Blue Gap, Va. - the Niagara
the Gould yacht, and back to New York
again, but except for those moments when
it fingered on Dustin Farnum it never got
far AWAY from the buffers keys to the
wine cellar.
There was visible an attitude on the part
of the defense, which in this trial of many
surprises has been curiously shifted over
to what is virtually the prosecution, to
prove that Mrs. Gould was not only so
frequently under the influence of intoxi-
oants as to fall within the rulings of JUS
tice Bowling that she must be proved an
habitual drunkard before her husband can
be justified for leaving her, but to prove
that when she had been drinking her
character underwent a transformation for
the worse.
Delaney Nicoll, former district attorney
for the county of New York, and now coun-
sci for the husband was willing enough
to adduce testimony that the wife was
affable when herself if only he could bring
her good nature into contrast with testi-
mony that tended to show her violent,
abusive and uncertain in her motives and
confused in her actions at those moments
she was alleged to have been drinking.
Shrinks in Pain.
There was no abatement of her ordeal
today, and the burden of reiteration grew
heavier. she shrank visibly and a look of
pain came into her eyes as If, though she
might have read or seen such things it
uyaG ~ IN
hear them applied directly to herself, with
the weight of sworn oath behind them.
At other times she smiled broadly, shook
her head In amused denial. and several
times stared the witness out of counte-
nance.
Only once was there a break In the pro-
cession of footmen, buffers, chauffeurs,
maids, walters and bellboys on whose testi-
mony 1t is sought to prove Mrs. Gould an
impossible wife, and that was when Mr..
Nicoll called Melville E. Chapman, a
broker, who was a guesO Of the Goulds
on their yacht, the Niagara, during the
several cruises in the year 1905 and his
narrative walked in the steps Of others.
He had several times seen Mrs. Gould un-
deniably drunk, he testified, and, led by
Mr.. Nicoll, he described several alleged
outbreaks, with emphasis on the overbear-
ing manner of the wife and the efforts of
the husband TO soothe and conciliate her.
Dustin Fnrnum in Room.
Mr.. Watson read the deposition of a
waiter at the Carroll hotel, who told of
serving supper for Mrs. Gould and Farnum
in her rooms at the hotel on November
IS, 1906. The waiter said that Mrs. Gould
instructed him TO set the table with a
chair at the end and the other chair on
the side near tine first chair. He left
Farnum and Mrs. Gould in the room after
he had cleared away the dishes.
The following morning the witness was
called to Mrs. Gould's rooms and she or
dered breakfast for two. She stood in the
doorway and read the bill Of fare and he
could see but a small part Of the room.
He noticed that a door leading into an
other room OF her suite was closed. He
served supper for them in her rooms that
night again.
She left some time during the night, the
witness testified, for, he said. he went to
the head waiter the next morning and
asked II he should go up to room No IA
Mrs Gould's room, and the head waiter
said No, they have gone"