The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-12-14
MRS. BROKAW HAS
VERY READY WIT
Applicant for Divorce Answers
Lawyer With Warmth
HUSBAND TRIED TO SHOOT
Millionaire clubman Was Very Brutal
in Treatment of His Wife Ac-
cordin1 to the Tale She
Told in Court.
HUSBAND TRIED TO SHOOT

Now 1ork, OcCenper lo.-IHe ready
wit and cool head of Mary Blair
Brokaw, who seeks decree of separa-
ton with alimony of $50, 900 year from
her millionaire husband, W. Gould
Brokaw, flashed again and again and
again today through the persistent prod
ding of her cross-examination.
AT the time you say your husband
you believe him?" asked John f. Nc
1ntyre, counsel for the defense.
Not when he wasn't drinking" re-
turned the witness, adroitly.
Did he say he would or could do it?''
pursued Mr.. Mcintyre.
I'm Paris he said he could and in the
south he said he would
We'll, he didn't, did hep"
IT think" said the witness sweetly,
you win find L still have-a few left"
At another time there was a question
of what Mrs. Brokaw meant by par
alyzed' as an adjective she applied to
Mr.. Brokaws condition on night when
she testified she telephoned for his Sec
rotary to take care of MIN. Mrs. Bro
kaw amplified her definition into "a con-
dition of helpless intoxication." and Mr..
Mcintyre Immediately wished to know
how the witness had qualified as a
judge in the symptoms Of drunkenness.
My varied experience sfter marriage
made me an xpert," she retorted.
Many Women Present.
Many women, richly robed in furs, mo-
70 nh al
and rain and crowded The little court
room. The testimony did not disappoint
them.
Mr.. Brokaw gave out a statement in
part as follows:
Il have been grossly misrepresented
by Mrs. Brokaw and by members of her
family. Proposition after proposition has
been made to me by the plaintiffs side
to abandon this case If l should submit
to large settlement of money.
Mr.. Baldwin, Mrs. Brokaw's attorney,
Immediately issued a counter statement.
in part as follows:
THE statement given out by the de-
Tense that the plaintiffs side has made
overtures to him to abandon the case
upon payment OF large sum OF money
is an unmitigated and deliberate false
hood and consistent with the policy
by unsubstantiated statements made with
out the sanctity of oath"
After these preliminariee both sides got
down to the serious business OF the day.
Mrs. Brokaw was asked If she did not
once take poison by mistake with no In
tention of killing herself.
Now, wasn't that BLUM? queried
Mr.. Mcintyre.
mo, 1t was not, she replied, lnole-
xaan fe1 n
Cigarettes had proved an embarrassing
subject for Mrs. Brokaw in previous tes-
tmony Today she triumphed over COCK
tails, of which she had only tasted -FOUR
In her life, she said, and never before
breakfast Champagne, she thought, tast-
ed very much like girger ale.
Bills For Dresses.
Mr.. Mcintyre began to delve into Mrs
Brokaw's bill for dresses. Her lawyers
cut him short with an admission that
Mr.. Brokaw had spent $4,000 on his wife
in their first year of married life.
Mr.. Mcintyre thought the items spoke
for themselves. 81 will hardly agree,
he instanced, that couple of hundred
dollars worth of corsets were used by
MIR. Brokaw."
Rrokaw himself, who Is far from puny,
Joined in the laugh that followed.
IF I recollect rightly" put in Justice
Putnam. General Hancock used them
during q campaign"
Mrs. Brokaw told of a quarrel with
her husband while they were at High
Point N. c., where she went to hotel
and remained until her husband sent for
her. She became hysterical on the way
home, but declared that she had not dis
cussed her domestic troubles with the
servant sent to accompany her.
M IoIp xuap
husband had not always been attentive
to her and bought her f1o%Jers every day.
The witness said that he did not buy
flowers every day and sometimes when
he did he would accuse her of not APP
preciating the. attentions he paid her, and
of not thanking him for the flowers. Mrs.
Brokaw said that Jimmy Mari and
her brother also used to buy her flowers
occasionally, and that this was objected
to by her husband Mr.. Brokaw told her,
she said. that he was the only man from
whom she could accept flowers