The San Francisco call., 1910-06-17
ARTS CALL LURES
WOMAN FROM Home
F. IL. Powers, Prominent AttOr'
ney, Sues for Divorce; Wife
Tried to Disrupt DomiciIe

The call Of the colder civilizations
has been heard and obeyed by Mrs.
Jane G. Powers, wife of Frank II
Powers, a leading San Francisco at
torney. Paris and New York, with
their art galleries and academies. their
artists, and their grand opera produc-
tions. have lured her from home. The
latent longing of her soul found a
fresh inspiration during the idle hours
at romantic Carmel-by- -the-Cea as she
sat for her portrait before the dis
tinguished painter Wilhelm Funk.
A suit for divorce, fled yesterday
by Powers, recites merely that his
wife has for five years past harrassed
him with insistent demands that he
abandon his lucrative practice here
and establish a home either in New
York or Paris, where she could in
dulge her artistic and musical tastes
There is no, mention of the beautiful
portrait of Mrs. Powers, so exquisite
in detail that a critic who viewed it
exclaimed, "Ah, that is a work of the
heart, not of the hand"
VISITS CARMEL HOME
III y
Funk. who ranks with Sargent as
among the greatest of American ar
lists. paid visit to the coast. His
canyases were to be exhibited at the
Vickery gallery and he had come to
San Francisco for the occasion. He
was the guest of Mr.. and Mrs. Powers
at the country home at Carmel. There
he began the portrait of Mrs. Powers
which was to be one of the features
Of the exhibition. But it was not Of
fered for display. The artist spent .
month in the Powers home, charmed
by the surroundings.
The friendship, begun in New York
budded over the easel. 1t was with
reluctance that Funk departed from
California. He returned to his New
York studio.
The marriage of Mr.. and Mrs. Powers
took place in New York October 15
1891. but San Francisco has always been
the family home. There are four chill
dren-Grace Madeleine, Dorcas Jane, Al
bert GalIatin and Marian Hubbard Pow
ers The three first named are with
their father, while the last is with Mrs
Powers in New York. The attorney asks
the court to leave the children where
they are. Discussing property matters
he states that both he and Mrs. Powers
are possessed of a large amount of sep
arate property and suggests the court
decree that each retain what he or she
now has.
TRIED TO DISRUPT HOME
M. one source of comfort and enjoy
ment and my one chosen distriction from
business affairs" is the way Powers de-
scribes his home life. Yet,-he COM
plains. his wife deliberately set herseli
to disrupt his home. OF the last 81
months, he says, she has spent IA away
from California, and of the remaining
q months 10 have been spent out of Sar
Francisco, in places where she installed
her servants and where Powers could
visit his children only at great personal
inconvenience.
1t was following a seven months triI
to Paris in 1907 and a trip Of several
weeks 10 New York early in 1903 thai
Mrs Powers became convinced that the
younger civilization of San Francisco die
not provide nourishment for her artistic
appetite. After threatening to disrupt
their home. Powers charges, she shipped
some 81 1000 worth of bric-a-brac and
furniture to New York in the latter par
of last year, and shortly before January
l. 1910, went to the eastern metropolis
REFUSED TO LEAVE
Mrs. Powers always has been inter
ested in social musical and artistic
life. the complaint asserts, and for al
most five years necessarily has attempt
ed to force him to abandon his hom'
here. A law practice, says Powers, II
not easily established in a new city
~and he refused to abandon the profes
sional practice he had built up here b.
90 years effort. His business produces
an income sufficient to provide com
fortably for his family nd~to main
tain a home in San Francisco, furnished
at great expense, as well as country
home in Monterey county. Power.
says he has attempted to satisfy ever,
whim of his wife with every luxury
possible in San Francisco, giving hel
unrestricted use of his property anc
money. refusing her the indulgence o.
no desire save such as would tend t.
disrupt his home. But at intervals o.
never more than month Mrs. Power:
has repeated her desire to enjoy th'
advantages of other cities Her mair
desire was to enjoy grand opera
whose production required stage set
tings only possible in cities of the oldel
civilizations"
FEARS NERVOUS COLLAPSE
Powers, being of a nervous disposi.
tion, he says, is very easily disturbed
about his home life. His wife's In,
sistence upon changing the location OF
their home has kept him in a condition
of mental disturbance for five years al
time when his whole vitality and en-.
ergy were necessary for the develop
ment of his law business. He accuse:
Mrs. Powers OF making unixind state
ments about him, comparing him un.
favorably with friends and speaking
harshly to him when he refused tc
leave San Francisco.
The result of it all. says Powers, il
that his health has been seriously af.
cd ci1 - g
nervous collapse if he should longer
continue his married life with the de.
fendant.
Powers is a member of the law firrT
Of Heller, Powers & Ehrman Franz
S. Britain is his attorney in the action