The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1910-12-22
KATE CLAYTON IN
COURT TO ASSAIL
SPOUSE'S DIVORCE
Noted Actress Says Charles
Stevenson, Her Husband,
Secured Decree on Quiet.

st. Louis, Dec. 1S-Kate Claxton app
peared in the East st. Louis city court
and played the stellar role, that OF Mrs.
katherine E. Stevenson, the Injured
wife, in he third act of the domestic
drama, Divorced, but Didn't Know It"
Her art was put to a severe test.
Throughout the entire act she did not
speak a word. The appeal to her audi
snce was by the might Of mimicry. The
only time her voice was heard was at
the end Of the acr. when with the cur
tain descending on virtue temporarily
triumphant, she rolled her eyes at the
h~ueband's attorney, played by Clarence
p. Pope. and tainted him with AHA"
The dramatis personae OF the Clax-
ton domestic drama are: Kate Clax-
ton, actress, in private life Mrs. Kath-
crime d. Stevenson, of Larchmont, N.
Y; Charles A. Stevenson, actor, hus-
band of Kate Claxton, actress; Frances
Riley, who succeeded Kate in the affec-
tons of her husband and became his
second wife; Clarence p. Pope, lawyer;
Silas Cook, judge; Reuben H. Kramer
and j.. Fl. Bacon, tried and true attor-
neys of Kate; w. NJ. Vandeventer. n
other judge.
Married Many Years.
The play teaches the lesson of how
hard it is for an actor and an actress
to be happy, though married. Charles
and Kate had been married since 1873
and had lived together happily, except
a. such times as they were members
about nine and one-lalf tenths OF the
time. 1t was that way in 1901, when
Stevenson was leading man with Mrs.
Leslie Carter, and Kate Claxten, 1t ia
pretty safe to assume, was playing
'tF%'anchon, the Cricket" or Louise, in
'tTha Two Grrnh a n G ~ -.... aL.E
In that year he asked Judge Cook
for a divorce and got it, on the ground
of Gesertion, without his wife's knowl-
edge. Up to last April she still thought
he was hers, and when he undertook to
marry Frances Riley, she confronted
them and said, STOP blu he had the
papers and she was foiled.
Between the first and second act the
first judge is elected mayor, and Judge
N~andeventer takes his place. Suit is
filed to annual the divorce on the
ground OF fraud. A demurrer to the suit
is filed on behalf of the husband.
In the third act is the great trial
scene, in which Kate Claxton portrays
the injured and suffering wife-that-
was, without speaking a line. The
judge is OF the bench and the lawyers
make their arguments. The leading LADY
occupies a chair inside the rail and as
she listens to the eloquence of the
pleaders she has all kinds of emotions.
Advanced in Years.
The most affecting part is where the
lawyer. tears in his voice, depicts the
injured wife as a woman well advanced
in years. AS he utters these words the
actress half rises, is if she must speak,
but sinks back in her chair. 1t is a fine
BIT of repression.
The climax of the act comes when
Judge Vandeventer says severely: THE
demurrer is overrnled. The defendant Is
will be given until Monday to file an
answer to the plaintiffs petition"
AS the curtain descends. Pope, the
lawyer. starts to leave the courtroom.
He has to pass the place where the
leading lady is sitting. She rises and
faces him. Aha" she avs.
All of which means that Stevenson
will have to make such defense as he
can to the allegation of Mrs. Stevenson
that the divorce was obtained by fraud,
and that il the divorce is annulled,
Stevenson will find himself with one
Wife too MANY.