The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-08
WOMAN ATTACKS REV.
 STALL AT AAN|STON
Catholic Priest Slapped and
 Knocked Down
PRIEST NOT INVOLVED
Defend Character of Ills House. keeper Whom He Considered
 Wrongful Accused

l Anniston, November 7.--(Special )-En-
 ragged with jealousy as result of g
 story told her by a fortune teller who
 was following circus about weei
 ago, Mrs. Minnie Higginbotham, wife o
 C.. H. Higginbotham, a liveryman
 slapped Father Oswald P. Stahl, pastor
 of the Sacred Heart Catholic church 1T
 this city, in the face at the union pas
 senger station in this city this afternoon then severely beat him with her fists
 after he had been knocked down by Ross
 Chatham, a business associate of the
 woman's husband. who took her part ir dispute.
 1 Father Stahl. preferred charges against the Higgenbotham woman and against l Chatham. They also had warrants sworr
 out against him and the three will have to answer in police court tomorrow morn 1 ing to charges of disorderly conduct. The affray at the station has created a pro found sensation here and Is the chiel topic of conversation in the city. Mrs. Higginbotham gave out the follow l Ing statement:
 My husband has been to see the | housekeeper of Father Stahl for some 1 time She lives at the home of the pries' very near my husbands stable. Recently | I told Father Stahl about this, but he did not seem inclined to act on the case I stood it as long as I could and dio
 not make any trouble until my husbanc refused to take me to a circus at Jack
 sonville last week. I then confronted l him with the facts and he told me thai 1 he did not love me any longer. | This afternoon I heard that my hus-
 band was going to Jacksonville with
 the other woman. called up at Father
 stahps house. I then went to the station and when got there Father Stahl was there also. He would not talk to me and thought that he was helping Char
 lie and his housekeeper to run away to- gether."
 Father stahl stated that he had re- ceived a call from Mrs. Higgnbothan when she told him of her trouble, but that he had questioned her character to her face and had defended his house keeper whom he called into the room. | Later, ne says, u6 W1S fiSitCo iii Ahfs study by Higginb botham himself, who apologized on his knees to him for his wife's conduct, denying her story and attributing her jealousy to the tale o1 a circus fortune teller, who had told her that her husband was in love with
 some one near his stable; that his wife 1 had attacked him with 8 knife and pis-
 tol. and tried to kill him. and for thai
 reason he had left her.
 Father Stahl says that he though nc
 more of the matter until this afternoon
 when someone called up over the tele- I phone. Pa found out that this person
 was Chatham and he then became sus- picious, although he later learned that Chatham was merely acting for Mrs Higginbotham. He immediately went | to the station, he says, on learning further facts in order to either vindi- | cate his housekeeper or else substan- tiate the charges of her accuser. Chat I man, the woman, her husband and an other man were at the station, he says I the min intending to go to Birming- ham. He waited until the train came 1 in and when his housekeeper did not appear he rebuked Chatham for his par in the affair. The woman interposet
 a remark and he told her that she was
 not the kind of person with whom ht cared to converse on the streets. She
 struck him in the face. he says, and he
 was then pummelled by Mrs. Higgin' botham while he was down. A po- liceman intervened and cases were
 docketed against all three at the sta I tion.
 Father Stahl expressed deep regret l over the affair, which, he says, he weni l Into with view of protecting a gir from islander. He said that he would | not appear in court if he could prevent | 1t, and that he had asked Recorder Green, to take his deposition at his | room.
 Father Stahl was for a short time stationed in Birmingham and Is wei known and greatly esteemed here. Ht Is native of Germany and was ed ucated at Louraine. Those who know him well says that he Is one of thu most scholarly ecclesiastics in Ala
 bama and that he Is exceptionally pop ular.