The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-01
EVIDENCE BY
 TAPPED WIRE
Sensation Sprung in the Divorce
 Suit of Louis M. Sagal
LOvE-TALKS OVER PHONE
Conversations of Chauffeur Mann
 With Mrs. Sagal Recited in Court.

ssAsAA VAA-s sugar XII Court.
 New Haven, Nov 1-There was a lot of testimony of a somewhat deli- cate nature put in before Judge Bur- pee in the contested divorce case of Louis M. Sagal against Rachel Sa- gal, in the superior court yesterday.
 The most sensational feature occur red late yesterday afternoon when Judge Henry Stoddard. of counsel for the plaintiff, exploded something of a mine under the feet of the defense by introducing evidence which was alleged to have been obtained from the plaintiffs tapped telephone wire by means of which a large amount of damaging testimony was gained which was taken down by a stenographer who was hung on the wire for this purpose.
 These tactics to secure evidence are said to be entirely new in this city They make the story of this unhappy divorce case read like the unsavory pages of an unsavory novel of the worst type. It is said that no evil dence of this stort has ever been put in a trial of this character in New Haven court before.
 Deadly Telephone Report.
 But good Or bad, the language used on the telephone as between Mrs. Sagal and her chauffeur. Leo Mann, the correspondent in the case, as re- ported by the telephOnic stenographer was of such character that traversed from the prOfane- to the ridiculous. According to the steongrapher's evil dence, the couple were very much in- fatuated with each other, and Mrs. Sagal especially so. AS explained by the counsel for the plaintiff after the hearing went off yesterday afternoon, it was gained from a telephone wire which was looped into the office of Attorney Benjamin Slade from Mir. SagaPs private wire, and the conver- sation was taken down by MT. Slade's office stenographer. This loop was ''cut in'' as the telegraph men would say, from the 18th of April, 1911 for 14 days, or we'll into the month of May.
 It is said that there were about fourteen of these telephonic conversa- tions between Mann and Mrs. Sagal that will have to be recited at this trial of the case. Four or five of them were read yesterday. Some Of these conversations lasted for three quarters of an hour. As they are given by questions and answers, they court archives. While they were be- ing read yesterday, Mrs. Sagal, who is a large, finely built woman about 2S years of age, sat between her counsel, Howard c. Webb and Judge Edwin Zacher, and famed herself with a large sheet of plotting paper. She was attired in a dark suit and wore a large picture hat. Mann, the chauffeur, who is about 9 years of age, sat over in the spectators seats in the crowded court room, and took copious notes of the testimony. The I-s- StOddard.
 Confident Stenographer.
 Miss Augusta w Foote, who is the professional steongrapher who took down the evidence from the telephone wire which will, it now appears, cut such an important figure in this case, was the witness regarding these tele- phonic love-makings. The court room was as quiet as a graveyard while she responded to the questions put to her by Judge Stoddard. Miss Foote was very confident in reading her notes from short hand characters in an or dinary aphers' note book. Much of the testimony that she gave show ed that violent language was used in referring to Sagal and others. She said that she knew both Mrs. Saga1 and Leo Mann, and that she began taking notes of the telephonic conver- sations between them on the evening of April 27. She then went into the conversation at length. On April 28 the couple talked for long time af- ter S:23 in the evening, in which Mrs. SagaI accused Mann of going out to See some one else. There was a whole lot of talk regarding sickness in the Sagal family which Mrs. Sagal had to take care of and the replies to this on the part of Mann, as reported by the witness, were profane in the extreme.
 Mrs. SagaPs Fondness.
 Mrs. Saga1 said: Its all right, get another nurse in there, do you hear?" In further conversation it came out that Mrs. Sagal confessed that she was working as hard in the Sagal family as she was, both for her self, and for Mann. There was a lot of very familiar conversation quoted after this and then there was line of testimony which showed that Mrs. Sagal was very jealous of Mann. There were repeated conversations between the two, about this time, in which Mann addressed the woman as darling and told her that he was going to put on pajama shirts. En- dearing terms and profanity were con- tinually mingled In Miss Foote's tes- timony In one place Mrs. Sagal said that she thought she and her husband might have to go to Carlsbad for his health. She then said that she was a settIed-doWn old woman, that Mann was a lobster, and that if he was where she was at the time she was speaking she would chase him around the room
 This conversation concluded by Mrs. SagaPs remarking: This is a funny world, my dear. My husband is com ing home to supper. Why can't you talk now? I know I'm a d. fool.'
 To this latter remark Mann replied: Thank you. I'm the one that is mak- ing you one-''
 And then she said: Of course. it is all right for you to go with someone you like You don't care. You are independent. My heart is tig enough and I have got my hands fu1l.'
 Then followed a quarrel between the couple, because the man was go- ing out to meet someone that evening, which terminated by her saying: You don't care Nobody cares but me. You are the boss; you know that it is me that is the ignorant one"
 Some profanity was here interject- ed by Mann, according to the witness.