Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-01-03
TELLS ON WIFE
NAMED IN SUIT
Mason Turns Against Spouse
and Mrs. Brooke Gets
Decree.

The ina hearing in a divorce suit, in
which the husband Of a named
as correspondent testified in behalf OF
the plaintiff, was heard today before
Vice-Chancellor Howell and decree nisi
granted to Mrs. Margaretta Brooke, of
Hackensack, against her husband, John
B. Brooke, with $25 a week alimony and
$500 counsel fee.
The petition was filed May a, 1911, and
was a counter suit to one which Mr..
Brooke had filed the year before, in
which he named a man in his employ,
Carroll D. Wolff, and others. Mrs
Brooke testified hat she found on her
husband letters from Mrs. Albert Mas
sen, whom she had named in the petit
ton.
Mr.. Massen is the manager of a cafe
in Manhattan. He testified that his
wife conducted a hotel in Asbury Park
during the Of 1907 and 1908.
He told on the stand that he found let
tiers from Mr.. Brooke and other men in
his wife's possession during that time.
which led him to believe that h and
Mr.. Brooke had behaved improperly In
the Aragon, the hotel which she was
conducting.
DR.. Wilbur L. Wright, of Washing
ton, D. c., a business associate Of MT.
Brooke's, said that during the summer
of 1908 Mr.. Brooke left him on the
porch Of the hotel in Asbury Park one
night and asked him to step into his
room before he retired for the night.
After smoking a cigar on the porch he
went up and, 1<nocking1on the door, he
surprised Mr.. Brooke and Mrs. Massen
in the room.
Mr.. Brooke later admitted to him
that the woman who vas with him
in We Jhington a few months before,
when DR.. Wright met him for the first
time, was really Mrs. Massen.
Mrs. Wright testified hat she over
hedrd a conversation between Mrs.
Massen and Mr.. Brooke. in which she
heard Mr.. Brooke say: Here is a hum
dred," and he passed some money owe
to the woman. There was an alterca-
ton after that, in which the woman
claimed that it was not enough.
In answering the charge in which Mr..
Brooke names Wolff, through her at
torney, Mrs. Brooke declares that the
man was a mechanic employed in a
small garage that he had in Hacken-
sack.
They had an arrangement that if any
breakdown occurred in the vicinity
the house could be signaled from the
street and the garage lighted up from
the bathroom, which could be entered
from her DON only. On the night of
September 10, 1910, someone rang the
bell to the house, declaring that a ma
chine was broken down a short dis
lance away. The shop was lighted by
Mrs. Brooke and she called Wolff, who
slept on an upper floor. She declares
that her husband had arranged this
matter, intending to get Wolff out of
the house and frightening him into
going into her rCom after the light
was out, when Mr.. Brooke would rush
in and finding them together make the
charge.
Mrs. Brooke declares that her IA
year-old boy slept with her that night
because he was i'll. After Mr.. Brooke
came In and found Wolff in the room
the man made a statement which he
afterward denied.
Mr.. Brooke is now held in contempt
in the New Jersey courts. He filed his
petition for divorce in the New York
courts after which the counter petition
was filed.