The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-24
CHRISTMAS IN
 JAIL IS WISH
 OF LOVE SLAVE
More of Adelaide Branch's Strange Life Story Is
 Brought to Light
QUARREL LED TO
 DEATH OF COUGH
Wife of His Heart, Three Years Voluntary Prisoner,
 Will Lose Herself Forever
Especial to The Farmer.

Special to The F'armer)
 Monticello, N. Y, Dec. 24-Begging the hospitality of a cell in the county jail for Christmas day, and protesting that as soon as she is well enough she will leave this place, to be lost to its townsfolk rorever, Adelaide Branch, central figure of a. romance that beggars fiction, was granted her strange request today by County Sheriff Kinney.
 Miss Branch, the former school teacher and book sa1eswoman, who to hide her illicit love for Attorney Mel vim H. Couch, for three years led a prison life in hiding in a secret office in his suite in an office building in the center of the town,/is nervous wreck Never physically strong, she has been so wrecked by the tragic death of the man or whom she said she was +tthe wife of his heart, and the attending sensational disclosures that she has been unable to pluck up courage to set out to race the world.
 ''I'n go in a few days; only let me stay here until Pm strong enough to leave this place forever" she implored Sheriff Kinney. This forenoon it be- came known that after a conference of authorities, the sheriff had agreed to accede to her unusual desire,
 The woman has been cleared of all responsibility for the death of Couch, who died in her arms last Sunday morning, but she has begged Sheriff Kinney to let her remain in jail a few days longer and her request has been granted
 'I want to die and be buried beside MeP,'' she said, today. ''I am sick. at heart and, sick physically. cannot face the world now.''
 Miss Branch will be permitted to remain until she has regained her strength The woman refuses to give any information concerning her rela- tiyes, but her plight has aroused much sympathy and it is not believed she will experience any difficulty in find ing a. home, although she says she is destitute and has no place to go-
 Miss Branch was offered her liberty last night, although the fact was kept secret until late today District At torney Cooke, County Judge Thorn ton, Sheriff Kinney, Justice K D. L. I Niven and David s. Avery, who is chairman of the Democratic County Committee and who was close friend of Couch, last night held a, conference which lasted for over two hours. Af- terward they went to the jail and held the nearing.
 It was found that there was no good reason for holding Miss Branch and her discharge was ordered.
 The woman, however, begged to be allowed to stay, and her nervous con dition was such that Justice Niven ordered that no one should be allowed
  not want to see any one, even her own brother, if he should come. It was learned that she has a brother living at Hartwick, near Cooperstown, N. Y-, and that she was very much afraid he might come here and repri- said to have a brother living in Iowa
 Miss Branch taught school in some of the public schools of the states and afterward attended the Oswego Nor nal school for three years, but was compelled to give up because of ner- vousness. It was at that time that she started selling books.
 Miss Branch has offered to fix Couch's papers, and this offer may be accepted if the authorities find the papers in bad shape She had taken entire charge of his clerical work dur ing her stay with him.
 Standing at the aTindow of her cell this afternoon, Adelaide Branch caught glimpse of the hearse. con taining Couch's body as it passed through a binding snowstorm over a distant hilltop on the way to Rock Ridge Cemetery.
 In the carriage following the hearse l sat Couch's legal wife; but the woman | who styles herself ''the wife of his heart" and who for love of the dead l lawyer remained a virtual prisoner in a secret room adjoining his office for three years, had pleaded in vain to be
 
 have one last look at the face of the man she loved. The womans request | had been laid before Mrs. Couch and had been refused
 Today for the first time since she was discovered Sunday morning hid ing behind thin partition only a few feet from Couch's dead body, Miss | Branch talked freely Of her relations l with Couch. Through her own ad- missions it is learned that the lawyer | died in her arms following lovers 1 quarrel and that the woman blames | herself for causing his death. The woman looked pale and hag- | gard. She was attractive looking l when Couch first met her, but her de- | votion to a1im and the secret alliance 1 and it's incident confinement have 1 aged her terribly. She says that she | wishes to drop out or sight, in order 1 not to cause the Couch family any 1 more notoriety. fI am simply going | to vanish,'' is the way she puts it. The quarrel which overtaxed | Couch's. enfeeb1ed heart and led to his | death originated in Miss Branchs re- 1 helIing against the solitary life she | had been leading. '"Tou will have to | be with your family all Christmas day." she told Couch, "and I can't | bear to be here alone without a chance | to speak to a soul. i've been thinking it over and I want to go to Goshen and spend the day with Mrs. Ostram, where I used to boSrd.'
 Couch objected Possibly he feared mat liberty would prove so attractive a novelty to Miss Branch that she would not be willing ro return to her