The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-02-01

to live on his East Alstead farm with
his wife and the soulmate, who have.
already dwelt there together several
years, led to the reporter s visit
More than q year ago DR.. Chase
closed his attractive home at % Ken
nard road, Brookline. He posted a
scrawled note on the door, stating
briefly that any one could communicate
with him at East Alstead n. H., and
went to the farm. His practice, built
during many years, was allowed to
dwindle away. The hospital connections
gained by his reputation as tuber- |
culosis expert were allowed to lapse.
Honorable affiliations with medical so
eieties and clubs We're broken.
Elderly professional friends, mem
hers of his family and neighbors tried
to dissuade him. But DR.. Chase went
to East Alstead.
Today, after more than q year there,
with little to break the unaccustomed
round of rural monotony, after asso,
citation day after day and week after
| week with the other two sides of the
triangle that had twisted his life so
| orotesquely, DIR. Chase declared with
conviction that his retirement is per-
manent; that nothing will ever inter.
rupt the spiritual harmony of the trio
The 'Chasc-Dcnnett affair." began
lin 1904, when Dr. Chase decided to
build himself the home that is now
abandoned.
q have no time to be the building
committee, he said to his wife, "but
if you will attend to that We shall have
the house you have craved so long
| Accordingly the Chases engaged
Hartley bennett to be their architect
IDennett, then 30 or Whereabouts, a Har-
ward graduate, whose studies abroad
and achievements in Boston had won
him attention, was charged with de-
signing and experimenting the erection
of the home.
Public Shocked and Amazed.
, As the structure was slowly reared,
Mrs. Chase and bennett became
friends. Then DR.. Chase and bennett
discovered bonds of sympathy.
Few suspected the progress their in
terrelations had made till one day in
: 1909 an application for custody Of the
2 Dement'S two children by Mrs. Mary
, Ware bennett was called for hearing
in an East Cambridge court.
I, The public was shocked and amazed
, when bennett boldly took the stand
and declared:
e Il love Mrs Chase. Ny love for hel
+ goes beyond anything in the world. But
: l love my wife none the less. Between
: my wife and me there has been for sew
d eral years g growing conviction thai
9 our ideals are different. I can t adap
! myself to her way of thinking, nor sh,
to mine. Ny ideals of love allow me
d though married, to love all women.
Y proposed to my wife some time ag
n that we each take one of the children
D and go our separate ways, still loving
a each other
n Mrs. bennett got the children.
1t remained for DIR. Chase, however
e to complete the public amazement
He defended his wife, expressed pre-
found admiration and friendship TO
! the soulmate, and offered the two
haven as long as they should need it.
5 Mrs. Chase disappeared after tha'
0. and bennett just as quickly faded gu
H. of the life Of Brookline The childre
4 were gone with Mrs. Chase and tn
rs doctor disappeared for a few day
in about once month.
lei Three years later the world learne
ID that in the isolated New Hampshir
farm bennett and Mrs. Chase, with I'll
q. latter S two children, had been dwellin
a together, and that DR.. Chase had bee
N paying them frequent and amicable vi
n its.
IS In 1913 Mrs. bennett got her divor,
b. on the ground of desertion, and shor
a " afterward DIR. Chase began the Col
n en- Rule triangle experiment, who's
success he now publicly proclaims.
1t. Relations Entirely Spiritual.
no DR.. Chase spoke in low voice TIL
am trembled a little his face was flush,
~ and throughout the interview be int
on jected a plaintive note, as though
en- felt himself and the others misundt
stood and wished the world mig
rts grasp the plane upon which their c
no istence is pitched.
- The strange husband adverted to t
~ statement put in by bennett as his SC
ire defense to the divorce action.
NJ : may say that my wife disclaim
ri. any suspicion of my rectitude, Dc
u.s. nett wrote, ''and of my undiminish
!, affection for her she had no doul
m. Throughout our struggle no imputatio
of immortality have been put foI
against me except for strategic p
poses
ION THAT has been our great satisf;
rlv ton in our trials, DR.. Chase sa
md that during all these years our re