New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-03
BEER AND ASHES
WILT FADED LOVE
Empty Bottles Found. He
SWears-JuStiCe Awards
Wife S. a Week.
WIFE AND DAUGHTER
GO WITH TiMEPIECE
Pennsylvania Romance of Golf
Cap and Sport Shirt Nipped
Here by Detectives.

Beer bottle tops, which had been
thrown into the stove figured in the suit
brought by Mrs. Beatrice Decker. Of
Hampstead, yesterday against her hus-
band. charging him with desertion. The
case came before Justice OF the Peace
Walter r. Jones. 4 crowd Of Hemp
stead society women were present 10
hear the testimony. The Rev. DR.. C..
F. Ahrens, pastor Of the Hampstead
Baptist Church, was also among the
spectators. Mrs. Decker is a choir
singer in the Presbyterian Church and
her husband was formerly singer in
the Baptist Church. They were mar
ried in 1908.
Mrs. Decker also alleged that there
was another woman in the case, and
the husband says that he came home
from rehearsal in DR.. Cadman's church,
Brooklyn, one Saturday night and
found beer bottle tops, a cake partly
consumed and cigar ashes on the win
dow sill in the bedroom, indicating TO
his mind that there had been general
festivity on in his absence. He said
his wife admitted to him that she and
her sister. Mrs. Florence Douglas, and
Mrs. Fred. Hatch had drunk two or
three bottles of beer, but when he
asked her who drank the nine other
bottles. he said, she refused to tell.
Mrs. Decker said her husband left
her fourteen months ago and has been
near her since only once, and has given
her only S22 in that time.
The wife also said that when her
husband saw her in Jamaica with a
man named Morse he struck Morse
and then struck her in the face. She
denied that Morse had been to see her
in her room in the absence Of her hus-
band and that she had gone to the
Jamaica theatre with him, but said he
lust accidentally came there when she
was going home and offered to take her
to the cars, as il was raining. She de-
MED the beer top and cigar ashes story
and said that she never told her nus
band anything about anything OF the
kind She wound up her testimony by
saying that she loved her husband until
he struck her, but that killed her love
but she would live with him, as she
needed his support.
She said that she seldom went out
with her husband, but when he prac-
tised singing she had to leave the
house, as the noise was awful.
The real sensation was sprung when
Decker said that his wife received a
letter from Morse. which she read TO
her sister; he heard the first part OF
it. which read: "My Dear Little Girl
only twenty-five years old. do not
mind the abuse | got. but am awfully
sorry over the abuse you got decker
said that at this point he went into
the house. as he had been standing
under the window. and his wife told
him the letter was intended for her
sister Florence.
On cross examination he said his
wife's family were the cause Of ell
his troubles. that he had only lived
with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Smith
Ketcham. three weeks. but thai seemed
IKE three years. lie did work for her
he said. and all the pay he got was
a bathing suit. Justice Jones found
Decker guilty as a disorderly person
and directed him 10 pay his wife 80
q weak.