The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-12
Former Topeka Woman Says
Husband wouldn't Provide.
Testimony Shows She Joined
Show To Make Living.
NOW ONE OF HONG KONG GIRLS
Mrs. Cecil HI. Gates's Husband
Is in Officers Training Camp.
Tells of Fight With Santa Fe
Engineer for Their Child.

The standing of Cecil Horatio Gates.
jr., K. U. man, engineer for the Santa
Fe at present attending the officers
training school at Fort Sheridan, was
assailed before Judge Whitcomb in
the district court this morning by his
sister-in-law Miss Della Haines of
Kansas City. Nellie Vera Gates, wife
of Cecil Gates, jr., is chorus girl
travelling with the "Hong-Kong Girls"
which appeared at the Empress thea
ter in Kansas City week ago.
Gates has filed petition asking for
a divorce on the grounds of abandon
ment. His wife is endeavoring to OBJ
tain custody of their child, Vilette,
aged 5, and the testimony of Miss
Haines today was offered in the en-
deavor of the chorus-girl wife to get
her child
Gates is unable to appear in court.
Neither can his wife. So her sister,
Miss Haines, is uestifying in her be-
half while a brother of Gates Will be
his chief witness. 1he brother, who
lives in st. Louis, cannot reach To-
peka until Saturday. Further hear
ings were postponed until the arrival
Of the brother.
Miss Haines testified to furnishing
money for the board and clothes OF
her sisters child. of paying a hospital
and nurses bill following an opera
ity of Gates to meet the doctors bill
and to repay her the money she had
advanced for the care of her sister S
child caused her sister to sign up
with the Hong-Kong Girls, the young
woman testified.
- Three weeks after my sister went
on the road she received letter from
Gates that she could take care of her
self" said Miss Haines. That is the
reason she is still with the show"
Took the Child, She Says.
Affidavits by the Haines family ply
stefan and others were presented 20 in
dictate that the family was we'll able
to care for the child. Miss Haines
testified that for more than a year the
sister obliged to live at her
fathers home at Kansas City in order
to live comfortably and that while
the family was away and no one but
the housekeeper was at home Gates
called at the house, took the child
from the hOusekeeper, threatening
that he would call the sheriff if the
housekeeper refused to give up the
little girl.
Then when my sister went over to
Rosedale where the girl was being
cared fo- by his people the whole fam
lily followed her for three blocks and
called the police" said Miss Haines
Miss Haines told the court that
Gates and her sister were married il
August 1909, and that since hat time
her sister has been obliged to live al
her fathers home internationally OF
account of Gates being out of employ
ment. For a year her sister Travelled
with a show, she testified. Then the
baby came and the sister went tC
Houston, Texas, to live with Gates.
Sent to Houston for Her
Finally, according to Miss Haines
testimony, the family was obliged t
, send to Houston for her sister anC
child because Gates provided such
poor living for them. The best jol
Gates ever had, according to Mis-
Haines' testimony was building tn
Masonic temple at Rosedale.
After the Houston experience he
sisters health broke down, the testi
mony showed, and an operation wa
necessary. Two weeks after the oper
alton Gates, who had obtained EN-
and asked his wife to come to To
peka, Miss Haines admitted
But the position wasn't perma
nent," said Miss Haines, and he wa
in debt for the doctor bill and my sis
ter was still in poor health an
couldn't co homework, so she refused
Two months later she went on tn
road to pay me back the money 1 ha
loaned for the child's support. The
he wrote and told her to lake care G
herself"
Miss Haines told the court she wa
a stenogra pher for - wholesale lum
her company in the r. A. Long build
ing at Kansas City. After graduatin
from the Kansas City high school sh
has been saving money to attend col
lege, she told the court, and has save
sufficient to attend William Jewe
college one year.